HARVARD EDUCATION COURSES

    As the school year ends and everyone starts leaving campus for their much-deserved summer getaway, I dream of a romantic summer voyage. My summer home will be nestled in a serene neighborhood with a waterfront view. No, not Greece or the Bahamas. My summer expedition will be much more extravagant…. I’ll be staying right on campus.   After spending the school year here, staying on campus over the summer was not the change in environment that I was expecting at first. However, after spending my previous summers in familiar Cambridge, I have come to appreciate the charms that campus life offers during the summer months.   If you, like me, are staying around campus this summer (let’s please hang out), there are plenty of events to see, do, and explore around the area on a budget   -  Farmers Markets : Embrace the vibrant spirit of summer by strolling through the local farmers' markets. Every Tuesday,  Farmer’s Market at Harvard  bursts to life wit...

  As a first-year one of the many things I thought about was what Ramadan would be like on campus and how I would manage my workload.  After observing Ramadan on campus for three years on Harvard’s campus, here is my reflection on how to make the most out of Ramadan while doing school work: Sleep early, wake up, stay up As a student, it is typical to stay up late at night to submit assignments on time and catch up on work, but during Ramadan, this can be difficult because we are typically not getting as much sleep due to taraweeh and tahajjud prayers, or other reasons. I have found that I am the most productive when I go to sleep and wake up for suhoor and then stay up. I usually have a suhoor buddy where we ensure both of us are awake to eat before we start fasting at dawn. Remember to take naps in between! Don’t miss Suhoor/Sehri It can be difficult to wake up at 3 or 4 am to eat suhoor, so set up those 10-15 alarms and have a friend who will call or text to ensure you are a...

  Eid-al-Fitr is one of the two major holidays for Muslims; it marks the end of Ramadan, a time when Muslims fast, donate to charity, worship, and attend communal gatherings.  As someone who is very grateful to live in Massachusetts, I celebrate this holiday with both my family and friends. The night before Eid, the  Harvard Pakistani Student Association  hosts their annual Chand Raat event where friends gather around the night before Eid-al-Fitr, eat food, enjoy performances including Qawali, get henna done, and more. I typically go home after Chand Raat and I wake up early in the morning the following day for Eid Prayer with my family. After prayer, I get chai with my sister from one of my favorite cafes in Cambridge,  Jaho  (they have kulfi lattes!). Then it is time to prepare and serve all the dishes my mom has been preparing for the past few days for our guests. Every year for lunch I invite my friends from Harvard College over to celebrate Eid with my...

  This past semester, I found myself organizing a hackathon. Me, a premed student with little to no coding experience? -- yes!  To those who may not be familiar with the concept of a hackathon: A hackathon is an opportunity for people to dedicate 24-48 hours to solving a problem about, quite literally, anything. It's a space where people can immerse themselves in a project they're passionate about for a weekend, with some even forgoing sleep for the duration of the hackathon! At the end of the 24-48 hours, people pitch their solutions/projects to a panel of judges, and awards are given to the top teams or individuals. Sometimes hackathons can be themed, or have different categories like fintech, AI, VR, robotics, social good, etc.  There are also health/bio themed hackathons that rely on computational biology tools and bioinformatics to tackle diseases. Tech is becoming increasingly important for the advancement of medicine, especially with the rise of AI. There is softwa...

  Xin chào! That means “hello” in Vietnamese, and it was one of the first words I learned while studying a language here at Harvard!  Due to  Harvard’s Language Requirement , many students take one year of a language course—though some go on for longer while others learn multiple languages simultaneously! There are some exceptions to this requirement, such as the option to use a relevant AP credit. But even if you test out, you should still consider learning a language at Harvard. Hopefully, my experience can illustrate some reasons why!  Something Different  My current schedule is packed with 3 STEM-heavy courses, so it is refreshing to think about something different for a change. In fact, I often “procrastinate” on my coding homework to instead review flashcards on Quizlet!  Connecting with Culture  Language courses are more than just vocabulary and grammar; they are vessels into entirely new worlds. I am personally Vietnamese-American, so it has be...

  It felt strange at first. It really did, and if you felt strange, or still do, just know that you are not alone. No one was speaking Swahili, Sheng, Luo, or Abasuba around me.  It was Fall 2021, and I was only used to the vibrant street markets of Kisumu’s lakeside, the flowing left-hand side traffic pattern of the Nairobi metropolis, and the constant beautiful weather with yearlong moderate temperatures. In short, I was homesick upon arrival. As weeks passed, I even became more homesick. The beautiful colors of fall started waning, and I started even missing how I used to spell “color” as “colour” in my favorite Commonwealth English: Kenyan English. But after three years of being here, while the homesickness may still come intermittently, I have learned better how to deal with it. After three years in the game, I hereby write with a little more experience on how to deal with it.   Take time to get updates on the domestic news of your home countries. I ta...