Denisse Cordova Carrizales '22, Izzy Perez '23, and Jess Williams '20. 1/31/2020. “
Agency, Responsibility, and Security:A Decision Framework for the Careers of Harvard FGLI Seniors”.
AbstractThis descriptive study untangles the complex influential forces on post-graduate plans for first-generation, low-income undergraduate seniors at Harvard while they think about jobs after college. Through twelve narrative-style interviews, the authors constructed a decision framework with three different branches or themes of decisions: social, financial, and personal. The three social factors that influenced their decisions include: 1) a liberal arts education differing from the vocational education they and their families had envisioned, 2) their parents’ lack of education increasing agency and autonomy, and 3) Harvard’s culture of elitism, wealth, and consulting. The major financial decisions centered around a great desire for financial security and success. Students felt indebted to their parents’ sacrifices and did not want to endure the same financial issues they did growing up. Lastly, FGLI students were very intrinsically motivated to find a career with a strong mission to give back to underserved communities and faced internal conflict while trying to reconcile their personal values.
jess_denisse_izzy_final_paper_edited_1.docx Danielle Green '20, Chelsea Guo '23, and Arnav Srivastava '23. 1/31/2020. “
A Sense of Community on Campus in Pre-Professional Student Groups”.
AbstractIn this paper, we explored how exclusivity contributes to a sense of community in exclusive pre-professional Harvard College student groups (clubs mandating multiple interview rounds for admission) in contrast with Harvard-mandated “default” communities (the Harvard dorm/housing system). We sought to find the most impactful attributes that fulfill one’s sense of belonging within a community, and potentially advise how to build more fulfilling communities. Specifically, we chose two prominent and visible pre-professional organizations on campus and surveyed students on various community-evaluating questions. We found that default communities produced a greater sense of community in many scenarios than more exclusive student groups in which membership was handpicked. Some of the underlying mechanisms for these results might be that default communities involve cooperative or collaborative living, which lends itself to giving up certain aspects of privacy and likely makes it easier to communicate and share private matters in general. Nevertheless, more than 90% of students in both pre-professional groups still believed exclusivity of their pre-professional community to be valuable to the sense of community established.
Reflecting upon our research implications, we suggest that more exclusive pre-professional student groups can make efforts to strengthen their sense of community through group outings, socials, and mixers. We also commend the university for making efforts to create more intimate and close-knit social spaces beyond the realm of more exclusive student groups, which are necessary to celebrate/encourage intimacy, warmth, and inclusion regardless of students’ personal and professional interests.
official_collaborative_research_paper_edited_2.docx Mustafa Ansari ’23, Nicole Chen ’23, Adelle Goldenberg ’21, and Starr Rhee ‘21. 1/15/2020. “
Concentration Selection by First Generation College Students at Harvard College”.
AbstractOur project investigates the concentration choices of first-generation students at Harvard College and the motivations behind their concentration choices. We hope that with the help of our findings, the Harvard administration can improve the undergraduate college experience to lower barriers of entry for first-generation students in choosing concentrations and make the academic process more equitable for all. We acquired institutional data illustrating the number of first-generation students in each concentration. In addition, we conducted twelve interviews, with a mix of sophomores, juniors, and seniors, to understand why and how they chose their respective concentrations. We found that the first-generation population was underrepresented in engineering and applied sciences and overrepresented in the sciences. Our interviewees noted that post-graduate outcomes, poor quality of advising and support at Harvard, and relationship with family and community back home were the three biggest factors in their concentration choices. We recommend that Harvard rethinks access to quality first-year advising, develops better introductory courses, improves mental health resources, increase faculty diversity and representation, and incorporate a full summer-bridge program to introduce students to resources on campus.
first-gen_concentration_choices.pdf Kalena Wang ‘20, Parth Mehta ‘20, Jaden Deal ‘23, and Salma Elsayed ‘23. 1/15/2020. “
Student Activism at Harvard College: Who Uses Their Voice and Why?”.
AbstractThe paper, “Student Activism at Harvard College: Who Uses Their Voice and Why?,” investigated who are the leaders and members of student activist groups at Harvard College. Researchers assessed the general Harvard student body population's sentiment towards student movements and propensity to join social movements in an effort to understand what motivates some students as opposed to others to join student movement groups. They also investigated student activists’ perceptions of university administrators. Researchers focused on two student movement groups: Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard and the Harvard Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM). They conducted individual interviews with members of each group and asked both informational questions and questions about each student’s background, motivations, and perception of administration. They found that there were unified pathways to recruitment to each organization with interviewees in SLAM becoming introduced to the organization through their or their friend's participation in the First-Year Urban Program, a social justice focused pre-orientation program, while interviewees in Divest Harvard had participated in environmental activism before college. Interviewees from both organizations recognized that the time-consuming nature of the work, a lack of understanding of their work from the general student body, and risks that activists may incur could be a deterrent to activism. Researchers found that interviewees from the labor and environmental divest movement were motivated by a strong belief that Harvard’s moral obligation to advance each cause and that their activism was effective. While the perception of administration differed between groups, both groups felt that the administration was dismissive of their actions and had misaligned priorities with those of students. Researchers also used a quantitative survey, representative of the Harvard undergraduate population, to indirectly reveal subtle differences between student activists and non-activists. They found that activists post more frequently on social media, are more likely to major in the Social Sciences, and are more affluent than non-activists. Recommendations for diversifying recruitment in student movement groups include incorporating civic-engagement in high school curriculums and a unified recruiting system for activist groups at Harvard College.
husrhe_collaborative_final_paper_2.pdf Kalos Chu ’22, Meaghan Townsend ’21, and Shelly Tsirulik ’20. 1/8/2020. “
A Focus on Concentration: How Harvard Students Choose their Fields of Study”.
