#harvardsummer

Wow, it’s been a really long time since I last posted. Literally, I had my best summer ever in my life. During the past two months, I went to Harvard summer school, went on a college visit alone in California and attended a training camp in Shanghai. Rich experience, huh? Before I went to Boston, what I expected for the summer would be the nerd life-studying all the time. But there in Harvard, I met the best professor and the nicest people I’ve ever known.

I chose 2 courses- political communication and writings on social and ethical issues. Actually, political communication is not really like what I expected. I thought it would be a class full of high school students, however, in my class only 3 out of 24 students is in high school. Most of them are undergrad, grad and even college professors. I was really inspired when I saw retired man keep learning in my class. I have 70-80 pages of readings to do every day, which is a lot to me who has been studying science in Chinese public high school. The other course is more interesting. It feels like a seminar more than a class. Every day before class, we need to read several ethical cases. The next day in class, we will discuss the case and express our opinions on it. Fun but still can’t compare with local kids in writing.

I have to say in this summer, I met a bunch of kids having the same interests and same dream, who become my closest friends. We hang out all the time, study together till midnight and share our little secrets. We went to a beach in Boston, even though not really nice beach but did have fun with all my besties. I still remember the time when we stayed all night up writing papers before due in science center. Believe it or not, some students even brought their blankets to the classroom to sleep. God, that’s crazy! There was a book once super popular in China, talking about how Harvard undergrads study till 4 am in the library… But from what I’ve learned, Widener Library closed at 10 pm on weekdays. I totally have no idea where this 4am story came from.

What Harvard summer school brought me are only those nice people and beautiful memories, but also a new perspective of seeing myself. I was asked what my passion is when I was in junior year. I’ve thought about the question the whole year and did not find an answer. During my 2 months in Harvard, I found out that dancing has become a part of my life. I used to hate it a lot, considering it as something I was forced to do by my mom. All my memories of dancing are those hard time doing gymnastic pieces to keep my body flexible. In the summer, I first find myself immersed in dancing on a dance party. Without any limitation of dancing rules, I moved my body along with the music and enjoyed so much. Then, it was the dance practice with my friends in ball room, where I was first confident about my talent. I performed a solo Xinjiang dancing on talent show, one of the biggest events in Harvard summer school. I still remember the screams, the applause and all the compliments. I even got flowers from a boy I used to have a crush on after the show! Amazing！I feel like I’ve become a more outgoing and more independent person. I have a different way of seeing the world and finally accept who I really am, instead of living in the limited figure other people created for me. I can be myself, a crazy social girl with a passion in dancing and communication, instead of being the figure other people created for me, a nice kid obeying every order from parents or teachers and getting perfect score all the time. I know that’s not me so clearly now.

I will never forget the summer I spent in Harvard, and I will never forget all of you wonderful people I met in Harvard. See you guys in one year!

By Iris Yellum, PhD candidate, Harvard University Iris is currently in Madurai, Tamil Nadu studying Tamil at the Tamil Language Study at American Institute of Indian Studies with support from a SAI grant.

On a recent weekend, I took a short trip from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, to Hyderabad, Telengana after studying Tamil for a few weeks at the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS). I have only studied Hindi and Urdu in India, so using Tamil in everyday situations was challenging at first. In daily conversations, I found myself tempted to use Urdu, since it is a language I am more familiar with than Tamil. Preparing for my weekend in Hyderabad, I fully expected to have to get by in English, since I don't know any Telugu language. 

We stayed in the old city, and as soon as we arrived I heard and saw Hindi and Urdu in many places. Although I knew something of the history of Urdu-speaking Muslim communities in Hyderabad, the Urdu language was more prevalent than I anticipated. At the hotel, the manager said he would give us a discount after I switched to speaking Urdu with him. At bangle shops, I had the chance to use vocabulary that the shopkeepers appreciated. What I was surprised by most, however, was that I sometimes started involuntarily speaking Tamil when I meant to speak Hindi and Urdu. A few times I was genuinely unsure of which words were part of which language. After just a few weeks of studying in Madurai, speaking Tamil is starting to feel more instinctive than I expected. 

This is part of a series in which we highlight recipients of SAI’s Faculty Grant program

By Dr. Ryan Draft, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies, Neurobiology; Lecturer on Molecular and Cellular Biology

I received a faculty grant from the SAI to offset the cost of transportation to and from Bangalore, India (Summer, 2015). In Bangalore, I helped run a biological sciences summer abroad internship with four Harvard undergraduate students. These students came from four different concentrations (Human Evolutionary Biology, Neurobiology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Applied Math), and they ranged in year from freshman to junior. All of them had an interest in learning about the culture of India as well as developing professional skills in a world-class biological laboratory.

