Urban Roots

The scene outside of sophomore Boris Khentov's Lower East Side apartment building last week was picture perfect. During one of the first sunny spring afternoons New York has seen this year, a group of Orthodox Jewish girls were engrossed in a game of whiffle ball with a group of African American playmates.

Austin and other city dwellers agree that the biggest bonus to inner-city living is the incredible diversity of people who live next door, sell you your newspaper or, as Khentov delights, are always ready to join your game of whiffle ball.

"It's kind of corny," says Khentov proudly, "but my neighborhood is unique...There is total harmony, from Puerto Ricans to an expanding China town, as well as Orthodox Jews, African Americans."

In Khentov's neighborhood one routinely hears at least 10 different languages, and the casual passer-by will smell an array of ethnic foods including tacos, five varieties of noodles and maybe even a little gefilte fish. For Khentov, even the long return trip to Cambridge could not erase thoughts of such casual beauty, of his racially and ethnically diverse neighborhood.

"Where are you from?"

Responding to one of the first question in the string of interrogations proffered by eager pre-frosh this weekend, students will reply with a variety of inaccurate responses. As Bloomfield Hills, Santa Monica and Newton pass as Detroit, Los Angeles and Boston, next year's Yard community will remain comfortably metropolitan.

Come fall, however, Harvard's claims of geographic diversity will soon evaporate. Those students who call safe city townhouses, a string of similar picket-fenced suburban tracts or the occasional rural town home begin to identify with each other, and the few from inner-city areas struggle to find space for their experiences in the halls of Ivy.

Director of Undergraduate Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis '70-'73 declined to speculate on the number of inner-city students at the College since it is "not a way in which [the Admissions Office has] counted or categorized students." However, Lewis says that Harvard does actively seek inner-city students who have overcome geographic and economic obstacles to academic achievement.

"We look for students who have done well in their environment," Lewis says.

All told, Harvard students from inner-city areas are fewer than may appear from casual conversations about hometown high schools and pre-frosh hang-outs. Yet, undergrads from urban environments have an undeniably different story to tell than those from the burbs.

Often, the reaction students from low-income urban areas find themselves expressing to life in the Yard is strongly shaped by unique neighborhood experiences. And their decisions of what life to pursue after they leave the Yard--from careers in I-banking to social services--may have similarly home-grown influences.

A Whole New World

The kids at Sound View are undisturbed by the steady roar of the six-lane interstate highway across the street. They keep themselves out of trouble with sports--football in the colder weather, baseball when it's warm and basketball, well, basically all of the time.

Of course, certain unique city games are also invented, various forms of tag and follow the leader, played in asphalt parking lots and alleys throughout the neighborhood. As Quincy R. Evans '00, a veteran of such childhood frolicking, recollects, everyone on his block has always understood how to have a good time.

"People always have something funny to say," Evans says. Striding through patches of fresh cut turf in the Yard, it is the smells of the city that Evans recalls--the cars, people, food, even the pollution.

Like Khentov, Evans is unabashedly proud of his neighborhood, Sound View, a low-income community in the heart of the Bronx. Yet he is realistic about the tidal pull of crime that moves with a constant ebb and flow through the close-knit series of apartments surrounding his own.

"There were negative influences close enough for me to get drawn in," Evans says. "People get caught up in drugs, start hanging out in the wrong type of crowd."

Through Prep-For-Prep--a program which helps inner-city minorities prepare for preparatory high schools and college--Evans left Sound View to attend Phillips Andover Academy. Through will-power and a knack for resisting neighborhood temptations, Evans was able to embrace what he calls "positive living."

In the early '70s, his parents moved to Sound View to escape the more "densely populated" Harlem. Evans says he now feels a tremendous sense of loyalty to Sound View, what he calls his "home sweet home," to childhood friends and early basketball teammates. They were the kids on the block who played "manhunt" and "hot peas and butter" with him, some of whom later became his buddies, taking teenage trips to movies and clubs throughoutthe city.

For Evans, attending Harvard is both a personaland a collective achievement. He makes no bonesabout the fact that in South View his friends andneighbors had faith that Evans, of all people,would be the one to succeed.

