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Extracurriculars

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Harvard Takes Me to Dubai

March 28, 2011 by Punit Shah | 2 comments

One thing I didn’t expect coming to Harvard are the number of international opportunities, generally funded by the university or other means, that allow students to explore the world. This spring break, I traveled to Dubai for an academic, cultural, and social exchange conference through the Harvard College in Asia Program (HCAP). Over the week I saw and learned about the United Arab Emirates, but more importantly, I made a really close group of friends from both Harvard and abroad.

The HCAP experience is a set of seven conferences that take place at Harvard and across Asia with all expenses paid except airfare. Each February, nearly 50 students from the top universities in their country come to Harvard for a week-long conference Harvard students put on for them. After a few lectures in the morning, we show the students Boston and give them an introduction to American culture. Then, over spring break, approximately 70 Harvard students split into six groups to visit one of the six partner universities over spring break. We aim to make the conferences accessible to all by having all expenses covered while abroad and by helping students gain university funding for the flight if they are unable to pay. This year, we partnered with schools in Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Mumbai, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Participating in HCAP and this trip to Dubai have been experiences I could never have imaged I doing just three years ago as a high schooler. My trip to Dubai took myself and ten other Harvard students abroad. We visited with high profile speakers such as the US Consulate General to the UAE to a leader in the push for opening medical tourism facilities in Dubai in order to learn about healthcare in the the region, the theme of this year’s conference. But after the academic portion of the conference, the American University of Dubai students took us for sightseeing, to the beach, and to their favorite hang-out spots. From the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest man-made structure, to hidden gems like an Indian street food restaurant, we saw all aspects of Dubai and gained a thorough appreciation of the locals’ propensity for setting world records. The students were frank about life there, both about the  opportunities they’ve had in Dubai as well as the darker side of the city with workers living in harsh conditions to enable the emirate’s quick growth.

Spending nearly every waking hour with both my Harvard peers and having my life saved from crazy drivers by the Dubai students served as an effective formula to create strong bonds. Indeed, the relationships I built on previous HCAP trips I took to Singapore and Tokyo persist. I’ve received emails asking for a place to stay from my friends abroad, and I know if I ever travel through Asia, I  have a bed waiting for me. These bonds have become even stronger in the past; HCAP’s first president eventually married a student he met while at the conference abroad. While I may never have that strong of a bond with the students abroad or even see some of them again (except possibly through Facebook), they have challenged me to think deeper, question assumptions, and peer outside my American paradigm for viewing the world.

Here are some photos from the trip:

HCAP on Jumeirah Beach

Spelling HCAP on Jumeirah Beach

 

The view from the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest man-made structure

The view from the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest man-made structure

Taking a break from the desert safari through the sand dunes outside Dubai

Taking a break from the desert safari through the sand dunes outside Dubai

Taking a camel ride after the safari.

Taking a camel ride after the safari

Visiting the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, which honors the popular founder of the UAE

Visiting the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, the eighth largest mosque in the world, which honors the popular founder of the UAE

Part Man, Part Monkey

February 18, 2011 by Alissa D'Gama | 1 comment

Sorry for not posting in the past few weeks! I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’m involved with a club on campus called HUBSS – the Harvard Undergraduate Biological Sciences Society. My official role is the co-Career Coordinator, which means I am in charge of organizing events like visits from life sciences companies and career panels. However, the entire board (which is largely composed of my blocking group!) works together to organize a lot of our events, including our recent Night at the Museum: Survival of the Fittest (yes, we like science a lot). In honor of Charles Darwins’s 202nd birthday, we worked with the Harvard Museum of Natural History to create an event where undergraduates could visit the museum after hours, enjoy mochi ice cream and local froyo favorite Berryline (with fresh fruit toppings!), and participate in behind-the-scenes tours of the museum collection.

To prepare for the event, I spent an afternoon walking through the museum exhibits (Harvard undergraduates get free admission with their ID card) and writing up questions related to Darwin and evolution for the scavenger hunt undergrads could participate in for the chance for winning gift certificates to a local sandwich shop (called Darwin’s Ltd!). HMNH is just one example of the amazing resources available to students at Harvard. Without the urging of my friend Jeremy ’11, an OEB concentrator who has been able to use some of the museum specimens for class projects, I probably would never have discovered how amazing the museum is. After my thesis is turned in, I plan to spend more time looking at all the exhibits, which include everything from dinosaur fossils to exquisitely crafter glass flowers in a special humidity-controlled room.

