"Why did you drop out?"

Hear three Sixties types explain why they dropped out of Harvard.

Harvard Magazine recently caught up with three members of the class of 1969 who never graduated. Joanne Ricca, Bernard Levine, and Jennifer Boyden are featured in the accompanying article, "Dropouts," by Craig Lambert. In this audio extra, we present the subjects in their own words.

 

Joanne Ricca

Joanne Ricca in the 1960s

Joanne Ricca, shown in her hippie days at left, is now a nurse practitioner living in rural Maine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bernard Levine

Bernard Levine in the 1960s

Bernard Levine (a few years after dropping out of Harvard, at left) lives in Oregon and has written several definitive guides to collectible knives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jennifer Boyden

Jennifer Boyden (left, during her Radcliffe years) is now a retired schoolteacher and a grandmother living in New Hampshire and Alabama. 

 

Related topics

You might also like

Harvard Alumni Win Two 2026 Nobel Prizes

Karl Deisseroth revolutionized neuroscience. Navanethem “Navi” Pillay has adjudicated cases in international courts concerning genocide.

Boston Ballet’s Ming Min Hui on Changing Audiences and Timothée Chalamet

The outgoing executive director and Harvard Business School graduate went from dancing The Nutcracker to growing a ballet company.

These Harvard Graduates Are Candidates for Sainthood

For advocacy and benevolence, three late alumni are reportedly in line for the Catholic Church’s highest honor.

Most popular

Three Harvard Unions Move Toward Strikes

Dining employees, academic workers unions join graduate students in threatening a walkout.

Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?

Historian Alexander Keyssar on why the unpopular institution has prevailed 

To Promote Healthy Habits in Patients, Start With the Doctors

Why Harvard Medical School is training physicians to think more like coaches

Explore More From Current Issue

Delicate green cocoa pods and small white flowers on a tree branch, surrounded by soft greenery.

Harvard researchers investigate climate’s impact on cocoa crops, innovations in nasal vaccines, and links between pain and skull marrow.

Illustration of a phone, book, hourglass, weights, and a hand reaching for a device on a blue background.

Your thoughts on how to regulate the platforms—and stop using them so much

A man with a long beard and formal attire stands next to a chalkboard with an equation.

Two tales of University greats—and an encounter with a Tiger