"People knew I was smart," says Evansgratefully, "but they never thought of Harvard asa place where somebody from my neighborhood wouldgo."

Evans' urban pride is not unique. Will F.Austin '00, whose home is the working classneighborhood of Dorchester plans on raising hisown family in the same Boston neighborhood wherehis father played street hockey and pick-upbasketball in a nearby park. Outside his door, afew pubs, Dunkin' Donuts, a hardware store, apizza joint and the St. George's Catholic Churchwere the center of Austin's urban landscape.

Although Dorchester and memories of playingball to the drone of the Mattapan trolley are onlya T-ride away from Harvard, according to Austinthe two locales are worlds apart. At Hahvahd, ashe properly pronounces it, people automaticallylabel him as a Boston city boy.

In contrast to his city streets, the greengrass of Austin's Dunster House seems like asummer home. Austin says he nearly choked when,during his first year at Harvard, a proctor warnedhis new entryway to be careful of CambridgeCommons at night.

"Heaven forbid someone should ask you forchange," Austin says. From his perspective,Cambridge is one of the safest places in the cityand he is still surprised that people here are so"uptight" about security.

Keep Your Head Up

Although her native Hyde Park was only a fewblocks from the most dangerous projects inChicago, Danielle E. Sherrod '98-'99 claims thatshe felt a "false sense of security" due to streetsmarts she still finds useful in her newsemi-urban home.

For those to whom Harvard is the big city, sheoffers key words of advice: "Just be polite to thepanhandlers...they will understand if you cannotgive."

Feeling comfortably safe to move aroundCambridge with ease takes time, but inner-citystudents can skip the learning curve. When askedabout his home, a working-class neighborhood whereIrish Catholic families live alongside Vietnamese,African American, Haitian and Cape Verdean ones,Austin's reply resounds with the sarcasm ofstreet-savvy, "Have you ever seen the eveningnews?"

Crime, racially motivated violence andconfrontations are common aspects of what Austincalls "the darker side of Dorchester," only fiveminutes from the heart of Mattapan/Ashmont, one ofthe most traveled sections of Boston. The projectscan be seen from Austin's window.

Austin's amazement at the sheltered life manyundergrads lead before arriving in the Square isnot unusual. In fact, other inner-city nativesdescribe similar reactions. Khentov admits thatunconsciously upon arriving at "peaceful andquiet" Harvard, he automatically had a common bondwith other inner-city natives like Austin, who hassince become a close friend.

"The crime wasn't that bad--I mean I grew upokay," he says of the Lower East side with toughNYC bravado, but it is evident that theneighborhood--the people, the streets, the noiseand the danger--are in his blood.

Sherrod, a "city person through and through,"argues that students from similar neighborhoodshare a particular edge. She says she sufferedmild culture shock during her first year at theCollege when she arrived in the Yard to find herroommates were three suburbanites. As anupperclass student, she transferred from Dunsterto Adams House for the sole purpose of beingcloser to the "action" of Mass Ave.

Where Are You Going?

When Khentov's family emigrated to the U.S.from Russia 11 years ago, they moved to the LowerEast side of Manhattan to live with hisgrandparents. Although Khentov attended the laudedStuyvesant High School across town, he still hasfond memories of just hanging out at home, beingable to safely go places whenever he wanted to.

"We might not have a backyard but we can walkout and go somewhere," says Khentov, who thinkscity kids have more of "a life in junior high andearly high school" than suburbanites who must"depend on a car and their parents to leave thehouse."

So firm is Khentov's belief in hisneighborhood, he has already decided to returnthere post-graduation. Although marriage andfamily still seem distant possibilities, Khentovalso says he is pretty sure he'll be calling theLower East side home for a long time to come.

Like Khentov, Evans says where he comes fromhas strongly influenced his long-term goals. ButEvans also says South View actively drove hischoice of concentration--economics.

"I want to work on Wall Street, do investmentbanking," Evans says, qualifying what seems like asingularly absorbing career with a sociallyresponsible caveat.

"Eventually I want use these resources topursue community economic development to give backto places like my neighborhood," he says

For Evans, attending Harvard is both a personaland a collective achievement. He makes no bonesabout the fact that in South View his friends andneighbors had faith that Evans, of all people,would be the one to succeed.