The night of the event, John ’11, Veronica ’11, and I walked to Trader Joe’s to pick up mochi ice cream. Thanks to a grant from the Undergraduate Council, we could buy $200 of mochi ice cream, which we learned meant filling our cart with 44 boxes of mochi (11 of each flavor – mango, green tea, strawberry, and chocolate)! Not surprisingly, we got some strange looks from the Trader Joe’s employees.

After lugging the boxes of mochi to the museum, we spent the night unwrapping the boxes for the 150 undergraduates who I hope had a pretty great time. It was a lot of fun to catch up with people I hadn’t seen for a while since we’ve all been buried in our laptops writing our thesis and finishing up research. Remember, take a break every once in a while and do something fun!

Picture by Caterina Yuan ‘11 – note the awesome fossil behind John, Veronica, and me!

Secrets

January 23, 2011 by Alissa D'Gama | 4 comments

My last semester of college starts tomorrow (crazy!) and I like to think I have become a little wiser over the past four years. From my first trip to Nochs and my first all-nighter to writing my thesis and applying to MD/PhD programs, I have learned some useful do’s and don’t’s during the past four years.

1. Make sure to take classes you really like. Sure, most concentrations require introductory and mid-level courses that you may or may not love, but when you are choosing upper level courses and electives, take time to shop classes, read syllabi, and pick courses that you will enjoy taking. I have found that I learn the most when I am taking a course with subject matter that I am really interested in, and am pretty lucky to be taking classes this semester that I will really enjoy and that will be useful for the next couple years of my life.

2. Find a place on campus where you can study effectively, whether with your friends or with yourself. Freshman year, I lived in a six-person suite and studied in Lamont Library, where you can always find a fellow study-er. Sophomore through senior years I studied in my beautiful Mather single, although many of my friends cannot study in their rooms or they are at a high (around 90%) risk of falling asleep.

3. Take a break sometimes. Everyone I know at Harvard is involved in some combination of classes, research, extracurricular activities, community service – you name it, and someone is probably doing it! Every once in a while, if you feel stressed out, or have been sleeping less than you want to, take a break. Sleep and don’t set your alarm, catch up on your favorite TV show, go watch the BSO or one of Harvard’s many music and theater groups, eat a two hour dinner with friends, or go for a walk in Boston (assuming it isn’t -4 outside like right now). You will thank yourself later. (Also, learn to take naps. They are awesome. The red couches in the basement of Northwest Labs are particularly effective for this.)

4. Don’t focus on competition. Focus on yourself. This can be said for when you are applying to college, when you are in college, and when you are applying to fellowships, med school, law school, you name it. If you compete, compete with yourself. I find this quote by Eric Burns particularly apt: “Greatness is more than potential. It is the execution of that potential. Beyond the raw talent. You need the appropriate training. You need the discipline. You need the inspiration. You need the drive.”

5. Get involved in activities you are truly passionate about. Again, this can be said for high school, college, even (and maybe most importantly) your career. Try things out and find out what you like the best. Don’t do something just because it will look good. Do something because you will have fun doing it, and when you look back on the experience, you would do it all over again without hesitation.

White Christmas

December 23, 2010 by Alissa D'Gama | Permalink

Although December brings reading period, papers, and finals (which I finally finished!) it also brings many holiday socials for student groups on campus. Since a lot of student groups transition boards between December and January, the meetings serve as a way for the graduating seniors to reflect and welcome the incoming board members.

My first was the Harvard Premedical Society’s annual holiday party, where the outgoing board participates in Secret Santa and, this year, played apples to apples and ate a delicious peanut butter cake cooked by one of our board members! Since I have been on the board since my freshman year, it was really sad to see my time come to an end—I have made some of my best friends at Harvard through HPS, and I’m going to miss it next semester. Here is almost the entire 2010 board!



The next day, I headed over to the Undergraduate Admissions Council social. We are a student group on campus that serves as the student arm of the Admissions Office, so for those of you who are accepted, you will receive a call from us in the spring and we will be behind the scenes making sure Visiting Weekend is a blast! We munched on appetizers and desserts in the Lowell House Small DHall and caught up with everyone to make sure we were all on track for next semester. My co-chair Ayse ’12 and I can’t wait to meet many of you in the spring!

A few hours after that, I walked up the stairs at 14 Plympton Street to the (somewhat) annual crimson superlatives. Of all the activities that are coming to an end in December, The Crimson has probably involved the most blood, sweat, tears—and joy!—and I will miss pitching stories and editing the paper into the wee hours of the morning. All the other news execs and I have spent so many hours together since our freshman year 🙁

Next semester is going to be so different now that my time with so many activities has ended. I’m heading home tomorrow morning, and I hope all of you have a lovely holiday season! I’ll be back in January when I’ll be working on my thesis during J-Term.

