Seniors Present at Final HarvardSpeaks Event

In pithy TED Talks fashion, four seniors shared anecdotes about Nicaraguan funerals, failed start-ups, and the behind-the-scenes workings of the Undergraduate Council Wednesday night at the final Harvard Undergraduates Speak event of the semester.

“These are voices that the underclassmen won’t get to hear again,” said Meredith C. Baker ’13, co-president of HarvardSpeaks and an inactive Crimson editorial editor.

In his speech, former UC president Danny P. Bicknell ’13 called Harvard a “decentralized, bureaucratic institution.” But Bicknell’s critique was balanced with an encouragement to students to constructively address concerns by attending focus groups with administrators and reaching out to UC representatives.

“It’s just frustrating when students missed an opportunity to get involved when they could have sent an email or filled out a poll,” he told The Crimson after his remarks.

Speakers also shared stories about their academic experiences both on- and off-campus.

Tyler E. Logigian ’13 told the audience about how he stumbled upon his thesis topic of HIV and AIDS in South Africa through a series of seemingly unrelated experiences, including a “Nicaraguan funeral... a brilliant Turkish postdoctoral fellow taking a cigarette break outside Robinson Hall... and coffee with a world-renowned South African anthropologist.”

B. Marjorie Gullick ’13, a Crimson sports editor, discussed her work on maternal healthcare and child nutrition in Africa. “I want this to be a story about the empowerment of two groups of people that deserve to recognize their fundamental right to health,” she said.

Nancy Y. Xie ’13 took a different angle, tackling a topic she said Harvard students may not be too familiar with.

“I decided that it may be more interesting for you for me to talk about something that may be a more lesser-known phenomenon at Harvard College: failure,” she said. Citing lost extracurricular elections and unsuccessful attempts at the recruiting process and a start-up, Xie said that failures at Harvard have taught her the value of humility.

Underclassmen in the audience used the talks as an opportunity for reflection as well. “Me being a junior now, I can kind of see that I’m going to be in their shoes next year, and I want to make the most of it,” said Dong Ik Lee ’14.

HarvardSpeaks hopes to help students practice their public speaking skills and build a community where speakers feel comfortable sharing novel ideas. Speeches are posted online to reach a wider audience—one video from a talk in February has already garnered more than 56,000 views.

“You’re not just speaking so people come and listen to you, it’s not self-congratulatory,” said outgoing co-president Eliza L. Malkin ’13, who plans to stay involved with the group after graduating. “It’s speaking for a reason, it’s speaking to bond and expand as a community.”