"It arose out of the need to re-establish and strengthen the professional and personal connections we made with other HASA members," says Nana Twum-Danso '94, M.D. '98, one of the network's main organizers. "All of us wanted to maintain our relationship with each other beyond our Harvard years, and to serve as a resource to current HASA members."
On March 9, more than 30 people gathered in Boylston Hall to discuss plans to formalize the network, officially named the Harvard African Students Association Network, even though details on the group's relationship to the University have yet to be worked out. At this point, the association is primarily a "virtual community" that communicates through a website and an e-mail listserv, because its 200-plus potential members live in Africa, the United States, and elsewhere around the globe. Plans were discussed to become a nonprofit organization, to recruit new members and raise money, to continue a mentoring program for undergraduates, and to locate additional HASA alumni especially from the 1980s. In the long term, the group would like to help promote African issues at Harvard and to support and fund service, research, and other projects related to development in Africa. The network is open to HASA alumni and to "those with an interest in our mission and goals," organizers say.
For more information on HASAN, e-mail hasa-alumni-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, or visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hasa-alumni/.