These students spent 8-10 weeks living and working on site at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore on a research project of their choosing. They took weekends and time at the end of the program to travel to more distant parts of India with friends they had made during the summer. I spoke with all of them after their return and without exception each felt that their time in India was a rewarding and enriching experience.

Traveling to a new country where one does not speak the language well can be a daunting task, even scary at times. I definitely felt that this summer, but with the Harvard China Fund and my new friends over the summer, I was not alone. As I reflect back on my internship experiences, I am thankful for my summer at the Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE) and with Harvard China Fund, because it taught me so much about where my passions lie in the environment, led me to people with similar interests, and brought me to an environment where I can immerse myself in Chinese culture and can understand societal and sustainability issues from a first-hand perspective.

The Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE) is an American non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Shanghai, China. I learned of the program through Harvard China Fund’s Student Internship Program (HCSIP). While I was in JUCCCE, I worked on one of their projects, A New Way to Eat (ANWTE). Children in China do not have a formal food education program, so ANWTE is designed to fill in the gap with a curriculum that teachers in grades 1-6 can download materials for and teach in their classrooms. For the first month, I worked on curriculum design, making and revising activities that can engage children in games while simultaneously encouraging positive behavior change towards a healthier lifestyle. In the second month, I designed the booklet for ANWTE that explains the entire project and can be given out to people interested in learning more about the work. The booklet is now online at http://www.juccce.org/eat. Lastly in the third month, I worked as an artist and created “Food Heroes”, cartoon characters of superhero fruits and veggies that can be used for branding ANWTE. Through my work, I learned more about how NGOs operate and gained a greater appreciation for the public policy side of environmentalism.

I am inspired by my time at JUCCCE and in Shanghai to continue learning about sustainability and how we can conserve natural resources by reaching out to people directly. As I continue into junior year at Harvard, I would definitely like to take more classes in sustainability and learn more about how food and the environment intertwine. I am also so fond of the memories I made with friends both new and old! I watched my first meteor shower on the outskirts of the city, walked miles and miles through Shanghai’s streets and malls, and took the high-speed rail to neighboring cities with friends. I also bought my own vegetables and cooked lunch with other JUCCCE interns, spray-painted a wall for a culture event in the M50 art district, enjoyed the nightlife and the view of the Bund, and ate so much good food from many different cuisines. I hope everyone has the chance to experience an internship experience that they really value.

Applying for the White House Internship, I wanted to work on Generation Indigenous, a Presidential initiative to support Native American & Alaskan Native youth. After President Obama and First Lady Michelle’s historic and touching visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in June 2014, the President launched Generation Indigenous in December of 2014. Generation Indigenous included a Native Youth Report, Cabinet Listening Tour, Native Youth Network, and White House Tribal Youth Gathering. Learning about these components, I found the best opportunity for me, a Native American Diné (Navajo) Harvard student, to help was the White House Internship Program.

Therefore, applying for the general White House Internship Program I purposely applied for the Office of Public Engagement & Intergovernmental Affairs (OPE & IGA) because of the office’s likely role with Generation Indigenous. Being accepted in the White House OPE & IGA, I thought about the many opportunities that would come with the selective internship. I pondered about the possibility of meeting and serving the 44th President of the United States, Barack H. Obama. I also hoped to meet Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, all three of which I was blessed to have met during the internship.

But overall, my main objective this summer was to support the President’s Generation Indigenous. I am honored to describe the first ever Generation Indigenous White House Tribal Youth Gathering this summer as a successful event. The Gathering had over 1,000 Native youth, chaperones, and leaders from across the United States come to Washington D.C. to hear from First Lady Michelle Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell, and other high ranking federal officials. Drafting many memorandums and agendas, contacting participants and speakers, coordinating White House visits and tours, and staffing the actual event had left me exhausted, yet greatly satisfied with the outcome of this historic event.

From my ten-week internship at the White House, I gained a deeper appreciation and understanding of the tiring, yet greatly important, work that the White House does. Working extensive hours, planning large events, engaging with the public, and working with state, local, and tribal leaders; I greatly appreciate the public service that the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs does every day. This internship gave me the opportunity to engage with professionals, lawyers, youth, and leaders from different countries, states, and tribes. From these numerous encounters, I considered how the government, law, and business play huge roles in improving the standards of living in our communities, tribes, states, and nation.

Returning to Harvard, I hope to use my summer experience as a catalyst in studying the best approaches in addressing the social, political, and economic issues while also challenging myself to learn new things. I hope to develop more as a leader and be more active at Harvard and my home community.