Lowell House News Monday 22 September 2008 Volume 32, Issue 2 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter Format Guide: Announcements from Advising Tutors will always follow the Ask Beth column each week. Announcements regarding *Events* and Attractions will always be in the last section. Please remember to scroll down to that last section for event announcements and details if you are looking for them. If you'd like to place an announcement in the newsletter, email your 'blurb' to lohonews@fas.harvard.edu by Saturday noon to make the Monday newsletter. ----------------------------------------------------------------- CALENDAR Monday, September 22: * Last day upon which undergrads may register late for the Fall term in FAS * Last day undergrads may cancel their registration without some payment of tuition Wednesday, September 24: * Women's Center Fair, Lowell Dining Hall, 8:00-10:00pm. Thursday, September 25: * You are warmly invited to TEA, Masters' Residence, 5:00-6:00pm. Monday, September 29: * Last day upon which undergrads may drop or add a course without a fee * Last day upon which undergrads may submit a cross- registration petition without a fee Thursday, October 2: * You are warmly invited to TEA, Masters' Residence, 5:00-6:00pm. OCTOBER 6th: SOPHOMORE DINNER *********************************************************** FROM THE RESIDENT DEAN * Ryan Spoering, Allston Burr Resident Dean Room A-22, 5-2283 (lo-abrd@fas.harvard.edu) Welcome back to Lowell House, everyone! Please do not hesitate to drop by my office hours or set up an appointment if you have advising, administrative or chemistry questions. - ADD/DROP DEADLINE. In the next week, remember to take a look at your course listing on my.harvard.edu and make sure that you're enrolled correctly. The deadline to add and drop courses is OCTOBER 14, the "fifth Monday" (actually a Tuesday due to Columbus Day). Add/drop forms are available in the hallway outside the House Office. - CROSS-REGISTRATION. If you wish to cross-register for a course at either MIT or another Harvard faculty, please come by the House Office for a cross-registration form. The FAS deadline for cross-registration petitions is September 29, but many of the schools have earlier deadlines of their own. - SIMULTANEOUS ENROLLMENT. Pay close attention to your class schedule -- if you have a conflict in course times, please read the policies on simultaneous enrollment on pg. 51 of the Handbook for Students, then come and see me if you still have questions. - OFFICE HOURS THIS WEEK. I will have walk-in office hours this week M, W, F 10:00am-noon. For other times, please contact Kit in the House Office (5-2283, lowell@fas) to set up an appointment with me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ASK BETH, the HOUSE ADMINISTRATOR * Beth Terry, A-22, 5-2283 (lo-admin@fas.harvard.edu) Dear Beth, All right, I have to ask. What is with that new door in the dining hall for?? Is it a new way to take your lunch outside and enjoy these last few beautiful days before winter? Or is it just a boring old fire escape? Signed, Curious in C Dear Curious, Ah, yes. I knew it would not be long before the summer alterations and renovations were noticed! Great care was taken to design an architecturally harmonious door on the side of our dining hall, not a 'boring' old fire escape. (Fire escapes are only boring to those who have never needed to use one). It will serve as a legal second means of egress (and handicapped entrance) for our most crowded room in the House, our dining hall. But the dining hall is so large, I hear many people cry. And there are so many windows to jump out of, comes the chorus. How can it have such an issue? Despite popular belief, jumping out of windows or breaking them with chairs in a mad frenzy while your roommate staggers around with smoke inhalation and tater tots in her hair is not considered a legally defensible scenario. No doubt this all would happen if we ever needed to escape smoke or fire in a hurry (or the stench of those bi-annual grease trap cleanings), but Harvard's dining halls are supposed to be equipped with two simple and safe means of egress -- not obstacle courses. "Isn't the door behind the high table a second means of egress?" howl the architectural purists, inflamed by the pox on the Palladian perfection of our windows. Well, not quite. The stairs are not 3 feet wide and you have to claw your way through three separate doors (and a mess of loose chairs) before you get outside. Not my idea of fun in a stampede and definitely not the City's idea of a legitimate point of exit in an emergency. However, I sense the subtext of your