AbstractHow and why do Harvard students select their concentrations? What are the key factors that shape this choice, and how do students weigh their relative importance? To examine these questions, we adopted a trimodal approach. We analyzed a large dataset of the graduating classes of 2015-2019, interviewed 12 sophomores currently choosing their concentrations, and surveyed upperclassmen of Mather House, receiving 72 responses. With representative quotes and statistical analysis, we offer a detailed look at how students approach this complex choice. Although students consistently identify academic interest as their primary motivation, there is considerable evidence that academic stress, family expectations, and the pressure of the “real world” significantly influence concentration choice. We identify specific Harvard concentrations and divisions that exhibit noteworthy demographic disparities (along the lines of gender and minority status). We also analyze the relationship between concentration choice and post-graduate plans, specifically finance and consulting. Recommendations include assuaging student concerns about Harvard's lack of professional training, supplementing non-finance/consulting programming on campus, offering peer- and concentration-based academic advising, and evaluating the role of grades in concentration choice.
mks_final_paper_1.pdf Aly Aga Khan ‘23, Ashley LaLonde ‘20, and Charlotte Kim ‘20. 1/8/2020. “
Higher Meaning in Higher Education: An Investigation into the Role of Religion at Harvard”.
AbstractOur research question, “What is the role of religion at Harvard?,” aims to unearth the role that religion plays in the lives of undergraduate students at Harvard College, as well as whether Harvard as an institution is doing enough to provide students with faith-based outlets. In order to better understand this question, our three sub-questions are as follows - “How do religious beliefs affect students’ lived experiences, sense of purpose, and meaning-making at Harvard?” “Why do Harvard students opt to join religious groups, and what are these groups’ roles and impacts on campus?” And finally, “What does Harvard as an institution presently do to facilitate religious tolerance?” To yield clear results, we opted to focus on Christians, Muslims, and religious “nones” for the purpose of our study. In terms of campus-based religious groups, we honed in on Harvard College Faith and Action (HCFA), a Christian organization, and the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS), a Muslim organization. We conducted interviews with members of both faith groups, as well as with religious “nones” at Harvard, which we also supplemented with survey questionnaires.
Our research revealed a number of important trends about the role of religion at Harvard. According to the students we interviewed, we found that religion does, in fact, provide students with a deeper sense of purpose and identity, which tend to affect their career choices. With on-campus religious groups, we found that the deeper a student’s involvement, the more the group is a source of meaningful friendships and the more it constitutes a safe space to tackle tough questions. Our findings pertaining to Harvard’s institutional culture concluded that discrimination on the basis of religion, though often implicit, does still occur on Harvard’s campus. We also found that while diversity training has been a focus for the university, the topic of religious diversity in particular seems to have been neglected. Interestingly, Muslim students have also faced more difficulty when attempting to fulfill religious practices. Finally, responses to the question of whether Harvard actively encourages exploration of religion and faith were mixed, with many reporting that it did foster religious exploration, and others claiming it did not.
Yi Chen '20, Kara Evans '22, Rick Li '21, and Ian Saum '20. 1/8/2020. “
Q's and A's: A Mixed Methods Approach to Evaluating Student Course Selection”.
AbstractStudents in higher education face a wide assortment of academic decisions, with semesterly course selection chief among those concerns. While the current literature has identified correlations between student background factors—including race and first-generation status—and educational outcomes, there is a key gap in knowledge on why and how these factors cause these differences. Our group leveraged a mixed-methods study of Harvard undergraduates combining a quantitative survey with semi-structured interviews in order to understand how public school and private school background affect how students make course selection decisions at college. We found that public school students felt overwhelmingly less prepared for college academics, which factored prominently in how they selected coursework. However, the reasons why students chose certain courses and the resources they consulted exhibited less distinction between our two experimental groups, though we were able to conceptualize some broader course-selection strategies. As a whole, our project lays out key observations about student course selection considerations and demonstrates how differential access to educational resources from secondary education propagate in tertiary academic decision-making.
Tolu Adeniji (History Science & 2022), Ryan O’Malley (Integrative Biology 2022), and Josh Yee (Applied Mathematics 2022). 2020. “
Inclusivity and Belonging: First-Generation and Low Income Support Mechanisms”.
Abstract
In 2017, Harvard College made headlines everywhere. For the first time in its three and a half-century history, the majority of its admitted students were racial minorities. This coupled with the fact that over half of its students were on some form of financial aid, and 20% on full financial aid (Harvard College), put Harvard in a rather strange situation. Its recruitment programs designed to encourage diversity on campus had done an extraordinary job at getting a variety of students to campus, but once they were there, they faced obstacles like imposter syndrome - the sensation of not feeling good enough to be a part of campus - and the inability to find a community. This happened with plenty of minority students before them, but now that it affected such a large portion of Harvard’s community, the college decided to take action. It launched the Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging, greenlit programs based on forming a community, such as the First-Year Retreat and Experience (FYRE), and looked for ways to make underrepresented students feel at home on campus.
Unfortunately, however, these feelings of inadequacies and lack of inclusion are difficult to eliminate. That’s why our research team wants to take a closer look into what current social organizations that are meant to build a community for these students are doing, and if it is having the desired impact. We want to know whether first-generation low-income organizations fulfill their missions of fostering a sense of inclusivity in the Harvard community by helping these first-year students smoothly transition into their new environment. The program that we will be focusing on is FYRE (First-Year Retreat and Experience), a pre-orientation program designed for first-generation low-income students with the intention to show these underrepresented first-year students how to navigate campus and build community among them.
