Guest Blogger: Mariesa, 2nd year SM2, SHHD

This week's entry is from my girl Mariesa, who is one of the few friends that remained here for another year with me! She's someone I really admire for her ability to balance her personal, professional, and academic lives (in my opinion), as well as just being an all-around great person. She's also one of a handful of Harvard College alums, which seems to have really shaped her ability to positively harness the HSPH environment. But I'll let her share more...


It was a cold February back in the 1980s...oh wait, this blog post is supposed to give you a glimpse at being a Harvard student, not a full-length documentary about my awkward upbringing, whoops...sooooo....

I started my degree at HSPH in fall of 2009, as a candidate in the Department of Human Society, Human Development, and Health--it seemed like the most logical fit given my background and interests.  I tested people for HIV in the emergency room of a major Boston academic hospital and worked with Boston teenagers in an inner-city Boston neighborhood to urge them to think twice about drinking that soda with their meal, messing around 'just for the sake of it' without protection, and telling them why 'crack really is whack.'

All in all, my interests in reducing health disparities and understanding behavioral determinants of health landed me to where I am today.  But while I've taken a number of amazing classes with some world-renowned professors at HSPH and at the other Harvard graduate schools, some of the most impactful moments of my academic career have taken place outside of lectures and seminars.  

One thing about me is that I am a very social person, and I love bringing people together.  One thing that lured me to Harvard was Harvard UNIVERSITY--that is, the greater aspect of Harvard outside of the Harvard School of Public Health.  However, as I stepped onto campus, I was actually quite disappointed with how little the different schools interacted--there are so many students who couldn't even tell you the name of one person that goes to a grad school outside of their own.  Sure, the Provost Office works closely with the Harvard Graduate Council to have events for all Harvard graduate students--I was actually one of HSPH reps last year.  It was definitely a great way to meet some pretty amazing people from some of the other grad schools.  But because there is such a quick turn-over for many degree programs (especially like the MPH'ers at HSPH!), it can be difficult to form sustainable relationships.  While the different schools and departments may play a large role in helping to foster such interdisciplinary relationships, it is really up to students themselves to look for ways to reach out and plant the seeds to help foster a greater sense of community and build sustainable relationships.

At the Office of Diversity, one of my projects revolves around improving the quality of interaction among students at HSPH.  We've hosted monthly mixers for different ethnic groups on campus as a way to get groups of students who otherwise may not collaborate on events to come together to meet each other over some refreshments.  Based on the feedback we've gotten from the participants, the initiative has helped spur friendships among people who otherwise would never have had a chance to meet during their time as HSPH.  Even at the bus stop the other day, I ran into a few of the students from the Harvard Club of Japan and we had a nice convo on the M2 ride to HSPH catching up about school life and expressing excitement that we would all be going to an upcoming school event together!  Annnnnnd I got invited to more of the club's upcoming events :)  One thing I do appreciate about HSPH is my very diverse group of friends--not even in undergrad did I have the opportunity to connect on a deeper level with so many amazing individuals from various walks of life.  Guess when everyone's stressed and passionate about similar things, it can bring people together, eh? ;)

I also spearheaded an initiative called the Harvard Black Graduate Alliance, a consortium of the African-American affinity groups across Harvard University. Now, I went here for undergrad and because I've been around for so long, I've had the opportunity to stay in contact with some of my old friends from undergrad--who in turn invited me to various events their schools were hosting, kept me in the loop about what was going on in their own schools that might be of interest to me, and of course introduced me to a number of their own friends.  Having this pipeline of information exchange and seeing how enriched my own experience at HSPH was by connecting with various students from other grad schools, I wanted to be able to offer a similar experience to other African-American students at Harvard. I was actually really surprised and disappointed when I became a graduate student at how very little the different black communities interacted with eachother.   I'd been thinking about forming an overarching organization for some time--but then it really hit when I went to a minority-oriented mixer hosted by the Design School, HSPH, and HSGE and met some great people---only to realize realistically, I may never see them again!  And many of the Design School prospects were worried about their school not having a sizeable amount of students of color for support.  

