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Source: https://families.college.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum5611/files/families/files/life_on_campus_7.15.24.plain_text.txt Parent: https://families.college.harvard.edu/first-year-family-orientation

Good evening. Good afternoon. Welcome. Thank you all so much for joining us tonight for our very first parent and family webinar of the summer. My name is Jason Meier, I use the him/his pronouns. And I have the honor of serving as the Associate Dean for student engagement within the Dean of Students Office at Harvard College. I'm going to be one of your moderators tonight and for the rest of our summer webinars that will be happening over the next few weeks. And we're just really excited to be in conversation and share some great information with you. It's important to know that we have lots of these webinars planned. So tonight's topic is life on campus. We'll be hosting future webinars around academics, around health, safety, and wellness and then probably the thing that you're most excited for, move-in and orientation. So all of those questions about academics, health and wellness, and move-in and orientation, we won't get to tonight. But don't you worry, we'll be having webinars and bringing in special friends and guests to help explain that to you in the days and weeks to come. So it is my very pleasure to introduce to you another one of our moderators for the night. Please welcome Lily Castro, who will introduce herself now. Awesome, thank you, Jason. Hi, everyone. My name is Lily Castro, and I use she/her pronouns. And I serve as the director of orientation and family engagement here at the college. I work alongside Jason and Katie Patrick to coordinate our orientation and family weekend events. So stay tuned for more of that information. But tonight, we have some amazing folks here to join us to discuss life on campus, which includes housing, dining, and ways to get involved. As Jason mentioned, this is the first webinar of the summer. And we have a wonderful lineup of webinars with other topics. So please be sure to register for those. Before we move into the discussion, we have a few quick tips to navigate these webinars. First, this session is being recorded, and we will post the recording to our parent and family engagement website right after this. Also following this session, we will also take some of the frequently asked questions and provide some substantive answers to those questions underneath the recording on our website. On that note, we do have a Q&A feature open at the bottom of our screen. And as you have questions, please feel free to put those into the chat. We will do our best to grab all of those questions and answer them live. But for those we don't have the chance to answer one on one, our orientation welcoming committee students will answer them as quickly as they possibly can. And so our orientation welcoming committee is a group of amazing students, who work with us to plan and organize events for your incoming first year students. And so tonight, we have Jared joining us. And so, Jared, please feel free to introduce yourself to the group. Thank you. So my name is Jared, I use the he series of pronouns. And I am a rising junior in the college, and I'm currently in Leverett House. Thanks, Jared. It's great to have you here. And can't wait to hear your perspective on life on campus. The last piece of information that we want to share is regarding a law that parents and family members of incoming college students should be aware of. This law is known as FERPA, which is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. In short, this is a law that states that a student's record belongs to them and to them alone. As college students are now in charge of their own records and information, staff and faculty like ourselves cannot share that information with anyone but the student. So if you have questions regarding your student's individual records, be sure to talk to them. And you can learn more about FERPA by using a link that we're going to be posting in the chat in just a second. And with that, I'll pass it back over to Lily. Awesome, thanks, Jason. And so I know that many of the folks here are not here just to join you and I, but to also listen to the amazing panel that we have curated for this group tonight. So I want to pass it off to the panel to introduce themselves and tell you a little bit more about their roles. And so we have Lauren, Crista, and Andy. But let's start off with Lauren. So, Lauren, if you don't mind coming to the screen and tell us a little bit more about yourself and what you do at Harvard. Hi, everyone. My name is Lauren Brandt, I'm the Associate Dean of students and the Dean of Students Office at the college. And I oversee the residential life unit, which means I work closely with all things related to the residential programs at Harvard, including the first year experience office, which is what many of the incoming students will be part of. Well, they are part of right now. And so we are looking forward to welcoming you in August as well. So I'm happy to answer questions related to that. And full disclosure, I was an undergraduate here myself and a resident of Wigglesworth in the yard when I was a first year student. Amazing. Thank you so much, Lauren. So, Crista I'll have you now join us and tell us about yourself and what you do at Harvard. Hi, how are you? My name is Crista Martin, I use the she series. And I work for Harvard University dining services. I have been with the university for almost 30 years, 25 of which is with dining. And so I really work with our team around all things related to accessing and understanding the dining program, making the most of your time on campus, having a little fun with it through some learning opportunities, and just getting to connect with each other over a plate. And there's nothing better than that. Thank you, Crista. And last but not least, Andy, if you can tell us more about yourself and what you do at Harvard. Hi, everyone. My name is Andy Donahue, I serve as the Assistant Dean for student engagement at Harvard College in the Dean's office. I use the he series. My portfolio of responsibilities includes general student involvement, so student clubs and organizations, campus programs, pre-orientation programs, some