Many Meetings

November 20, 2010 by Alissa D'Gama | Permalink

Since Punit just wrote about his experience with The Crimson’s “turkey shoot” I figured now would be a good time to add on my own thoughts.

Without a doubt, The Crimson has been one of the most memorable experiences of my time at Harvard College. We publish a newspaper five days a week (Monday through Friday) and have been around since 1873 (a pretty long time!). Every issue is the result of the hard work, dedication, and countless hours of many Harvard undergraduates—from the dayslotter (the person who pitches stories) to the reporters, editors, advertising managers, designers, photographers, and the proofer (the person in charge of the paper for the night)—and that’s not all! We have a total of 11 boards—News, Editorial, Business, Arts, Sports, FM (our magazine), Photography, Design, Video, Blog, and Information Technology—all staffed by Harvard students.

The fall of my freshman year I “comped” the New Board (the comp is The Crimson’s training process) during which I learned how to report and write news stories (for my first story, I got to Skype with a businessman from the Philippines who won an award from Harvard Business School). I spent the next two years as a beat reporter (which meant I was in charge of a specific area of reporting) on the Faculty Team. I loved being able to cover the sciences, especially by running our biweekly Science Page “The Cutting Edge,” which let me communicate exciting discoveries and thought-provoking issues in science and health to our readership—my favorite article was a feature I wrote on the doctor-patient relationship.

The fall of my junior year, I participated in the shoot process Punit is going through now and after a lot of schmoozes (a kind of interview with an outgoing executive) I became one of the News Executives. This meant I was part of a group of undergraduates who kept the News Board running smoothly—from pitching and editing stories to mentoring writers on our teams and being in charge of the paper for a night. Although this often involved pouring over newspaper pages for typos and inaccuracies until the early hours of the morning, its an awesome feeling to see the printed paper in your House’s dining hall the next morning and know you were the last person who looked over those pages and (tried to) make sure everything was perfect.

Right now, my time on The Crimson is approaching its end—once the new guard (including Punit!) is elected, I’ll be done. (My guard is the 137th guard, which means when we were executives in 2010, it had been 137 years since The Crimson was founded). This past week, I did the opposite of Punit, sitting in my dining hall from 9-5 interviewing all the juniors “shooting” for positions on the News Board. It’s bittersweet, especially for an activity that has taken countless hours since the beginning of my freshman year, forging friendships and camaraderie—many of us who are now News Execs have been together on The Crimson since freshman year.

If you have any questions about The Crimson, feel free to ask me in the comments below! If I had to repeat my time here, I would join the Crimson over again without hesitation.

(Also, because I thought it would be fun, you might have noticed that all of my blog posts are titled with the name or lyric from a song. This title comes from the first of The Lord of the Rings movies, The Fellowship of the Ring. In high school, my friend and I once stayed up watching all three extended editions in a row (a good 12 hours!) I love the series, and try to read the books once a year.)

Running for President

November 17, 2010 by Punit Shah | Permalink

With national elections just finishing, it’s time for the annual elections for President and Vice President of the Undergraduate Council (UC), Harvard College’s student government. Of course, being at this campus, the campaign is run by former student staffers from the Obama and McCain campaigns, so each side has it’s set of students serving as campaign and finance managers, in communications teams, on ground operations, and more.

Like any good political campaign, we started by building up our political base. I’m working on the Ebrahim|Cao campaign, where we’re working on, among other issues, to keep the momentum up on initiatives to improve student social life on campus. Led by Senan ’12 and Bonnie ’12, we built up a platform, worked out a messaging strategy, designed and developed a website, and gathered up students to fill all the positions on the campaign. As required by the UC’s Election Commission, a student-run body setup just to administer the rules for the elections, we gathered hundreds of signatures to get onto the ballot.

Senan '12 and Bonnie '12

Finally, once campaigning started last Monday, we tried to deliver our message to every student on campus. Personal and listserv emails. Yelling with a giant poster near the Science Center. Knocking on nearly every dorm room door in the College. Further, to validate out candidates platforms, we’ve tried to reach out to the wide diversity of student groups on campus. We sit down with the group – often in a debate with the other tickets – and then hope to get an endorsement from their group if they see our ticket as being the most effective way forward for their group and the student body. But regardless of how we push our message, it’s a lot of talking, meeting people, and getting psyched! Everyday through this period, we’re required to submit finance reports on our spending: all elections are funded by the UC  up to $400 minus any fines levied against the campaign for a wide variety of violations like forgetting to include voting information on campaign materials or talking to student groups a few days too early. All three of the tickets running have fines running against us – the Election Commission is strict!