Now, when times get rough, you often would like the ear or shoulder of someone who can more comprehensively understand where you are coming from.  And so began the process of spearheading such efforts, recruiting "reps" from all of the different schools to serve, getting administrative support, and building a working model to create a meaningful organization that would bring together various African-American students across the Harvard graduate schools by bridging interests and increasing collaboration and interaction.  In its first year, not going to lie, it has been a bit stressful spearheading such an effort and doing what you feel needs to get done so that the organization is accomplishing its goals and will become sustainable. At the very least, through a potluck, a party, small group dinners, and collaboration with the Harvard black Alumni Society (to name a few events), we've definitely helped improve communication of various events going on at the schools to be able to include students who might not otherwise know about such events.  

But a major demonstration of how the community quickly banded together was in response to a racist incident that occurred in Boston back in November, where club managers denied entrance to Black Harvard and Yale graduate students, despite the fact that the venue had been paid for and appropriate arrangements made beforehand.  The community came together and BGA worked to make sure that students and faculty were quickly made aware of the incident and internally decided the appropriate course of action to take against a blatant display of racism.  Ultimately, various Harvard administrators wrote letters in support of the African-American students of Harvard and the community, a lawsuit was filed, and of course various students initiated their own responses.  In the end, at least some form of justice prevailed in that besides receiving overwhelmingly negative publicity for a number of weeks, the club issued a public apology and was fined $30000, of which the money will be donated to groups that are oriented on higher education achievement for African American students.   In the end, it was nice to see that various communities across Harvard could mobilize very quickly--and it was comforting to know that we had the support of various Harvard deans, administrators, and friends from all walks of the Harvard community.   

 My journey here is far from over, or at least I tell myself that as graduation looms near :p...stay tuned!

Guest Blogger: Lama, 2nd Year SM2, GHP

Hi all,

So, we have our first guest blogger who wrote a wonderful piece about her time here at HSPH below! I will just say that Lama is one of the superstars here; she's very involved outside of academics (which, in my opinion, is uncommon), has a unique ability to connect with so many of the faculty here, and does so while always helping out a classmate in need. She's what I wish most colleagues were like! Anyhow, here are her thoughts:

I started at the Harvard School of Public Health as a Master's student in Global Health and Population (GHP) in the fall of 2009. It has been an exciting, turbulent, eye-opening two years that has left me often with feelings of disappointment, but also excitement for the future and a yearning to enter fieldwork.  

My interests lie in the Middle East and North Africa, and while my focus has traditionally been on refugees and (more broadly) health issues with migrant populations, I’ve grown to appreciate the complexity of the situation that surrounds refugee populations. I have become increasingly interested in rebuilding or strengthening health systems in post-conflict settings as well as much of the humanitarian response. This is supplemented by a strong interest in self-determination, allowing people to determine their own destinies regardless of the interests of outside players. This is a recurring and complex issue in humanitarian disasters and post-conflict settings.

Now, will I have a job in any of those interesting topic areas when I graduate? Probably not. J

But before I try figure out the rest of my life, let me tell you a little about my experience here.

The Good

I have learned a lot at HSPH and built up a quantitative skill set that I can be proud of, even if I never use it! I have built some very good relationships both at the School of Public Health and across Harvard. I’ve learned that some of the misconceptions I had about faculty coming in were wrong; while most of my cohort never built a strong relationship with him, Dr. Allan Hill has taught me that senior faculty members can be interesting and flexible in their thoughts as well as open to new and intriguing ideas. He is, by far, one of the most supportive faculty members here, although many people cannot believe me when I say that. He does not have the same research interests as me, but has worked in the Middle East and is really open to talking about anything and everything. In fact, I would say the more junior faculty are possibly less invested in their students because of their busy schedules and understandable constant need to make strides in their research. That is just my experience; I know other people have found faculty members that they are comfortable with.

I think everyone can find a niche here. As a progressive young Muslim Lebanese woman, I have friends that I love and who support me and even ones that, amazingly, think like me! I’ve been part of some great student organizations and have done work that I never thought I would do. Within the last year especially, I’ve been more active in groups that have really allowed me to grow and learn while supporting important movements and ideas. It has been educational and inspiring, a real one of a kind experience, and I can say that because I can’t go back in time to re-experience something different (no counterfactual)!

