House Committee

You are currently browsing articles tagged House Committee.

Summer Approaching and…the Admissions Mistake?

April 17, 2012 in Scott's Blog by Scott Yim | 5 comments

As the semester winds down, life is getting busier, the days are growing longer, and it’s starting to look like summer a little more each day. My motivation for doing schoolwork is decreasing and I can’t believe that it’s almost the end of my third year here. The end of the spring semester brings about a whole bunch of things, including summer plans and one of my favorites–Quincy Assassins. It’s a bit complicated to explain, but long story short, we sign up in teams of up to 6 people and are assigned targets that we have to shoot with Nerf guns. The rules are 13 pages long! Caroline wrote about the most epic battle yet in Quincy courtyard the other evening. My team is all just about terminated, but the few other teams that are left are extremely intense. They stake out our dining hall and hallways on a daily basis. The game makes you incredibly paranoid, but it’s probably the most involved and dramatic game of Assassins played on campus (many other Houses run their own versions).

Quincy Assassins

Me and a few members of my Quincy Assassins team being ridiculous!

As far as summer plans go, it looks like I’ll be doing two things–proctoring on campus for Harvard Summer School and traveling the world hosting a new documentary series. While I can’t mention too much, the television show is basically about how different cultures and backgrounds affect people’s learning styles. I’ll be lucky enough to travel to Korea, China, Israel, France, and India with two other Harvard students, as well as one of my Peer Advising Fellows (PAF) from my freshman year, who has since graduated. Peer Advising Fellows are basically upperclassman buddies who are assigned to an entryway of first year students to advise them on academic, social, and personal matters. I’m currently a PAF and I love it! For those of you who will be studying here in the fall as freshmen, you’ll all have a PAF, as well. But I digress. My PAF’s name is Lilli, and she is now working for Google. Jenny is another one of the students, whom I’ve actually been very close with since freshman year, as we met through playing volleyball (she played on the Varsity Women’s Volleyball team for two years). The other student is Bryan, whom I met a few months ago, but I’m excited to get to know him better. We were all filming this past weekend and had a lot of fun together!

This coming weekend is Visitas, or as Harvard called it when I was visiting as a high school senior back in 2009, “Pre-frosh Weekend.” I think Visitas has a better ring to it. Regardless, I hope those of you who are visiting will meet as many people as possible and take advantage of all the cool opportunities on campus. One of the people I met during my visiting weekend is now one of my closest friends and blockmates (blockmates are people you pick to live in the same House with after freshman year). It’s also extremely fun to meet people and keep in touch over the summer before you get to campus. There is an activities fair where you can get a whole bunch of free swag and sign up for mailing lists to show your interest in various extracurricular clubs even before you start studying here. Also, a great majority of the student groups put on performances and special events, so be sure to check those out as well. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m the House Committee (HoCo) Co-Chair for Quincy House (each of the undergraduate upperclassmen houses have a House Committee that plans house events like formals, study breaks, and other events to foster community and make the house a fun place to live). Each HoCo has been working hard to plan your regional reception events, so be sure to check those out. Now that you got in, you may or may not be wondering one of the main questions I constantly thought about: Am I the Admissions Mistake? Absolutely not. And I hope you step on campus this weekend knowing that you deserve and have every right to be here.

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

From Congratulations, to Cradles to Crayons

April 2, 2012 in Scott's Blog by Scott Yim | Permalink

As Kate said, congratulations to the Class of 2016! I also remember the day I received my acceptance letter–it’s a day that I’ll never forget. My volleyball practices were always from 4 pm to 6:30 pm. And as most of you are aware, admissions decisions are emailed around 5 pm EST. It was hard to focus on volleyball when I knew there was a message waiting for me in my inbox. It didn’t make it any easier that we had an important match the next day, along with a team dinner immediately after practice. As both captain and an upperclassman on the team, I had the responsibility of making sure underclassmen had transportation to and from…well, basically everywhere. After practice, I had a car full of them, but told my teammates that I had to drive home for a minute. They waited in the car as I ran in to my house and closed the door to my room. And there it was. My mom was the only one home at the time. The waterworks began, followed by many phone calls on her end, but I had to run outside and get back to my teammates. There could be more detail to this story, including exactly who was crying and what not, but I’ll save myself the embarrassment. Regardless, congratulations to each and every one of you, and I hope that you’ll reach out to any one of us bloggers if you have any questions about life here on campus.