pre-orientation programs, and a lot of the opportunities that your students will pursue outside of the classroom. Great, thanks, everyone. So let's start off the conversation today with Lauren to discuss housing. So Lauren, first year students, they live in the dorms and they're divided into four different yards. So can you tell us a little bit more about what that exactly means? Yeah, so we are so lucky to have the residential system that we have here at Harvard. And it's a little different from that of other schools. As Lily mentioned, we actually separate our first year class into four separate units called yards. Crimson, elm, ivy, and oak are the four yards. Each of them are clusters of the first year dorms. So they are clustered together in groups of about 450 students or so are part of each yard. All of the yards have proctors, which are the equivalent of like RAs would be in other spaces. But they are importantly staff or graduate students, who are resources for the students that live around and contiguous to them. So that's an important component of our system. And they serve as a really important mentor and advisor for the first year students as they enter our community. All of the yards have their own resident Dean of first year students, who is part of their support system as well. And they are all overseen by the first year Dean Nekesa Straker, who I'm sure you have seen on many emails and welcoming materials over the past couple of days. All of the dorms have different kinds of amenities that are part of the physical structure. There's a lot of information on the DSO website that maps out the different types of dorms that we have and a lot of the different resources and programming spaces that we have in the dorm and in the first year yard. Great, thank you. And continuing on, so you mentioned a little bit about this when naming the proctors. So can you talk to us a little bit more about the support systems that live in the dorms and maybe what students can expect from that? Yeah. So I think a really important part of Harvard is the many layers of support that are available to the students as they come in. I mentioned the proctor community, that's about 25 to 30 students that have a proctor that is responsible for working with them. And they'll do a lot of programming during the first couple of weeks of the semester and throughout the semester and academic year. They also have peer advising fellows, which I'm sure Jared can talk a little bit about later on too. But these are upper level students, who work closely with the proctors to help welcome the incoming first year students into the community and to serve as a point of resource and contact for them as they think about their Harvard experience and what they want from it. All of the first years have first year advisors as well or preconcentration advisors, and they'll be talking about that later in some of the other webinars, but it's important to know that they're available as a resource for students and then the resident deans of first year students as well. And as they move through the four years of living at Harvard, they will have supports like that in every residential community of which they are a part. So as you move from the yard into the houses in your sophomore year, you will have people that play similar roles. They just have a slightly different vocabulary. And we can talk a little bit more about that if people have questions. But for the first years, the important people to know are your proctor, your peer advising fellow, your pre-concentration advisor, and your resident Dean of first year students. Thanks, Lauren. We have a question in the chat. Certainly, there's a lot of excitement when we're thinking about placement. And so when might our incoming students first find out about their dorm placement and how these assignments happen? I know that is an area of excitement and anticipation for many of our students. I still remember getting my email that listed out where I was going to be living. That is ongoing right now. You may know that we have a very intensive matching process for our first year incoming class. And so the resident Dean of first year students are doing that process right now. So it will be later in the summer. But we do try to give people enough time so that they can plan accordingly. And we'll do two quick really specific questions about the dorms. I don't want to get too much into move-in because we have an entire webinar about that. However, are students allowed to bring in portable ACs into their dorm? And when is moving day? Well, I will take the portable AC question first. So we actually have our Disability Access Office that will work with any student that needs air conditioning as part of their housing. So I would recommend that if that's a question that you are interested in learning more about, I would contact them. And then for move-in day, it will vary based on if you are participating in a pre-orientation program, or if you are not participating in a pre-orientation program. So pre-orientation programs, we'll move in and they'll learn more about the dates and times for that when they hear more about that from their program director. And then the move-in day for people who are not participating in pre-orientation programs is-- apologies I'm going to-- I'll drop it in the chat. So I'll do that. Thanks, Lauren. As a reminder, we're not going to be covering move in information what to bring in this webinar. That's a future webinar that'll happen later this summer. So keep an eye out for that, we'll be doing that. But there is a question asking about proctor's roles, which segues into our wonderful next question that we have for you, Lauren. So can you share a little bit more information about what proctors do? We heard that, sometimes, proctors have events and sometimes, students from the first year social committee hold events. So can you tell us a little bit about those? Yeah. So the proctors hold study breaks on a weekly basis, which, with their entry communities, they also participate in a number of the orientation programs. The entry will be part of the cohort that experiences some of those programs together. The first year social committee is our student committee that plans programming for the entire first year class. Some of the highlights for that include our first year formal. There's