And lastly, I love this city. Boston <3

The Bad

Over the last two years here, I have grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of sensitivity to, often even a lack of acknowledgement of, the voices of the people being impacted by public health measures that we are discussing.  There is an utter disregard for many of the underlying issues that are often the root of why so many programs and efforts fail. These include race, gender, culture, religion, faith and spirituality, ethnicity, sexuality, power dynamics, imperialism and colonialism -- variety, diversity, differences between people, similarities, history, all the things that make this earth beautiful.

I tell myself, maybe I just feel this way because I’m an immigrant to this country myself, because I feel like they don’t listen to the voices of people in my country. Those voices are over-shadowed by the stomping feet of the big players, as they are in other countries, and those stomping feet are usually loud and .. you know.. stomping on the people. And rather than seeing my school as a partner to the people, it really is more of a stomper itself. I will say that so many people here do have good intentions, but frankly, when people’s lives are at stake, that is not good enough for me. While we have centers at the School that work in humanitarian response or in health systems, I have failed to fully fit into those because of that gnawing notion in my mind: self-determination and, at a minimum, inclusion of populations in the decisions made about them.

And The Ugly…

I believe that the worst part about all of this is that we do not have constructive conversations, even as students, about these issues. We all know there is systemic (and not-so-systemic) discrimination at Harvard as an institution and some of us may have experienced it in person as women, as Muslims, as Africans or African Americans. HSPH may be the most internationally diverse of all the Harvard graduate schools, and so, never having discussions about race, ethnicity, gender, religion…  just astonishes me!

Because I have felt that my education is so Western-oriented and top-down, I have excelled at learning it (know your enemy J). I have also focused much more on developing my skill set: the quantitative skills that they emphasize so much, and even skills needed for economics, and some qualitative research skills. I am convinced that I may one day be able to use the foundational knowledge, apply those skills, change them, adapt them, or develop completely new methods to impact my country, my people, and my region.

Should I have expected more from Haavaad? Maybe not. J

If you’d like to have a discussion about any of these issues, or my areas of interest, my work as a Student Ambassador at the Office of Diversity (and my 2 other jobs, or the numerous student groups I’m involved with!), feel free to email me at lamahassoun@gmail.com.

Peace and love,

Lama

Harvard Arab Weekend

I got engaged over the summer!

 

Muslim Student Group Dinner

You know you missed me: a ME update!

To my adoring fans and followers [i.e., Mom and Dad, if you even read this], I'm sure you're wondering why I've been so quiet of late. Well, stress has finally taken its toll on me! While most of my classmates finished midterms/finals last week, I'm still working to complete a paper. As people start thinking about what comes next, I'm trying to figure out how I can graduate and not spend one more unnecessary day here! *Sigh* I guess the moral of this year-and-a-little-more-than-a-half-long story is that I am not Superwoman. It is not humanly possible to take 7 classes including a thesis, work 3 jobs at 30+ hours/week, manage a team of inactive people as co-President of an organization, actively be involved in church, and remain sane (let alone have much of a social life). I tried to be Superwoman, and maybe I came close, but not quite. ;)


Over the last few weeks, I've had some very interesting, enlightening experiences that I do think are worth sharing. One of which was a weekend trip to the National Hispanic Leadership Conference in Chicago, which proved to be an informative and fun weekend! Another experience was coordinating "Karamu," the HSPH African and the Diaspora Cultural Show (though the experience was so frustrating and taxing that you may have to wait a while to hear more about that). And then there was one sad attempt to go out and meet my future husband at a social event (kind of joking; don't worry!)...

The thing is, I'm burnt out now and my positivity meter has dropped down to its last mercury levels. As I try to focus on my studies/thesis and try to pull through to the end, I want to ensure that you're still able to get some perspectives of life here without the "Debby Downer" (i.e., depressing) weekly updates that might come out of me for now. So, to make this blog more interactive, I've invited guest writers to provide an overview of their experience at HSPH each week. I've given them free reign to talk about "the good, the bad, and the ugly," so be prepared for honest opinions from students who have made it to the inside! Feel free to post comments and questions as always, and hopefully we'll be in touch again soon!!

 One day at a time--this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering. -From Anonymous