The Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, launched in 2004 and groundbreaking in higher education, encourages students who might not consider Harvard—because they think they can’t afford it—to apply and attend. In 2014, the initiative was bolstered by a historic gift from Ken Griffin ’89, which will create 200 new endowed scholarships and has established a leadership challenge fund to create 600 more.
Scholarships not only change the lives of students and their families, they enrich the Harvard community with a tapestry of diverse backgrounds and outlooks. “Financial aid,” Dean Smith reflects, “is one of the defining qualities that make this place so exciting.” It is this diversity of experiences and perspectives that plays a crucial role in the education of College students—they learn from each other in ways that open minds and help them discover who they want to be.
Attending Harvard provided these spectacular opportunities for Peter Boyce II ’13, a self-described computer geek who grew up in a tiny New York City apartment without a desk or Internet connection. Financial aid enabled him to attend, where he met like-minded peers to co-found Hack Harvard, a student group that promotes technology entrepreneurship. Caitria O’Neill ’11 translated her experience at Harvard into building a disaster-relief organization she co-founded after a tornado ravaged her hometown of Monson, Massachusetts.
And there’s August Dao ’15, a chemistry concentrator who resides in Adams House. Born in Vietnam, Dao immigrated to the U.S. with his family and grew up in Portland, Oregon. Thanks to financial aid, Dao enrolled and has thrived at Harvard, co-leading the Southeast Asian Coalition, singing a cappella, spending a summer studying in Sicily, and helping patients in Boston tap resources to stay healthy. As a coordinator and hometown recruiter with the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, he conveys to prospective students, “I was you at one point. You just really have to be open to the amazing possibilities Harvard presents.”
Related:
Harvard’s Houses: Transformational Learning and Living Communities
Harvard College: A Place of Discovery and Possibility
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Connecting People, Transforming Lives
As seen in HARVARD MAGAZINE
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