a large pumpkin carving contest, which is amazing. Every year I feel like the contest gets better and better because people's skills in that area are amazing. And they do a series of smaller group programs and trips off campus to the Boston area, some of the museums, local movie theaters, and things like that over the course of the semester. So we try to have a lot of different types of activities for students in the first year class so that they get to know each other and they get to some of the proctors and also the Boston and Cambridge area as well. Oh and I should plug that the first year social committee will be accepting applications in the first couple of weeks of class. So please keep an eye on your email. And if you're interested, definitely apply. It's a great way to get to know the members of your cohort. Thanks, Lauren. There's a couple more questions in the chat that I think we can quickly answer. So are parents able to help students move in? Absolutely. We'll also have lots of assistance from student leaders, who are so happy to help you with that process. It's pretty seamless and it's pretty fast. So you can look forward to that. And is there any flexibility on move-in day slots? No. Your move-in day is really, as Lily shared, in alignment with participation in pre-orientation programs, and we are very much held to that. So we're pretty tight on when that can be. As far as sharing the links, we understand some of you are having challenges for that. Don't you worry, we will be adding them all to the website later. So if you are missing a link, don't you worry, we'll make sure that we will get that to you. So again, the yard, someone said that they were disconnected. The yards do not have central AC. But it's really only a problem for about a month, I promise. And I would say, we have a lot of air conditioned spaces on campus, our Smith campus center, our libraries, many of the common rooms. And the larger common rooms in the individual dorms that are part of the programming spaces are also air conditioned as well. And there's another really great question in the chat about resources that I want to quickly answer. When will incoming students find out who their pre-concentration advisors are? Well, your pre-concentration advisors are currently going through training and they'll be introduced to the new students in early August, where we'll quickly start supporting our students as they think about their fall class schedule. So it happens very fast, but it's a very exciting time for sure. Just checking on-- And I think just to go back to the move-in date, August 28 is the move-in date for any students who aren't participating in the pre-orientation programs. There is another great question in here for life on campus, Lauren, that I think you can help us answer. So if a student is participating in ROTC, how do we support our ROTC students? Yeah, so in my role, I work closely with our program manager for military student services, Craig Rogers. He does a lot of work supporting the ROTC students as well. He's outreach to a lot of the incoming class with information about the program and the student organizations that work closely with that group as well. He also works closely with our veteran student population and does a lot of individual conversations and advising around the areas that they may face. So it's an important part of our community. And we always want to make sure that we're making sure that those students are supported as well and their experience here. And the questions keep rolling in. I don't have to encourage you all to use the Q&A feature anymore. Wonderful question right now in the Q&A. Do proctors keep an eye out on first year students and reach out if they perceive any challenges that are social or emotional or academic? Absolutely, that's one of the most important parts of their role is really making sure that students that are encountering challenges or difficulties know that they have their proctor to turn to as a source of support and advice. Awesome, thank you so much, Lauren. So switching gears a little bit now over to Crista. And so I want to talk a little bit about dining. So Crista, where do first year students eat? And can you tell us more about the meal? Certainly. So our first year students primarily eat at Annenberg Hall. So for those of you who got to visit campus, perhaps, over the last year or in the spring, it's that building that looks a lot like Hogwarts from Harry Potter. It's an extraordinary facility and all first year students eat there. In fact, upperclassmen are not allowed to eat there at lunch and dinner. It's really designed to be a space for first year students to connect as much as possible. At Harvard, we have an unlimited meal plan. And what that means is that everybody has the same access to the dining hall all the time. You can come and go from the dining hall as often as you like. If you're a person who wants to get up and have a great big breakfast, and then go off to class and come back afterward and grab a banana and meet up with some of your classmates, or if you like to have snacks, you can come and go from the dining hall throughout the day. We have distinct meal periods because the menu, of course, changes throughout the day. But you also are able to spend time in that space to sit and study and otherwise just enjoy the gorgeousness of Annenberg. We have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And then we also have a late night snack period that we call brain break when you can come in roughly between 9:00 and 11:00 for a little bit more to eat. We have options for people who keep kosher, who eat halal, who are vegetarian or vegan. There is no end to how we are ready to support you and hopefully entice you to try some new things, but also to find the things that make you happy and content on a stressful day. I can vouch the food in Annenberg is fantastic and certainly does alleviate some of those stressful moments. Crista, we have some questions in the chat about some food sensitivities and other things. And that really leads into our next question for you. Sometimes, students have really specific dietary needs, how might a new student arrange for that? Sure. Students with very specific dietary needs, particularly related to a food allergy, for example, or other medically diagnosed dietary need are highly encouraged