question, Curious: is this door alarmed? Why, yes, my friend. Yes it is. So if you are ready to lead an insurrection at lunch you may want to rethink it. Perhaps a small, picketed protest at your next House Committee meeting would be the politic approach. Signed, Beth ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FROM THE FELLOWSHIPS TUTORS * Josh Goldman (jdgoldm@fas.harvard.edu) * Courtney Peterson (cmpeters@fas.harvard.edu) * Susanna Mierau (susanna_mierau@post.harvard.edu) NEW LOWELL HOUSE FELLOWSHIPS WEBSITE We've redesigned the Fellowships section of the Lowell House website, featuring an all-new list of common fellowships designed to make it easy to find fellowships that will fund whatever it is that you're hoping to do. Check it out at http://lowell.harvard.edu/fellowships FALL FELLOWSHIPS MEETING Come to the Lowell House Fall Fellowships Meeting on Sunday, September 21 at 8:00pm in the Library. We will give an overview of the kinds of fellowships available and the times of year when you need to apply. Students from ALL YEARS--especially sophomores--are encouraged to attend. DESSERT will be served. LOWELL FELLOWSHIPS MAILING LIST Want to know what fellowships are out there? Want to know about them before the deadlines appear in the newsletter? Want more information on the fellowships listed below? Subscribe to the fellowships mailing list to get notices about once every week or two of upcoming deadlines and things to think about (relevant for sophomores, juniors, and seniors). To subscribe, go to http://lists.hcs.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lowell-fellowships . OFFICE HOURS We hold office hours on Sunday evenings in the dining hall, during which we'd be happy to discuss your plans and look over your application essays. To visit us during office hours, you need to sign up at least one day in advance on the sign-up sheet next to the fellowships bulletin board, right next to the entrance to the JCR. If you have specific questions, please email us at any time. UPCOMING INFOSESSIONS - 23-24 September: Rockefeller (traveling) Fellowships, 7:30pm, location TBA - 08 October: Introduction to Fellowships, 3:00pm @ OCS Conference Room - 09 October: Truman Scholarships (panel discussion), 4:00pm @ OCS Conference Room - 14 October: Traveling Fellowships, 3:00pm @ OCS Conference Room - 15 October: Fellowships Proposal Writing Workshop, 3:00pm @ OCS Conference Room * * * UPCOMING FELLOWSHIPS * * * FOR GRADUATE STUDY ABROAD: - 23 September: Keasbey Scholarship. Funds 1-2 years of graduate study at one of four British universities. - 06 October: Mitchell Scholarship. Funds one year of graduate study at any university in Ireland or Northern Ireland. Also known to come with backstage passes to a U2 concert (seriously). - 10 October: Churchill Scholarship. Funds one year of graduate study in science/math/engineering at Cambridge University. Must have a 3.7 or higher. - 15 October: Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Funds 1-4 years of graduate study at Cambridge in any field. Must have strong academic record. Open to citizens of any country except the U.K. - 17 October: DAAD Scholarship. Funds 1 or 2 years of study in Germany. - 24 October: St Andrew's Society Scholarships. Funds one year of graduate study in Scotland. You must have at least one Scottish ancestor. - 13 November: first deadline for other Harvard-specific fellowships to the UK. FOR PURPOSEFUL TRAVEL (seniors only): - 17 October: Michael C. Rockefeller Fellowship. Funds a year of purposeful travel in a foreign country. ATTENTION ROCKEFELLER APPLICANTS: Please remember that there is a special Lowell House procedure for the House evaluation form! All the details are in an email you received (or will shortly receive) on the fellowships mailing list or from Josh directly. FOR GRADUATE STUDY AND/OR OTHER POSTGRADUATE ACTIVITIES: - 21 October: Merage Institute for the American Dream. $10,000/year for two years for study, travel, internships, etc. Must have a green card or be a naturalized citizen. - 24 October: Luce Scholarship. One-year internship in Asia (no prior experience with Asia required). - 31 October: Hertz Fellowship. Funds 5 years of graduate study in the applied physical sciences. - 01 November: Soros Fellowship. Stipend + tuition grant for graduate study of any kind (including law & medicine). Must be a naturalized citizen, have a green card, or be the children of naturalized citizens. - 03-12 November (depending on field): NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Funds 3 years of graduate study in any field of science or engineering, including economics, psychology, and history of science. - 05 November: Carnegie Fellowship. Provides a one-year fellowship at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace. FOR UNDERGRADUATES: - 08 October: HCRP grants for fall 2008. Funds research with Harvard faculty during the Fall semester. - 28 October: Goldwater Scholarship. Prize for outstanding sophomores or juniors in science/math/engineering. Also comes with funding toward your remaining undergraduate years. - 09 November: Truman Scholarship. Money for senior year of college and graduate school (and prestige). Open to juniors who plan to go into government or public service (broadly construed). FOR MORE INFORMATION: See the Lowell House fellowships website. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FROM THE PRE-LAW COMMITTEE Website: http://www.lowell.harvard.edu/advising/pre-law/index.php Pre-Law Committee (LoHoLaw@fas.harvard.edu) * Jean Han (jeanhan@fas.harvard.edu) * Sandy Alexander (sandy_alexander@post.harvard.edu) * Karl Procaccini (karlprocaccini@gmail.com) IMPORTANT: If you are applying to law school this Fall, visit the Pre-Law website and e-mail the Pre-Law Committee at LoHoLaw@fas.harvard.edu immediately. October 12, 2008 (Sun): Deadline for Personal Statement Review This is the last day to submit personal statements to the Lowell House Pre-Law Committee for review. E-mail your statement to: LoHoStatements@gmail.com . October 13-14, 2008 (Tue): Lowell House Supreme Court Trip (tentative date) We will visit the Supreme Court and hear oral arguments on the morning of October 14. We may also meet with Justice Souter and/or his law clerks. For more information, contact Sandy Alexander immediately (seats are almost completely filled up!). October 31, 2008 (Fri): Deadline to Submit Application Materials to Pre-Law Committee If you wish the Pre-Law Committee to submit a Dean's Certification Letter for your applications, you must submit your application materials to the Committee by this date. Materials include: release form; questionnaire; resume; transcript and GPA; final personal statement; letters of recommendation; and list of schools. Forms, pre-law timelines, and more detailed information can be found on the Lowell House Pre-Law website at: http://www.lowell.harvard.edu/advising/pre-law/index.php . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FROM YOUR CAREER AND PRE-BUSINESS ADVISING TUTORS * Russell Miles - Resident Tutor (rmiles@oxfamamerica.org, 3-2990) * Christopher Laconi - Non-Resident Tutor (claconi@mba2009.hbs.edu) Thinking about what you will do after Harvard? It's never too early or too late to start!! As a Harvard graduate, the world truly is your oyster and there are so many options. Working in the private, government or NGO sector, further study, travel abroad!? Sadly, over 70 percent of the recruiters that come to Harvard are in Investment Banking or Consulting, so there is not a lot of diversity. However, this is great if this is the area in which you want to work and there are many resources easily available to you. The best place for resources and information is the Office of Career Services http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students.htm. The website is fabulous with a lot of great information. The OCS office is just around the corner from Lowell House at 54 Dunster Street and there are many people there who are available to help with all of your specific needs. OCS also has a very full program of events throughout the year - from career fairs to resume clinics, interview workshops and meet-the-recruiter nights. Check out the website regularly for the latest event calendar. But consulting and banking is not necessarily the career for everyone and the General Career Adviser is here to help you think through that decision and work out what you really want out of life and your career! There are so many interesting and valuable options available to you which are worth exploring. The Lowell Resident General Career Advising Tutor is Russell Miles. He can be contacted on rmiles@oxfamamerica.org or call 617-493-2990 to make an appointment. Or you can find in him J-11. Drop in times are: Weekdays 6:00pm - 10:00pm and Weekends 10:00am - 10:00pm. Christopher Laconi is a Non-Resident Tutor from the Harvard Business School and he can specifically help on Pre-Business discussions and exploring careers in banking and consulting. He may be reached at claconi@mba2009.hbs.edu or call 207-344-8923 for appointments. In addition to helping you think through your career decisions, Chris and Russell can also help get you on the path to further resources and can also help you finalize your resume and prepare for interviews. Russell is creating