As far as my life goes, days have been incredibly busy, as they usually are at this time in the semester. With a whole new class of Penguins in Quincy House, we decided to host a public service trip to a local non-profit called Cradles to Crayons for the freshmen who will be living here next year. We thought it would be a nice thing to do to get to know each other while helping others at the same time. Cradles to Crayons is an organization that  “endeavors to provide homeless and low-income children with the essentials they require to thrive – to feel safe, warm, ready to learn, and valued.”  Volunteers work for two-hour shifts, sorting and inspecting incoming items, such as books, outfits, and toys. They also fill orders that meet the needs of individual boys and girls in their local communities.Representatives from the Philips-Brooks House Association, as well as members of the Quincy House administration and House Committee (HoCo) went and all had a great time.

Cradles to Crayons

Our sorted bags at Cradles to Crayons!

Speaking of HoCo (each of the undergraduate upperclassmen houses have a House Committee that plans house events like formals, study breaks, and other events to foster community and make the house a fun place to live), our Housemasters, Lee and Deb, invited the 2011 and current members of HoCo, along with our advisor Kate, for dinner at their house this weekend. They ordered Thai food and served ice cream as dessert! Quincy House has the best administration on campus. They truly go out of their way to support their students. Lee and Deb make sure our voices are heard, as well as hold events for all of their students, inviting us to their home for Master’s Open Houses with delicious desserts. Even though it’s a ways away from those of you who will be attending here next year, I hope you all get sorted into Quincy House come next Housing Day!

2011 and 2012 Quincy House Committees

2011 and 2012 Quincy House Committees

 

Tags: , , , , ,

“Other houses were never an option.”

March 12, 2012 in Scott's Blog by Scott Yim | Permalink

Thursday, March 8 was Housing Day! It’s really similar to how students are sorted into the houses in the Harry Potter series. Here, there’s no Sorting Hat, but students can “block” with up to 8 people freshman year that they’ll be randomly placed with into an upperclassman house for the next three years (if you don’t like living there, you can switch houses after a year–but most people fall in love with wherever they end up). These people are referred to as “blockmates” or your “blocking group” and, for me, have been a huge part of my experience at Harvard. Once put into a house, freshmen won’t move in until the fall of their sophomore year, but they can fully enjoy their respective house’s offerings and advantages. For example, my house, Quincy, has community dinner in the dining hall on Thursday evenings that only Quincy residents can attend.

As the House Committee (HoCo) Co-Chair, I spent hours and hours planning Housing Day festivities with the 7 other HoCo members. I was literally on my feet from 7:00 am in the morning to 10:30 pm–no exaggeration. I was present at every single event listed below. Many things had to be taken care of for Housing Day, and while we all worked together, it took a significant contribution on everyone’s part.

Pre- and night before:

  • Pick a theme (“Q-Men: Freshman Class” — our play on “X-Men: First Class”)
  • Create a video (can you spot my cameo?)
  • Have the House vote on a t-shirt design (see photo below)
  • Think of a free gift for freshmen (see photo below)
  • Hold a sign-making event
  • Stuff the informational folders for the incoming class
  • Organize Big Penguin/Little Penguin groups (a Quincy House program to pair incoming students with upperclassmen buddies)

Day of:

  • Organize breakfast and face painting the morning of for upperclassmen (7:00 am – 8:00 am–about 150 came out to storm the Yard and dorms!)
  • Hand-deliver letters with other upperclassmen to each blocking group (8:15 am – 9:30 am)
  • Trek to freshmen dining hall, Annenberg, and set up table to check students in and give free t-shirts (10 am – 2:15 pm)
  • Meet and greet and speak at Community Dinner (5:00 pm – 7:15 pm)
  • Meet and Greet freshmen at the Master’s Open House (7:30 pm – 10:30 pm)

Quincy Housing free Housing Day t-shirts and drawstring bags!

There were delicious desserts at the Master’s Open House event, and we showed the Housing Day video again. It was incredibly well attended, but towards the end of the night, I was so tired that I almost couldn’t wait for it to be over. I ended up falling asleep on my House Master’s couch, and my friends apparently took photos of me (which I have yet to see). How embarrassing.

Me with Ginny, the HoCo secretary!

 

Tags: , , , , ,