Home / Student Life / Community

Student Life

Explore the Harvard Chan School student experience and learn about life in Boston, career paths, and opportunities to connect with the Harvard Chan community

Student Gateway

Community

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is a remarkable place — because of its remarkable people.

Our students, faculty, and staff come from around the world, bringing a rich diversity of backgrounds, experiences, identities, and perspectives. Together, we aim to build a world where everyone can thrive.

And that starts with our own community.

It isn’t always perfect. But we strive to treat one another with respect, kindness, and integrity — to build a pluralistic community where everyone feels at home.

One of my most important goals as Dean is to nurture a culture of belonging at Harvard Chan School. That means embracing diversity in all its forms, including diversity of viewpoints. It means not just accepting, but actively seeking to learn from, people with different perspectives and life experiences.
Andrea Baccarelli, Dean of the Faculty

The power of mentorship

In any new community, it can take a bit of time to find the right mentors. When you do, it makes all the difference.

At Harvard Chan School, we’re expanding training for mentors to ensure that every student finds someone who will support them, challenge them, and open doors for them

Coming together in community

Student activities abound throughout the year: Bowling night, a talent show, a meditative painting workshop, an afternoon tie-dying shirts in the spring sunshine.

Academic departments and concentrations host regular events as well: Coffee hours and pizza parties, movie screenings, journal clubs, pie baking contests, research talks, and more.

Then there are the school-wide initiatives, which draw hundreds of students, faculty, staff, researchers, postdocs, and alumni.

On our annual Community Day of Service, choose from more than a dozen service projects at Harvard Chan School and across Boston, from weeding local parks to serving food at homeless shelters to packing school supplies into backpacks for new arrivals to the United States.

Another community-building initiative, The Big Read, invites all Harvard Chan School affiliates to read the same public health book, selected by popular vote. Discussion groups bring together people from many backgrounds to share their perspectives on the reading.

Our institution is not the bricks and mortar, it’s the relationships, and the relationships are what sets the culture. Effective mentoring is something we should all expect—just part of what we do for one another as a community
Erin Driver-Linn, Dean for Education