We’ve finally transitioning into the GOTV (“Get out the Vote”) period where we’re emailing all of our friends individually – collectively reaching thousands of people – and getting them to cast their ballots online during the election period ending Thursday. That evening, we’ll all gather in a room and hopefully see the ideal result of our efforts: a personal visit from the Election Commission Chair and Harvard Glee Club.

We’ve got some worthy opponents this year: the Coe|Li and Jones|Davis tickets. The latter pair, running with the 90s-era website http://jonesdaviswinnersof2010ucelection.info/ and slogan “Until we Run Out of Money, or Get Removed from Office,” has offered a campaign centered on direct democracy; they already held a vote on what to do with the remaining $20.10 of their campaign funds. The student body’s decision? Buy a small animal. They actually did it, buying a Cuban Tree Frog. Some have called them the “joke ticket” running for humor rather than votes. I’ll just call them inspiring.

The Crimson’s Turkey Shoot

November 11, 2010 by Punit Shah | Permalink

Eighteen one-on-one interviews in five days, a 2000-word essay (written in the 18 hours before it was due), and a final 45-minute interview to — quoting a few friends — “test how well you handle pressure.” This describes my the components of my experience in The Crimson‘s Turkey Shoot, a process by which our daily newspaper chooses its president and top leaders for the upcoming calender year.

I’m shooting for “Director of Web Strategy,” a new position on the publication that aims to bring a greater emphasis on our web product and blogs to ultimately improve our online experience and expand online revenue. It’s exciting because even while in college, I can make an impact on a site that reaches tens of thousands of people a day and helps keep our community informed. But the road to it is no simple ordeal. To shoot, I wrote a statement of purpose in a surprisingly constraining 2000-words after talking to the outgoing president, managers, and editors across our building. The following week, “shooters” as students like me are known interview one-on-one with each editor who would like to deliberate on the  new office-holder through a process affectionately and humorously known as “schmoozing.” Finally, there is that final interview where each of your deliberators sit together, keeping you on your toes for 45 minutes; for positions like President or Managing Editor, there can be 25 or more for more deliberators. Upon writing, I’m currently finishing up my 18 schmoozes.

Students here throw themselves into everything they do, extracurricular activities being no exception. With a talented set of peers, getting the opportunity to lead organizations can thus be a rigorous process. The Crimson‘s is by far the most intense I’ve seen; almost every small and large organization makes do with simple elections or applications. In the middle of it, “the Shoot” as it’s commonly known can seem a bit absurd just to figure out who’s going to lead our publication. It probably is Actually, it definitely is a bit absurd of a process, but by taking a moment as an organization to critically think about our long-term vision, there emerges a consistently amazing set of  leaders who edit and mange almost every part of the publication from content to advertising to even printing (we are one of a few papers in the nation that owns our own presses).

And so while the process is intense, it shown me the possibilities that exist upon bringing together motivated students and giving them a few resources. After hearing and reading about everyone’s ideas and talents over the past week, those possibilities seem almost endless.

Wake Up in the Morning Feeling Like…

November 2, 2010 by Alissa D'Gama | Permalink

So what do Harvard students actually spend their time doing? Although I can’t speak for everyone, here is what my typical day was like as a freshman, and, in the next blog entry, now, as a senior. Freshman year I relied on my Harvard planner, but since those aren’t being given out anymore :(, I am an avid user of Google Calendar. The ability to color-code my life makes running from classes to lab to meetings much more fun, although if my gmail decides to be temporarily unavailable I am in trouble.

Here is a typical week in my life, as seen from my gcal:

I’ve been told that the background makes my calendar much more confusing, but I love polka dots! Also, my Saturday looks deceivingly empty, but it is actually the day when I get most of my studying done—I try not to schedule any other meetings on Saturday so I can be as productive as possible.

My life wasn’t so exciting (or crazy) freshman fall, when I was just getting a feeling for what college in Boston was like after coming from a public high school in Tucson.

Alissa’s Day (Fall 2007)

5 a.m. My first alarm goes off. I set multiple alarms at least an hour apart so that I’m fully awake by the last one. (I also got up extremely early freshman and sophomore year.)

6 a.m. My second alarm goes off. I turn it off.

6:15 a.m. My third alarm goes off. I actually get out of bed in my double in Weld, one of the freshman dorms in Harvard Yard.

6:20-7:00 I go on a run around Harvard Square—if I’m not awake yet, the chilly air definitely does the trick.

