Biography
As vice president of the Yale Club of Los Angeles, Marcos Antonio Luis often tells prospective students that Yale is remarkable not just for how expansive the tools available are, but how personal and special the experience can be. In his years on campus, Yale College Dean Richard Broadhead would hang out with students just to meet the incoming class. College masters asked about your day, and acclaimed professors like John Gaddis and Ian Shapiro kept an open door just to meet undergraduates. The sense of community was pervasive.
As a political science major, Luis made not just classmates but friends while writing for the Yale Daily News, debating at the Yale Political union, and serving as Undersecretary General of the Yale International Relations Association. The Roosevelt Fellowship at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies led to professional tools he still uses today. Staying on as a Woodbridge Fellow, he experienced Yale’s administrative mission, working under vice president Linda Lorimer on digital education, Yale-NUS, and the launch of the Open Yale platform. When he finally went on to ground operations in presidential campaigns and production, he had a lasting set of experiences, and relationships that went wherever he did.
When the post-pandemic Yale LA relaunch came along, Luis found it a rare opportunity to give back, and to bring activities to alumni from all walks of life, passions and class years. The spirit of education, exploration and community didn’t end at graduation, and he reports that seeing the club flourish from scratch to embody that spirit has been an edifying experience — and that to continue that mission on a larger scale with the YAA Board of Governors is a privilege.