to register for an accommodation with the university's, I'm going to call it the DA, the Disabilities Access Office. This is actually a legal process to go through that's truly, really important and gives us the information we need to really thoroughly and fully support you. So I encourage everyone who might think it would be useful to register for this accommodation. Let me be clear. If you're a vegetarian, you don't need to register for an accommodation. This is really about-- say, you have an allergy to peanuts, it's really important to register. And by and large, you're going to navigate the dining hall on a daily basis without any hesitation. But it's important for us to know about you so that we can better take care of you and even give you access to some additional supports in the event that you need them. So there is no ingredient that we exclude from the dining halls, but we manage them in very careful and different ways. So for example, we're not we're not peanut free, so that's another reason to register so that we know who you are and what level of support you will need. Awesome. Thanks for that, Crista. We are getting so many questions about dining in the chat, so let's do some rapid fire questions. So are there halal options at Annenberg and at the other dining halls? There are halal options. Annenberg has a dedicated halal entree every day. And when I say a halal entree, I mean a certified animal protein. We also do extensive labeling to help students identify products that have pork or alcohol. So in addition to being able to have the halal protein at Annenberg, there are also a couple of stations at some of the houses. But those proteins are also available upon request at all houses. So for convenience sake, there are a few places where it's easier to breeze in and pick up those dishes and Annenberg is one of them. Awesome. Thanks for that, Crista. There's a question in the chat about, are there time periods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? And what's the roundabout estimates there? Sure. Breakfast is served every day from 7:30 to 10:30. Lunch is available from 11:30 to 2:00. And then dinner at Annenberg takes place from 4:30 to 7:30 PM. As I say, you can come in between meals and access baked goods, peanut butter and jelly, cereal, beverages, fruits, all those kinds of things. And then brain break takes place roughly from 9:00 until 11:00 PM. I did see another question in there. It is possible to take food to go as well. So for example, if you have a particularly hectic day where your first class starts at noon and runs through the end of the lunch period, and you want to come in and quickly build a to go box of your lunch just as lunch starts, you can certainly do that. We also have the ability to pick up a bag meal from our flyby location, which is located in the basement of the same building as Annenberg dining hall. So flyby is a place, where you can swing through and really quickly grab sandwich, salad, couple of snacks, a drink and take it with you. And then last but not least, you can also order a bag meal to go. With about 24 hours notice, we can build a custom sandwich for you or something like that and take it to go. You can also eat at other places. You don't have to eat at Annenberg. You can eat at the houses. We do have something we call inner house restrictions. That is, there are times when the upperclassmen and the faculty deans of the houses have asked that people outside the house not come in. That's a chance for them to have some community time. Those are all listed on our website. But by and large, people can dine around, yes. Awesome. So there's a great question in the chat about how far Annenberg is from the dorms. And I'm going to let Jared talk to, how do you as a student learn to navigate dining in Annenberg? All right, so Annenberg is not very far from any of the dorms. And in fact, it's not very far really from anything on campus. Annenberg is very-- it's very central to the campus, but it's also very central, I think, to the first year experience. And dining in Annenberg, it is a large dining hall, so it can at first seem very intimidating. But I think that's somewhat of a misconception because Annenberg is truly just one of the greatest places to meet other first years because it's a dining hall only for first years, which I think is really just a wonderful feature of Annenberg and how Harvard does their first year experience. And you can know, especially in the first couple months but even the whole first semester or year, just that you can sit down with anyone and eat with them. So even if you might enter the dining hall thinking that you don't know someone, or have someone to sit with, you can definitely leave the dining hall having sat with someone and now, you know someone. So I think that's, I guess, the best way to navigate dining in Annenberg in particular is to know that at least you will always have someone to sit with and you can always find someone to sit with. Thanks, Jared. We're going to stay on this dining question. There's a question, if students are able to use their meal plan to dine at restaurants in Harvard square. Unfortunately, they cannot. That is not a process. However, there is wonderful food all throughout the square. So if you want to give your student a special surprise, get them a gift card for sweetgreen or cava, or just send them a $20 to go and grab a meal at one of our incredible restaurants on the square, especially because you want them to know what's around so they can take you somewhere during family weekend later in the fall semester. Super important. And looking, another question, are there spaces on campus where students can do their own cooking together? So not in the yard per se. But Lauren, I'll toss it over to you. There are student kitchens in some of the larger dorms in the yard. If you look at the dorm amenity map, you can see where they're located. Students are able to prepare things like birthday cakes or bake cookies. I know a number of proctors do that as well as part of their study breaks. So there are-- and there's also a borrowing program through the first year experience office, where students can check out specific cooking utensils should they wish to do that kind of thing. So there is a way to accommodate. If you have a burning desire to make something yourself, there is a