Frances Arnautou

Classroom

Frances Arnautou has a 3.67 GPA as she pursues a degree in history with distinction, as well as a certificate in French language studies. This is no small feat at Yale considering her immense commitment to volleyball as well as being president of UnorthoJocks—an all-athlete acapella group—and serving on Yale’s Communication and Consent Educators (CCE) group, which works to foster a more positive sexual and social climate on campus.

Character

Arnautou’s character is apparent in what drives her. She is not just driven to succeed but to make Yale a better place. She pours her heart and soul into volleyball, always holding herself accountable to the program’s high standards of effort and integrity. She is fiercely cognizant of her level of play and refuses to bring less than her full intensity to the gym or classroom. In her free time, Arnautou works to better Yale through her work with CCE and by running Pi Beta Phi’s bystander intervention workshops.

Community

Arnautou has worked for three years with the Communication and Consent Educators (CCE), a group whose goal is the ending of sexual violence and transforming the Yale campus so that respect, mutuality and mindfulness thrive. As one of the committee members, she’s led more than 15 community values workshops with varsity teams on campus, as well as led workshops with first-years and sophomores. Amautou also sat on a campus panel with Yale College Dean Marvin Chun, discussing the best ways to foster respect among others. All of this speaks to her desire to not just be at Yale, but to make it a better place.

Arnautou enjoys being a teammate everyone can rely on. She is a humble competitor and will refuse credit, instead passing it along to the rest of her team.

Competition

Arnautou is an exceptional competitor. She refuses to let average play become the norm when she’s on the floor. As a first-year student-athlete, she had to battle her way into the lineup, as well as battling opponents to secure second place in the league for her team and first place the following two years. Her work earned her a second-team All-Ivy selection in 2017 and a first-team All-Ivy selection in 2018. She was also named the Ivy League Player of the Year in 2018.