The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning’s Professional Communication Program for International Teachers and Scholars provides training and resources on English speaking, intercultural communication, and teaching skills. Culture and Communication Consultants (CCCs) are Harvard undergraduates who work with international PhD students in our classes to help students build confidence in their speaking skills and to offer an undergraduate perspective on issues related to teaching and academic life at Harvard.
A key goal we have for our programs is to build community across languages and cultures and to help undergraduates and graduate students learn from one another. The house system is a frequent topic of interest, as it influences all aspects of the Harvard experience for undergraduates and is completely unique to Harvard.
This March, CCCs Ana Breznik and Esperanza Lee offered a 2-hour tour of both Currier and Kirkland Houses to a group of interested graduate students. Ana, a senior, and Esperanza, a junior, shared this summary of their experience giving the tour, insider information about the houses, and details they think that other graduate students would find interesting about undergraduate life. The upper year houses are split into two locations: the Quad Houses, located on Garden Street near the Astronomy Department; and the River Houses located along the Charles River. Ana took the lead on the Quad part of the tour and Esperanza took the lead for the River Houses.
Ana Breznik, Culture and Communication Consultant
Ana shared this summary of the tour:
Our group met in front of Currier House, one of the three undergraduate houses located in the Radcliffe Quadrangle (known as the Quad), the former location of Radcliffe College. Historically, the Quad was the living quarters for women, and Currier House proudly bears witness to that by being the only house named after a woman.
Built in 1970, Currier House is the newest undergraduate house, and the first house at Harvard to become co-ed. Today, Currier House is regarded (by its residents) as the house with the strongest community, the best dining hall, and a deep appreciation for student diversity. Some of its most famous residents include Bill Gates; the cellist, Yo-Yo Ma; JFK’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy; and astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Students in Currier get to enjoy many house traditions, such as: Currioke, a fun karaoke evening; Heaven and Hell, the biggest Halloween party on campus, which features Halloween treats, a Heaven-themed photo booth, and a Hell-themed dance floor with music by student DJs; special dinner offerings alongside a lavish annual dinner in honor of Audrey Bruce Currier; and now for the second year in a row, bragging rights by having the best housing day video!
Participants on the tour loved learning about the many amenities that residents have like the dance studio, the gym, the meditation room, and the arts and crafts room. They enjoyed learning about the ways the community comes together within Harvard housing to offer not just an academic but also a social experience.
Ana Breznik and others dormstorming for Currier House on Housing Day 2024
During our tour, Esperanza and I also told participants about Housing Day, which is one of the most fun and cherished traditions at Harvard. First-year students spend their first year living in the Harvard Yard (the oldest, most touristy part of Harvard), where they are randomly assigned to dorms. During their second semester, first-year students may choose up to eight people, known as a blocking group, to enter the housing lottery with. Housing lottery randomly assigns first-years to one of the 12 upperclass houses, where they will spend the next three years. People together in a blocking group are guaranteed housing in the same house, but students can also choose to enter the housing lottery alone.
On Housing Day, first-year students learn about their housing assignment. It’s a day full of house pride, with upperclass students waking up as early as 6am to dress up in clothes that show their house spirit or in costumes and then march to Harvard Yard at 8:00 am. Upperclass students then wait in front of University Hall while competing with other houses as to who has the most house pride. Every house receives a collection of envelopes with the names and room numbers of students that have been assigned to a particular house. Upperclass students then “dormstorm” the first-year rooms, reading their names off of a list and joyfully welcoming them into their new house community. It’s a day filled with hype, joy, and excitement!
Esperanza Lee, Culture and Communication Consultant
Esperanza escorted the group on the 25-minute walk from Currier House to Kirkland House and shared this summary of her part of the tour:
Kirkland is one of nine houses for upper year students near the Charles River, located in the River West neighborhood along with Eliot and Winthrop. The river houses are closer to Harvard Square and Harvard Yard, so this location is usually considered to be more desirable than the more distant Quad. Some of Kirkland’s famous alumni include Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg and current U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
Kirkland, like Currier, is known for its strong community. Graduate students were surprised to learn about our traditions such as the “Choosening,” in which a word is chosen at midnight every Sunday. This word dictates the theme that Kirklanders follow throughout the week. During “camp” week, for example, Kirkland put on an outdoor movie screening of Camp Rock, and several Kirklanders camped in the middle of the courtyard. Kirkland also has its own drama society with productions occurring once a semester.
Some notable points on our tour of Kirkland included the library located in Hicks House, a small, colonial-era house that has been preserved as a historical site through the last few centuries. Then we went to the Kirkland basement, which features wall paintings by Kirkland seniors from the last twenty years. The basement also features a display of T-shirts celebrating past Housing Days, which is when Kirkland welcomes its incoming sophomore class to the house each year.
The graduate students who joined the tour had interesting questions about the housing system and were surprised by how different the two houses we visited were. Thank you to the graduate students for participating in our tour!
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So much about Harvard is different from other universities, no matter where you are from. The Bok Center has compiled a Glossary of Harvard’s Teaching Related terms for anyone interested in the language of the university. If you want to talk about undergraduate life and culture at Harvard, the Culture and Communication Consultants host a Discussion Group for International PhD Students and offer special events like this each semester. Join our mailing list to stay up to date on our programming or contact us to learn more!
Thumbnail photo: Carrie, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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