News from the HAA

Alumni Abroad

As classes resumed in Cambridge, alumni on both sides of the Atlantic were gearing up for the "Harvard in Europe" conference in London.

The event, to be held November 14 and 15, is part of the Harvard Alumni Association's Global Series. President Lawrence H. Summers will give the keynote address; more than a dozen other Harvard faculty members and administrators will also speak. (Harvard Magazine will report on the proceedings in its January-February 2004 issue.)

The conference is cosponsored by the Harvard Clubs of Europe and hosted by the Harvard Club of the United Kingdom. For additional details, visit www.haa.harvard.edu/globalseries, call Hillary Olk at 617-495-5416, or e-mail her at hillary_olk@harvard.edu.

While in London, participants may wish to visit Southwark Cathedral, on the south side of the River Thames near London Bridge. The cathedral—the city's oldest Gothic structure—houses a little-known Harvard link: in 1607, a butcher's son named John Harvard was baptized there. Nearly 350 years later, Harvard alumni helped fund repairs to the ancient structure; in gratitude, church officials renamed a chapel inside the church in Harvard's honor.

Today, the Harvard Club of the United Kingdom hopes to restore the chapel's aging stained-glass window, a 1905 gift from then-U.S. ambassador to England Joseph H. Choate, A.B. 1852. The window's imagery includes a depiction of Christ's baptism and the coats of arms of Harvard University and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, which John Harvard attended.

With restoration costs expected to reach $15,000, the club welcomes donations. For information, e-mail HAA President James V. Baker at jvbaker@post.harvard.edu. To learn more about Southwark Cathedral and Harvard Chapel, visit www.dswark.org/cathedral.

 

Winning Combination

Shaka Bahadu '04 of Dunster House and Shira Sivan Simon '04 of Leverett House are the 2003 David Aloian Memorial Scholars. They were to be honored at the fall dinner of the Harvard Alumni Association on October 23.

Shaka Bahadu (left) and Shira Sivan Simon.
Rose Lincoln / Harvard News Office

Established in 1988 to honor the late David Aloian '49, the former HAA executive director and master of Quincy House, the scholarships recognize two rising seniors who have made unique contributions to their Houses and to undergraduate life, thus making Harvard "an exciting place in which to live and study."

Bahadu, of Detroit, ranks community participation and enthusiasm as the most important attributes for successful House life. He's lived his own philosophy by serving as co-chair of the Dunster House Committee, co-social chair for the House, editor and producer of Dunster's Mooseletter newsletter, secretary for Dunster's intramural teams, and as a cook for the Dunster Grille. He has also instituted two enhancements to House life: an event welcoming rising sophomores with hot cocoa and s'mores, and the Dunster House Committee Handbook, which outlines protocol, procedures, and the year's events. The biological anthropology concentrator will spend a postgraduate year continuing his clinical research on cardiac allograft vasculopathy (a complication of heart-transplantation surgery), after which he hopes to attend medical school.

Simon, of West Des Moines, Iowa, dedicates much of her time to projects benefiting all Leverett House residents. Her contributions range from organizing the Leverett House '80s Dance to coordinating a clothing drive with the House and Neighborhood Development (HAND) program. She has designed Leverett apparel and gear and ordered more than 500 hamburgers for House study breaks. Outside Leverett, Simon is vice-chair of Harvard Undergraduate Council's student-affairs committee, senior editor of the Harvard Health Policy Review, a business associate of the Harvard International Review, and a member of the Harvard Hippocratic Society. A concentrator in sociology, she will attend Mount Sinai Medical School in New York City.

 

Home at Last

After more than two years of construction, the Harvard Club of New York City plans to dedicate its new eight-story addition on November 5.

The 41,000-square-foot facility, designed by New York architectural firm Davis Brody Bond LLP, is the club's first major expansion in more than 50 years. The project involved demolishing the smaller of two adjacent club-owned buildings on West 44th Street and replacing that three-story structure with the new building. Contractors also renovated parts of the club's original eight-story headquarters, built in 1894.

The project, begun in July 2001, added 18 guest rooms with private baths, two squash courts, new kitchen, banquet, and conference facilities, and more than 1,000 square feet of new fitness-center space. Club officials call the expansion and renovation critical for serving their fast-growing membership. For information on the project, visit www.hcny.com. For details on the ribbon-cutting ceremony, call the club at 212-840-6600.

 

Got Jobs?

Several college programs match undergraduates with paid and unpaid jobs and internships. To find out more about how alumni can provide learning and working opportunities, contact the offices listed below.

The Radcliffe Externships program offers Harvard students the chance to accompany alumnae at work and at home during spring recess. Call Susan Conroy at 617-496-3025 or e-mail radalum@radcliffe.edu. The Harvard Career Internship Program matches students with unpaid internships during spring recess. Contact Nancy Saunders at the Office of Career Services at 617-495-2595 or e-mail nesaund@fas.harvard.edu. To offer a paid summer position, call the Student Employment Office at 617-495-2585 or visit www.seo.harvard.edu to post job listings, review wage guidelines, or search for student workers with specific skills.

 

Alumni College: Look Up

Gaze heavenward on the evening of November 8, as a total lunar eclipse darkens the night sky. The Harvard Alumni Association will mark the event with an Alumni College, "The Lunar Eclipse," at the Harvard College Observatory. Participants will learn about the eclipse and, weather permitting, they will be able to view the moon through the Observatory's telescopes. Seating is limited and advance registration is required. Sign up on-line at www.haa.harvard.edu. Send questions to haa_alumnicollege@harvard.edu or call 617-495-1093.

 

Comings and Goings

Local Harvard clubs host many lectures and social gatherings, including the two examples that follow. Visit www.haa.harvard.edu for a list of local club websites, or contact the HAA's clubs and programs office at 617-495-3070.

On November 17, the Harvard Club of Washington sponsors a talk by John Shattuck, CEO of the Kennedy Library Foundation and author of the forthcoming Freedom on Fire: Human Rights Wars and America's Response (Harvard University Press). Shattuck, a former assistant secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, was Harvard's vice president for government, community, and public affairs from 1984 to 1993. That same day, professor of psychology Marc D. Hauser, who co-directs the University's Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative, discusses "The Evolution of a Universal Moral Grammar" at the Harvard Club of New York.

 

 

   

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