"People knew I was smart," says Evansgratefully, "but they never thought of Harvard asa place where somebody from my neighborhood wouldgo."

Evans' urban pride is not unique. Will F.Austin '00, whose home is the working classneighborhood of Dorchester plans on raising hisown family in the same Boston neighborhood wherehis father played street hockey and pick-upbasketball in a nearby park. Outside his door, afew pubs, Dunkin' Donuts, a hardware store, apizza joint and the St. George's Catholic Churchwere the center of Austin's urban landscape.

Although Dorchester and memories of playingball to the drone of the Mattapan trolley are onlya T-ride away from Harvard, according to Austinthe two locales are worlds apart. At Hahvahd, ashe properly pronounces it, people automaticallylabel him as a Boston city boy.

In contrast to his city streets, the greengrass of Austin's Dunster House seems like asummer home. Austin says he nearly choked when,during his first year at Harvard, a proctor warnedhis new entryway to be careful of CambridgeCommons at night.

"Heaven forbid someone should ask you forchange," Austin says. From his perspective,Cambridge is one of the safest places in the cityand he is still surprised that people here are so"uptight" about security.

Keep Your Head Up

Although her native Hyde Park was only a fewblocks from the most dangerous projects inChicago, Danielle E. Sherrod '98-'99 claims thatshe felt a "false sense of security" due to streetsmarts she still finds useful in her newsemi-urban home.

For those to whom Harvard is the big city, sheoffers key words of advice: "Just be polite to thepanhandlers...they will understand if you cannotgive."

Feeling comfortably safe to move aroundCambridge with ease takes time, but inner-citystudents can skip the learning curve. When askedabout his home, a working-class neighborhood whereIrish Catholic families live alongside Vietnamese,African American, Haitian and Cape Verdean ones,Austin's reply resounds with the sarcasm ofstreet-savvy, "Have you ever seen the eveningnews?"

Crime, racially motivated violence andconfrontations are common aspects of what Austincalls "the darker side of Dorchester," only fiveminutes from the heart of Mattapan/Ashmont, one ofthe most traveled sections of Boston. The projectscan be seen from Austin's window.

Austin's amazement at the sheltered life manyundergrads lead before arriving in the Square isnot unusual. In fact, other inner-city nativesdescribe similar reactions. Khentov admits thatunconsciously upon arriving at "peaceful andquiet" Harvard, he automatically had a common bondwith other inner-city natives like Austin, who hassince become a close friend.

"The crime wasn't that bad--I mean I grew upokay," he says of the Lower East side with toughNYC bravado, but it is evident that theneighborhood--the people, the streets, the noiseand the danger--are in his blood.

Sherrod, a "city person through and through,"argues that students from similar neighborhoodshare a particular edge. She says she sufferedmild culture shock during her first year at theCollege when she arrived in the Yard to find herroommates were three suburbanites. As anupperclass student, she transferred from Dunsterto Adams House for the sole purpose of beingcloser to the "action" of Mass Ave.

Where Are You Going?

When Khentov's family emigrated to the U.S.from Russia 11 years ago, they moved to the LowerEast side of Manhattan to live with hisgrandparents. Although Khentov attended the laudedStuyvesant High School across town, he still hasfond memories of just hanging out at home, beingable to safely go places whenever he wanted to.

"We might not have a backyard but we can walkout and go somewhere," says Khentov, who thinkscity kids have more of "a life in junior high andearly high school" than suburbanites who must"depend on a car and their parents to leave thehouse."

So firm is Khentov's belief in hisneighborhood, he has already decided to returnthere post-graduation. Although marriage andfamily still seem distant possibilities, Khentovalso says he is pretty sure he'll be calling theLower East side home for a long time to come.

Like Khentov, Evans says where he comes fromhas strongly influenced his long-term goals. ButEvans also says South View actively drove hischoice of concentration--economics.

"I want to work on Wall Street, do investmentbanking," Evans says, qualifying what seems like asingularly absorbing career with a sociallyresponsible caveat.

"Eventually I want use these resources topursue community economic development to give backto places like my neighborhood," he says