way to do that on campus as well. And the question again. Is a brain break a full meal? Anyone can make a full meal out of it. But it is more a late night snack to give them just a little bit of energy before they tackle that last p set of the night or any other program. But I might jump in and add. With your meal plan, you have an allotment of dollars called board plus. And board plus is a little bit of a declining balance account that you can use at many of the campus cafes. So for example, Lamont library cafe is open until midnight. You can use your board plus there to get a latte while you're studying or a snack or such. We have cafes in many of the professional schools. If you happen to find yourself at the Harvard Kennedy School listening to one of the forums and you want to get lunch or a slice of pizza beforehand, that's an option as well and board plus can help pay for that. So one last question for you, Crista. It is always heavy on the minds of our families. They want to experience Annenberg. They want to see it, and they want to try the food. So for families or loved ones who happen to be visiting their students, can you tell us a little bit more about that policy of bringing guests into Annenberg? Sure. Students are welcome to bring a guest into the dining hall. While we cannot do that during move-in just because of the large number of people, we are planning to welcome folks during parents weekend, or, say a sibling comes to town and they're spending the weekend, they can certainly dine in the dining hall. And then I would encourage you all to live a little bit vicariously. And that's to look at our daily menu. So everything that we're serving, breakfast, lunch, and dinner is available online on our website. And you can see what's on the menu for a given day. And there are more than 100 items at every meal. And so we also encourage students to explore and experiment a little bit with that menu. Think about mixing and matching with a salad bar as-- we do a greens and grain salad bar that lets you make your own sweet green salad, for example. Or you're craving a burger, we have burgers at the grill. We have a whole deli where you can make your deli sandwiches. So it's not always just about what the entree of the day is, sometimes it's about exploring and experimenting. And so we hope you all get to come in and do that same exploring and experimenting with your student. Thanks, Crista. We'll do one more question that feels pretty pressing for you and Lauren. And that is, how is kosher food being handled? And are there any-- what do the options look like for kosher food? Sure. We have a kosher refrigerator at Annenberg that has a bunch of everyday items in them and things like kosher bagels and cold cuts and that kind of thing. At lunch, there is kosher meals that are reheatable. And then at dinner, you can either get kosher food at Annenberg, again, that's reheatable. Or you can go to Hillel for a hot meal. There's also hot kosher lunch at Quincy house. You just have to get access to Quincy house. Awesome. Thank you so much, Crista. I'm sure we'll have more questions coming up, so hold tight. I'm certain there is more to come. But now, Andy and Jared, it's your time to shine. We'd love to talk a little bit more about student involvement on campus and what that looks like. So opening question, Andy, where can students learn about how to get involved? And what kind of opportunities are out there? Sure. So for your students to learn more about our student clubs and organizations, service organizations, and club sports, we have an online resource that we call SOCO. So the student organization center online has profiles for all of our student organizations at Harvard, ones that are independent student organizations sponsor, other sponsored by departments, others that are club sports and service oriented. And so SOCO is going to be a great resource for your students to identify organizations that they may be interested in. So our realm of student organizations runs from special interest organizations to political groups to religious organizations to general affinity organizations to pre-professional. So we run the full gamut of involvement opportunities at Harvard. And so when your students arrive on campus during their first week of classes on Friday, there will be the student organization fair. That will be in Tercentenary theater on Friday afternoon, where students will be able to sign up for clubs and organizations, meet with student leaders from these clubs and orgs, as well as get to know about the various opportunities that we have available at Harvard. It can be a little overwhelming. There are a lot of people in an outdoor space. But we do encourage students to check out SOCO, identify organizations that they're interested in, and go connect with those students during the involvement fair. We're so lucky again. Jared, why don't you share with us a little bit about how you navigated being involved your first year? How many clubs did you join? Did you find the right amount? Or was it a trial and error? It definitely is a trial and error. And I think that you could talk to every first year and they would each give you a different answer to how they navigated it and if they overcommitted or undercommitted. Personally, I was on the undercommitting side. I was a little bit worried going into college and of course, going into Harvard, so I did not commit to very many clubs. But I did still get involved in other ways through some events that were planned by other clubs, which I will get into later. And I do think that-- again, I said that I undercommitted, I would have liked to commit to more clubs, which I am have done in my second year and will continue to do. And there are so many great clubs and so many opportunities to join. So it can seem overwhelming, but it is a good idea. You can always join a club, and then if it does end up being too much for you, then you can drop out later. Or you can try around a bit in your first year. So I wish that I had explored a bit more, but I'm glad that I still have time to do so. I always say a club's favorite word is yes, that you'll join. But their second favorite word is no, I'm not going to join. So that they can focus on recruiting and helping work with others. But that goes to a great question for you, Andy. There's always questions about they hear