Students

Across the University, Harvard students, scholars, and faculty turn ideas into ventures that solve problems and create value.

Funded through the President’s Building Bridges Fund, four Harvard student groups launched projects this spring to engage fellow students in meaningful conversations on challenging topics and create frameworks for productive discussions.

A firefighter-paramedic before coming to Harvard Kennedy School, Rupen Dajee MPA '25 started a technology venture that develops tools to help solve some of the challenges facing wildland firefighting, emergency services, and disaster management.

With support from Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, graduate student teachers make classrooms a place for open inquiry and constructive dialogue.

Ultan McCaffrey MPH ’25 has been able to combine his interest in space medicine with his work in geriatric psychiatry in Harvard Chan School’s MPH-GEN program.

Protecting mothers during childbirth, reimagining how hydrogen can be transported safely and affordably, improving financial outcomes for livestock farmers. These are just a few of the extraordinary winning ventures of the 2025 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge.

Harvard Graduate School of Design master of landscape architecture students are exploring two innovative modeling approaches: a framework for understanding spatial impacts of climate strategies over time, and a modern sand table that supports real-time simulations.

Harvard College students share how financial aid has allowed them to explore opportunities and make an impact in fields ranging from medicine to government to education.

Harvard College senior Shira Hoffer '25 founded a nonprofit that offers resources to help educational institutions foster civil discourse and constructive disagreement.

Harvard PhD student Lucrecia Aguilar is studying how biodiversity loss affects lion-human interactions, aiming to reduce conflict and ensure the survival of both big cats and community livelihoods.