7-7:30: I eat my yummy hot breakfast at Annenberg, the freshman dining hall that is basically a castle. Sundays are my favorite because I get to make Veritaffles! (otherwise known as waffles with the Harvard crest on them)

7:30-9:30: I catch up on reading. My productivity was at an all-time high fall of freshman year.

10:00-2:00: Lots of class! Depending on the day, I head to Life Sciences 1a, the gateway class for all the life science concentrations, First Nights, an amazing General Education class that studies five pieces of music, Math 19a, a math class about modeling for the life sciences, or Expos, the required expository writing class for freshman.

2:00-300: Time for lunch—meals are definitely one of the best parts of the day, especially when you eat with friends and get to hear everyone’s stories. In fact, one of my best friends just informed me that he might as well be a goldfish because he will “basically just eat until he dies.”

3:00-6:00: I would often head to The Crimson because I was comping the News Board and learning how to write and edit news stories. Once I started working in a lab, I would head over to my bench and do experiments. Although I haven’t made any exciting discovery yet, I have learned a lot about how the brain works and how to do basic science.

6:00-7:00: Food again, this time dinner.

7:00-9:00: Actual homework time! I would often do my problem set for Math 19a or revise yet another draft of my Expos essay while catching up with my roommates.

9:00-10:00 Hot shower and procrastinating until I go to bed (ie. checking my email, crossing off things in my planner, and checking my email again)

Today, as a senior, I’ve hopefully become a little bit wiser, and my circadian clock has shifted a few hours forward.

Alissa’s Day (Fall 2010)

7:00 a.m. First alarm. I generally ignore it and go back to sleep.

8:00 a.m. Second alarm. I wake up and turn it off.

9:00 a.m. Third alarm, and I get up! I then grab my glasses, pick up my Macbook from next to my bed, and check my email.

9:30-10:00 Shower to wake me up, check my email one more time, grab a toasted bagel with cream cheese from Mather House Dining Hall, and catch the Mather Express Shuttle to the Yard.

10:00-11:30 a.m. I head over to the Graduate School of Education for my Developmental Psychology class. I’m getting a secondary field in psychology, and I think it’s really cool to learn about how babies develop!

11:30-1:00 p.m. I make my way to the new Northwest Lab Building, where my lab moved the summer of 2008, drop off my backpack in the undergraduate room, and do some cool science at my bench—here’s my bench in a low entropy (surprisingly clean) state the week after we moved in. There are now a lot more bottles and tubes!

1:00-2:30 p.m. I head over to the Science Center to sit in on the Life Sciences 1a lecture with my bagged lunch from FlyBy (I eat a lot of PBJ sandwiches). Yes, I took the class freshman year, but I’m now a facilitator, which means I help freshman in the class with their problem sets and teach them how to draw amino acids like proline.

2:30-5:00 p.m. Back to lab. As a senior concentrating in Molecular and Cellular Biology, my fourth class is research for my senior thesis, so I end up being in lab 7 days a week taking care of my cells. Luckily, two of my blockmates John ’11 and Jeremy ’11 work in the same building so I always have a friend there! John ’11 is doing cool stuff with stem cells and Jeremy ’11 gets to go to Costa Rica to catch monarch butterflies.

5:00-6:00 p.m. Dinner with my friends Kevin ’11 and Eric ’11, both also board members of the UAC! We think of ideas for our spring break trip after our theses are turned in (theoretically) and try to figure out why our experiments aren’t working.

6:00-9:00 p.m. I head over to the Crimson, where I am one of the Senior Night Editors (SNEs) for the next day’s paper. I edit three different stories and then walk down Plympton St. to Quincy House

9:00-10:00 p.m. I hold the Harvard Premedical Society’s weekly board meeting as current President, and the board members update everyone on events like our surgery simulation and our volunteering and mentoring program.

10:00-11:00 p.m. Kevin ’11, Eric ’11, and I get some bubble tea from Boston Tea Stop and talk about our medical school interviews and the hardest questions we’ve gotten from interviewers. We hope we get in somewhere soon!

11:00-1:00 a.m. We head to one of our rooms and do work for a couple of hours. On any night, Kevin ’11 might be doing a literature search for his thesis introduction, I’m doing readings for my other psychology class, Developmental Psychopathology—which is awesome!—and Eric ’11 is redesigning a website.

1:00 a.m. I set my alarm for the next morning, rinse and repeat.

I actually get most of my work done on the weekends, and as you can see above, spend my weekdays between class, lab, and extracurriculars. It works for me, but everyone balances their college commitments in different ways. It’s busy, but it’s ridiculously fun and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

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