that Harvard students are in a dozen clubs, or they're trying to join so many. But we know a little bit more about the reality. So can you talk about the average number of clubs that a student is a part of? Yeah, absolutely. So two years ago, the Office of Student Engagement ran an assessment on our student organization participation. And what we learned is that the narrative does not always meet reality. So only about 3/4 of our students, 75% of our students, are in one to three student organizations, which is a great number. We really recommend for students to find something that aligns with their academic or their professional interests and find something that they are socially interested in or is affinity-based organization, something that they're going to enjoy and have fun. And that third or fourth organization could just be something they want to try. They want to go join the outdoors club, HOC, the Harvard outdoor club, or they want to join a video game club or a tabletop game club. There are a lot of different opportunities, where students can pursue academic, professional interests, their social interests, and just something that they haven't done before, that they want to give it a shot. And so, like I said, about 3/4 of our students, the average, are in about one to three. There are outliers. So there are students who pursue way more or are in organizations, where there's a lot of overlap, which you see in our cultural organizations. Or they may be just casting a wide net to try everything at least once and then will pare down as time goes on. So realistically, the majority of our students only join a handful during their first year. And then as far as the time, commitment, varying levels of participation result in varying levels of time commitment. But the majority of our students spend less than 10 hours a week in these extracurriculars, and that's across the one to four, one to three student organizations that they may be a part of. So something that is coming up in the chat and there's always conversation about is exclusive clubs. So many of our clubs have selective processes. So Andy, can you tell us a little bit about this word comping? What does it mean? And maybe what are some realities about comping? Sure. So comping is the Harvard term for an application to join student organizations. So comping can showcase itself in a wide array of different forms. So there are application processes. There are interview processes. There are audition processes for a variety of different types of student organizations. In reality, only about 2/3 of our student organizations have comping practices. And the team in student engagement has added comp or-- yeah, I don't think they've completed it yet, but they're working on adding tags to SOCO organization profiles that will identify an organization as having a comp or not having a Comp. And so, as I said, the versions of comps are very different. They really depend on the student organization. And they can be very challenging. They can be very easy. Some can be restrictive and only take a handful of members. While others can just have an application to learn more about your student and then accept all members. So it really depends on the organizations that your student is trying to join. And you have folks in the Office of Student Engagement who are available to help students navigate comp and ask questions and work with student organizations on their process. That's right. And the other piece of advice that I would give is if your student is going through a comping process and doesn't get into an organization their first semester, that's OK. There are lots of students who are going through these processes. There are other organizations that can join. And it's a really great opportunity to ask some clarifying questions about maybe why they weren't selected this year and work on those areas and then come back in the spring semester or the next fall. So incredible question in the chat, thinking, Jared, about your own adjustment, your first year. So what advice would you give first year. Jared with all this hindsight? This is a great question. And unfortunately, I'm not sure if in this moment, I can come up with just the best answer. But I, of course, have what is true at this moment and at the forefront of my mind. And part of the reason that it's I think that it's such a difficult question to answer is that in many ways, many aspects of the first year experience are very big adjustments. But at the same time, because you're thrown right into it, you adjust very quickly. And I think it comes very naturally almost. So in a lot of ways, some of the biggest adjustments, for me personally, were living alone, which is something that I had never experienced before. And by living alone, I did have roommates, but I mean living away from my family. And also being fully in charge of my own schedule, that was another big adjustment. But at the same time, as I said, I feel that it comes very naturally. Just because so much is changing at one time, you can't help but get used to it very quickly and then it becomes natural. And some advice that I would give to myself. I think the one piece that I would give to myself is to have a bit more confidence in myself. Because, again, it's all new. It's very easy to be worried about the future or worried how things will work out. But I think some good advice is to just trust yourself to know that you have gotten this far and that you can continue to go further. So I think that is what I would tell first year Jared. Thanks, Jared. I'm glad we have this year's Jared. A couple more questions that are really easy to answer in the chat. Does Harvard have sororities? No, we do not. We have lots of cultural organizations and opportunities for people of different genders to connect with each other on a professional and social level but no formalized sororities. There's also a question of, can we give an example of a highly competitive comp? A really good example of comping is better understanding the organization. And there's a couple of organizations that have incredible comping processes, where students learn skills. A good example is our student media, where students get to participate in really outstanding professional development, where they learn how to write headlines and write news stories and do interviews, where they're