Discovering the path to Harvard
“So this is Harvard?” asked a 10-year-old girl as we walked down Massachusetts Avenue. It had barely been 10 minutes since we’d left her affordable housing complex. “I’ve never been there. I thought it was like, miles away or something.” It took a while, but finally it clicked: This girl had lived within a mile of Harvard for years, but had no idea she could walk there. But what would make a young girl who has Harvard nearly at her fingertips feel that it is so far out of reach? What can we do to make it more accessible to people right outside our doorstep and to people even farther away? What brought the little girl and I together could be a window into Harvard for many: mentoring. Mentoring is so integral to and pervasive within the fabric of the University community that I have sought to make it a central part...