Summer/Steiner Fellowship
THE SUMMER FELLOWSHIP
The Summer Fellowship provides summer support for a student to join Harvard Magazine’s editorial staff as a reporter and writer, while also receiving an introduction to the business aspects of magazine operations.
Current Harvard College freshmen, sophomores, and juniors with interest and experience in journalism are invited to apply. The fellowship is a full-time writing position lasting approximately 10 weeks during a period from late May through late August. The fellow completes numerous reporting and writing assignments about University news, research, and alumni for publication online and in print. Stories are a mix of assigned subjects and ideas proposed by the fellow and vetted with the editorial staff.
The position was known as the Daniel Steiner Undergraduate Fellowship between 2014 and 2021, generously supported by an anonymous donor.
For any questions, feel free to contact editor Jonathan Shaw.
2024
Jack Trapanick ’26 is the Harvard Magazine Summer Fellow for 2024. He is from Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and is concentrating in Social Studies. The Dunster House resident is an associate multimedia editor and a reporter for The Harvard Crimson covering development in Allston. He has been an intern at a public radio station in Chile, and is a recipient of the Topol Fellowship for Peace and Nonviolence.
His work includes the articles listed here.2023
Ryan Doan-Nguyen ’25 is the Harvard Magazine Summer Fellow for 2023. He is from Westborough, Massachusetts, and concentrating in History & Literature and Government, with a secondary in Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights. The Mather House resident is a reporter for the Crimson and for the newspaper’s weekly magazine, Fifteen Minutes. The founder and lead organizer of Stop Asian Hate Boston, he has served on the staff at the Kennedy School’s Forum, and worked as a research assistant at the school’s Carr Center for Human Rights.
His work includes the articles listed here.2022
Isabel Mehta ’24 is the Harvard Magazine Summer Fellow for 2022. She is from Philadelphia, and is concentrating in English, with a secondary in economics. The Cabot House resident is a staff writer for the Harvard Political Review and The Crimson’s magazine, Fifteen Minutes. An alumna of Susan Faludi’s narrative journalism course, “Writing about Women,” she is on the board of Harvard Creative Writing Collective, and has been in involved in podcasting and playwriting. She spent the J-term in the Harvardwood 101 boot camp.
Her work includes the articles listed here.
THE STEINER FELLOWSHIP
The Daniel Steiner Undergraduate Editorial Fellowship, generously supported by an anonymous donor from 2014 through 2021, provided summer support for an undergraduate to join Harvard Magazine’s editorial staff as a reporter and writer, while also receiving an introduction to the business aspects of magazine operations. The fellowship honored the memory of Daniel Steiner ’54, LL.B. ’58, who entered the University’s service in 1969, at the request of President Nathan Marsh Pusey, in the wake of the student strike and arrests on campus that year. The following year, he was named general counsel, an office he held until 1992; President Derek Bok, whose tenure largely overlapped Steiner’s service, said, “Both I and Harvard owe him an incalculable debt.” A note in these pages in September-October 2006, following Steiner’s death that June, recalled his particular service to the magazine—the part of his extraordinary legacy that makes this memorial fellowship so appropriate:
Steiner often recalled that, as an alumnus, he had relied on the Harvard Alumni Bulletin’s account of the strike and bust for thorough, accurate coverage of the University in a time of severe trial. In the mid 1970s, when the magazine needed to reorganize financially, Steiner, as general counsel, effected the institutional changes needed to shore up the income statement while securing a suitable governance structure. Crucially, the new entity emerged with clear, statutory protection for its editorial independence.
Later, as president of Harvard Magazine Inc., Steiner led the publication’s centennial celebration in 1998. He commented then: “There have, of course, been some tense moments from time to time when the magazine has run articles or contained elements that the administration would have omitted. In my judgment this independence has been essential in enabling the magazine to be effective in communicating with alumni.…That the system has worked is a credit to the editors of the magazine who have used the independence responsibly, and to the leadership of the University, who—despite the irritations that inevitably occur—have seen the wisdom of the arrangement and remained true to the principle.”
The magazine published an extended interview with Steiner upon his retirement as vice president and general counsel in 1992, reflecting on the challenges and changes during his tenure that reshaped Harvard into its modern form.
Each year, Harvard Magazine offers two Ledecky Fellowships to Harvard undergraduates and one Steiner Fellowship (which continues as the Harvard Magazine Summer Fellowship). Use the links below to read brief biographical notes from former Steiner and Summer fellows and to access their articles.
2021
Juliet Isselbacher ’22 is the Steiner Undergraduate Fellow for the summer of 2021. She is from the Boston area, and is concentrating in philosophy. The Quincy House resident is an editor at the Crimson and is the fiction editor at the Harvard Advocate. A Crimson article she wrote about the pandemic’s impact on first-generation, low-income students won an award from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated Collegiate Press. Another she wrote for STAT, describing how the popularity of a meditation app had outpaced scientific evidence for its efficacy, was picked up by The Boston Globe. She has volunteered with Harvard’s Youth to Youth shelter and in the Mission Hill after-school tutoring program.
Her work includes the articles listed here.2020
Matteo Wong ’22 is the Steiner Undergraduate Fellow for the summer of 2020. He is from New York City and is a history and literature concentrator, with a focus on ethnic studies. The Adams House resident, writes for the Crimson and was an executive editor with the newspaper’s weekly magazine, Fifteen Minutes. He has won two gold medals in the national Scholastic Writing Competition, and is a former winner of the New York Times high-school editorial competition. He volunteers with Phillips Brooks House, and speaks Italian, Mandarin, and is also fluent in four computing languages.
His work includes the articles listed here.2019
Nina Pasquini ’21, the Steiner Undergraduate Fellow for the summer of 2019, is a Lowell House resident concentrating in history and literature. She has been a beat reporter for the Harvard Crimson and a staff writer and editor for the Crimson’s magazine, Fifteen Minutes. She also writes for Satire V, a satirical campus publication, and volunteers as a tutor for Chinatown Afterschool, a free program serving Boston’s Mission Hill and Chinatown neighborhoods. She is from Goshen, New York.
Her work includes the articles listed here.2018
Brandon J. Dixon ’19 is the Steiner Undergraduate Editorial Fellow for the summer of 2018. He lives in Eliot House and is pursuing a concentration in history and literature with a focus on twentieth-century African-American literary movements. He previously wrote for The Harvard Crimson and the Harvard Political Review, and interned last summer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
His work includes the articles listed here.2017
Alisha Ukani ’20, the Steiner Undergraduate Editorial Fellow for the summer of 2017, is a Pforzheimer resident pursuing a joint concentration in government and computer science. On campus, she is involved in HackHarvard, Women in Computer Science, the Institute of Politics Policy Program, and the Harvard Political Review. She is from Weston, Massachusetts.
Her work includes the articles listed here.2016
Aidan Langston '19, the Steiner Undergraduate Editorial Fellow for the summer of 2016, is a Cabot House resident and prospective linguistics concentrator from Brooklyn, New York.
His work includes the articles listed here.2015
Zara Zhang ’17, the Steiner Undergraduate Editorial Fellow for the summer of 2015, is a Currier House resident and psychology concentrator from Changchun, China.
Her work includes the articles listed here.2014
Francesca Annicchiarico ’16, the inaugural Steiner Undergraduate Editorial Fellow, serving in the summer of 2014, is a Dunster House resident and social studies concentrator from Portogruaro, Italy.
Her work includes the articles listed here.