really gaining these important skills that will help them thrive in the organization. So those are things of what a great comping process can be. There is a follow-up question, I think, that I want to throw out to the panel. How can parents help with students adjusting to life on campus? Lauren, you look so excited to-- Yeah, I'm very excited about this question. I think it's a learning curve for both students and I think for families and loved ones, who are seeing their child and their student enter our community and start learning new things about themselves. And I think one of the greatest things families and loved ones and parents can do is just listen and help be a supportive presence in their student's life. We very much want to be partners with the families of our students. And as they experience this, we hope that the information that Lily and Jason's team provides gives you some sense of what they're experiencing so that you can know what they might be experiencing here on campus. And if they have questions, or if they have thoughts and ideas that they want to explore, that you are a good sounding board for them. We always welcome the chance to engage with family members with questions. There's a lot of information on our website. And we hope that what we're providing is helpful for you, as you anticipate what this year will look like. And also, we deeply value the trust that you place in us and sending your loved ones here. And it is one of the most exciting parts of our jobs to work with them, as they experience this year for the first time. I want to jump in. From a dining standpoint, one of the things that I would say is encourage your student to talk with the people who are here to support them. So often, we have folks come to us wanting to advocate for their students' dining needs. I would really invite you to ask your student to talk with the managers who are there with them. There's so much we are able to do for them in a direct way if we only know about what their needs are. So help us make that connection as well. And if I can add anything, learn to ask really open-ended questions. Be curious about your students' experience. Don't ask them yes or no questions. My mother implemented what she called sonday, S, O, N, D, A, Y, where she would call her son every Sunday and would ask me really great questions that weren't simple yes or no because she knew I was just going to be like yes, no, and try to hang up. But when you learn to ask those really open-ended questions, you can get some great dialogue with your student, where you can better understand their needs. Are they venting? Is there an actual problem to be solved? And how do you empower your student to do that? So there's a couple more questions in the chat that I'm excited to toss back over to Jared. So roommate experiences, Jared, so talk a little bit about getting assigned a random roommate. And how do you navigate all of that? Of course. So I was assigned two roommates. I didn't tell you this, I was in Matthews, which is in elm yard and so the room that I had, had three people. So I was assigned two roommates. And I found out in the summer. And we immediately started talking with each other. We were given each other's emails, so we reached out. And then from there, we started a group chat and kept a little in contact over the summer. But as soon as we got to campus, we realized that we were going to be very, very good friends. And I am incredibly thankful that I was introduced to them as my roommates. And I felt that I had a built-in friend group immediately with them. We are still roommates. We plan to be roommates throughout all of college. And I think that the questionnaire did-- for me, it did a wonderful job matching us. We're very similar in many ways. And we're also different enough that it's still always interesting to hang out with my roommates. And I don't think that is particularly uncommon. I think, in general, the roommate matching form does a very good job. A lot of roommates are still friends with their roommates. Some of my other current roommates were themselves roommates. However, it's not universal. Sometimes, disagreements do come up between roommates. And when that happens, the first step that I would take is to reach out to a peer advising fellow, or to reach out to a proctor. And which one you reach out to probably depends on the type of issue that you're facing. If it's smaller, maybe, and you're just not sure how to go about it and you want some advice from a peer, who might have gone through something similar, then you might want to reach out to a peer advising fellow with a question about maybe how to proceed. But if the issue persists and someone more in charge needs to get involved, then that's when you should reach out to your proctor and they can help with any disagreements that you might have. And when you get to campus, you will all sign a roommate agreement, which is things you have agreed upon, and if an issue arises, you've written down how you should go about that. And that is very useful if a disagreement does arise because you can look back on that with your proctor or amongst yourselves to see how you said that you would go about it and then what you should do moving forward. Awesome. Thanks, Jared. We'll do one more question in the chat and then we're going to move to our final question because we are coming close to the end of our time together. The question in the chat is, what happens if there's an uptick in COVID? The health and safety and security of your students is one of our greatest responsibilities. It is something that we take very, very seriously. And we are in close communication with the Harvard University health services to help monitor that. And we make the decisions to do what we need to do to create a safe and healthy campus. That is something that is always front of our mind. And please know that at a future webinar, we'll have staff from health services and our counseling and mental services to come and talk to you a little bit more about what that looks and feels like on a day-to-day. But I'm going to close it out with maybe our favorite question that we do at all of these webinars. So to our panelists, so Jared, Lauren, Andy, Crista, Lily, what is one piece of advice that you want to give to our families as they begin their Harvard journey? So I'm going to