an e-mail list in order to send out messages about key dates and events. Please contact him if you are interested to have your name on this mailing list - rmiles@oxfamamerica.org EVENTS *** 2008 Harvard University OCS Career Forum *** Friday, September 26, 10:00am-4:00pm Gordon Track and Tennis Center STUDENTS: YOU MUST HAVE YOUR HARVARD ID WITH YOU TO ATTEND THE FORUM What is the Career Forum? - A recruiting event featuring representatives from over 125 prominent organizations across 20 different industries - An opportunity to learn about career/job opportunities and training programs - An occasion to meet recent grads, begin networking, and speak first hand with representatives about opportunities in their organization and what it's really like to work there! - A chance to speak with OCS staff. As a student, you do not have to sign up or register for the Career Forum; simply come to the Gordon Track & Tennis Center anytime between 10:00am-4:00pm on Friday, September 26th. The morning tends to be slower than the afternoon and so is the most opportune time to have one-on-one conversations with representatives. Shuttle Bus Service Dedicated Career Forum shuttles will be making continuous loops from Currier House, Boylston Gate, 54 Dunster St, and the Gordon Track and Tennis Center. *** How to Find Business Jobs in the Fashion Industry *** Thursday, September 25, 4:00 - 5:00pm. Refreshments to follow OCS Conference Room Hear from current and former fashion industry professionals how you can put your business and management skills to work there. Please RSVP by emailing ocsrsvp@fas.harvard.edu with the name of the event in the subject line. *** How to Find Business Jobs in Entertainment Management *** Wednesday, September 24, 5:00-6:00pm OCS Conference Room Hear from current and former Entertainment industry professionals how you can put your business and management skills to work there. Please RSVP by emailing ocsrsvp@fas.harvard.edu with the name of the event in the subject line. *** The Harvard College Entrepreneurship Forum *** Sunday September 21, 1:30pm Ticknor Lounge, Boylston Hall Our mission is to foster the Entrepreneurial Community at Harvard HCEF aims to: - Inspire potential entrepreneurs with interesting speaker events and exposure to how entrepreneurship works - Connect Harvard Entrepreneurs with the greater entrepreneurship community through networking events and a dinner series - Support Harvard Entrepreneurs with workshops about entrepreneurship law, funding from the $80,000 Innovation Challenge http://i3.fas.harvard.edu and opportunities for advice from industry experts Come to the HCEF Info Session + Idea Generation Competition to find out: -What HCEF does -How to get involved -What we have planned for this year Attendees will: -Brainstorm solutions to a presented problem statement Winning ideas will receive crazy awesome prizes! To be guaranteed a spot, please RSVP to ruoguli@fas.harvard.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FROM YOUR RESIDENT INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT / RELATIONS ADVISER * Russell Miles (rmiles@oxfamamerica.org, 3-2990) Interested in international relations, international aid and development? Want to discuss international issues raised in class? Need help thinking about research paper topics? Want to meet and talk with people working in the development or humanitarian sector? Interested in an international career ñ public service, government or private sector, or simply wanting to travel to other regions of the world? E-mail me or come and talk with me about all these questions. If you would like to make an appointment to talk for a longer period, I am available for meetings on Saturday afternoons from 2.00pm-5.00pm. We will meet in the SCR. I am creating an e-mail list in order to send out messages about key dates and events related to international development and international relations. Please contact me if you are interested to have your name on this mailing list - rmiles@oxfamamerica.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS HARVARD LAW REVIEW JOB The Harvard Law Review Association is seeking an undergraduate student to work 5-12 hours per week as an office assistant. The hours can vary from week to week depending on the volume of work. The main focus of the job involves shipping The Bluebook. Various other tasks will occasionally be needed. We are looking for a student that is reliable and who can work independently without a lot of supervision. The job pays $10/hour, with flexibility in the schedule. Interested students should direct questions and send resumes to Denis O’Brien, dobrien@law.harvard.edu.