We are excited to launch the Harvard Alumni for Education (HAEd) Shared Interest Group’s (SIG) blog. This blog will be place where we invite leaders to share their perspectives on innovations, challenges, and opportunities in the education space. Upcoming blog posts include a guest post written by Chike Aguh (MPA, 2013), CEO of EveryoneOn, reflections on a recent breakfast with Zipcar co-founder, Robin Chase, and an interview with Adam Seldow (EdM, 2003; EdD 2010) of Facebook on Personalized Learning.
HAEd was conceived of by a group of ten alumni in 2014 who wanted to help connect the far-reaching community of Harvard Alumni interested in, and/or working in the field of education. You can learn more about the mission and vision of HAEd here. In addition to supporting Harvard Clubs around the world, the Harvard Alumni Association supports the development of Shared Interest Groups, such as HAEd. SIGs are a great way to convene and connect Harvard Alumni from across the institution’s 12 different schools around a specific focus area.
As one of HAA’s newest SIGs, we currently have over 700 members from all 12 schools, scattered across five continents. Our activities have included organizing and co-hosting panels at incubators in Washington DC, such as one with Dean James Ryan of the Graduate School of Education; organizing happy hours for networking, such as one last month in New Haven and one earlier this month in San Francisco. Our leadership team has also collaborated with other universities’ alumni groups, such as the Stanford Alumni Community, and has launched a professional breakfast speaker series in Washington, DC. If you have ideas/suggestions for other events and/or programming that you would like to see, please take a few minutes to fill out the survey we designed to learn more about who you are and your interests.
We invite all Harvard Alumni, current students,faculty and staff of Harvard University and their respective spouses/partners to become a member of our SIG and contribute to the conversation. You can do this by joining one of our six emerging chapters in the United States (Washington DC, Cambridge/Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Austin, Detroit) or by getting involved in our international chapter in East Africa. If your city/region is not listed and you are interested in learning more about spearheading a chapter, send us an email to leadership@harvardaed.org.
On behalf of the HAEd’s leadership team, I would like to wish the best to the Class of 2016, and invite you all to continue your relationship with Harvard by becoming a member of your local Harvard Club and our SIG!
We look forward to hearing from you,
Vanessa E. Beary
HAEd Founding Member and President