start with Lauren. I love this question. I would say, just treasure every moment. It is such a unique time. It is so special. It is something that I don't think you appreciate when you're going through it. And to Jared's point, maybe thinking about your transition over four years here, I think it can be really exciting, busy, and overwhelming at times. And it's always important just to maybe take a moment and breathe with your student and with yourself. There are lots of people here, who want to help, who want to support you no matter what you're experiencing. And at the end of the day, you live through your first year here and you look back with fondness and the experience of living in the yard and in the dorm. I still walk by Wigglesworth and look at it and remember what it was like to move in with my three roommates, who I still love keeping in touch with and hearing all about what they're doing now. And so it's just such a special time and I treasure every moment because it goes by so quickly. That would be my advice. Thanks, Lauren. Andy, you're up. Yeah, I have a-- I know you said one, but I have two. So the first one is having your students connect with us. We work at Harvard because we want to work with students. We have years of experience in supporting students from all over the world and of all different identities. And we are here to make your students experience the best one it can be. And from a family's perspective-- for families, just keep reminding your students that this is part of their journey. This isn't the end of the road. And I think this is really their time to learn about themselves, learn about how resilient they are, how tough they are, and the challenges that they can overcome. And so just keep reminding students that this is just part of their path and part of their story. Thanks, Andy. Crista, you're up. Sure. I'd say try new things. Try new foods. Try new museums. Try riding the T. Try talking to someone that maybe you wouldn't have talked to. Just try new things because there's an enormous opportunity around you. Thanks, Crista. Jared, your turn. All right, my advice to parents is pretty similar to the advice that I would give students, and that is to trust your students. Of course, they need your support. They need you to be there for them when they need you. But also understand that they have gotten this far. It's an incredible accomplishment to be this far. And you can trust them. And I hope that, that helps alleviate some of the stress that I know comes for both students and parents during this move-in period. Amazing. Thanks, Jared. Lilly, your turn. Yeah, thank you. So I think my sentiments really echo Jared's. I want to congratulate the parents. I think you've been alongside your student for the entirety of their lives, but then also the last four years of high school and now leading up to this amazing moment in time. And so I really want to congratulate and thank you for all of your hard work and your support and getting your students to where they are today. It is the role of my team to support you. And so if there is anything at all that you possibly need, we want to be here alongside your journey, just as we are here for your student as well. So just want to give that piece of encouragement. And also, too, the advice that I would give is spend as much time as you possibly can with your student over the next 30 days because soon, they will be here on campus with us. And we are so excited to be in their presence. And so I know that it is sometimes bittersweet for parents and for students. So I would just say spend as much time as you possibly can with them. But again, thank you so much for all of your support for your student. And my final little piece of advice is to give yourself grace. It's a whole lot of pressure. And certainly, there will be anxiety about move-in day, about how you're getting everything out of your vehicle into a new dorm room. What does that mean? Where to go? Traffic can be stressful. All of that, it's OK. It's part of the process. And really, as Lily said, celebrate every moment. Be kind to yourself. Be patient to yourself. At some point, your student will do things that I did, like dyed my hair blue, or I came home with a nose piercing. And it's all part of the journey. And so everyone's figuring it out. And we're so happy to help support you, as well as your student through all of this. That said, I'm going to toss this over to Lily and we'll start to really wrap things up. Awesome. Thank you. So with one minute that we have left, I want to thank all of our panelists and all of your words of wisdom and for being here with us tonight. I also want to thank all of the parents and families who joined us tonight. And I hope folks learned a little something new. If you have any questions about any of the different offices that we talked about, please feel free to reach out to us. I know that we are coming up with a comprehensive list of all of the questions that we reviewed. And all of the links, we will make sure that we share that out with everyone. But if there are any questions that maybe we didn't get the chance to talk through, or maybe there's information that may or may not be covered in any of the remaining webinars that we have, please feel free to email us at parents@fas.harvard.edu, and we'll be happy to connect with you there. That's right. We really do look forward to welcoming you and your students at move-in. If you see any of us, please, please, please, come say hi. Always here for a fist bump or a high five. Hopefully, we'll have also the chance to connect with you at family weekend, which is October 24 through the 27. I just dropped the link in the chat. The registration will be sent out in a few weeks, a little closer to the event. But you may want to look right now at information on hotels, parking, accommodations, and more information. It's been really wonderful to connect with you again. We hope that you join us for our other webinars that are coming up. We have our health and wellness webinar on Monday, July 22 at 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time and academic webinar on July 23, also 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. And then finally, we'll have our webinar on move-in and orientation on July 29 at 6:00 PM Eastern. And we look forward to seeing you then. Thanks, everyone.