In the Community

When Peter K. Bol was in college, a revolution halfway around the world changed his life. Bol, the Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, explored the history of China at a HarvardX for Allston talk earlier this month at the Harvard Allston Education Portal.

As Massachusetts and the nation remember the tragic events at last year’s Boston Marathon, Harvard runners are getting ready to move ahead the best way they know: together.

Annual dinner honors Harvard staff who became U.S. citizens with help from the Harvard Bridge Program and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.

Utopian worlds, sign-language poetry, and DNA origami — the subjects are as fascinating and varied as the students who explore them. The Carpenter Center presents “From Here,” an exhibition of thesis projects by seven graduating seniors from VES. The exhibit continues through May 29.

Now in its 30th year, CityStep will hold its annual year-end performance at Sanders Theatre this weekend. Tonight and Saturday more than 150 Cambridge middle school students will perform.

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School students talked with Harvard researchers using the deep-sea submarine Alvin to explore the Gulf of Mexico.

A panel discussion served as the launchpad for the Harvard Alumni Association’s annual global month of service, with gatherings planned worldwide.

Two Harvard College students deliver pizza (with some STEM education baked in) to Cambridge middle school kids.

Harvard lecturer Tim McCarthy teaches a free American history course to low-income adult students as part of the Clemente Course in the Humanities, for which he now holds the first endowed chair.

Created 25 years ago as a way to connect Harvard with the Cambridge public schools, Project Teach now involves sharing a research-based approach with educators in the local schools.

A Harvard program that welcomes high school interns to learn science in the lab often sets them on new academic and career paths.

Hundreds of Cambridge sixth-graders swarmed the Harvard Museum of Natural History for a look at prehistoric New England.

The Outdoor Church, a group founded by Harvard Divinity School graduates, and supported by current HDS students, ministers to the homeless every week during an open-air service.

A town hall meeting with Boston Mayor-elect Marty Walsh, well-supported by Harvard affiliates, broke into 11 idea-generating sessions on Saturday, focusing on various issues facing the city.

Harvard President Drew Faust, speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Barry’s Corner project in Allston, thanked Boston Mayor Tom Menino for being a “powerful and persistent voice of support” for the city.

On most days, around noon, Richard Griffin ’51 makes his way from the Malkin Athletic Center to the café at Dudley House. Griffin was once a Jesuit priest, and Harvard’s Roman Catholic chaplain during the tumultuous years 1968 to 1975, a time of campus antiwar protests and social upheaval.

The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences hosted an annual tradition, a holiday lecture for children on how science works.

Five Harvard graduate Schools challenged each other in a competition to collect cans and other dry goods for the Greater Boston Food Bank. The result: 1,899 cans and enough money to provide 738 meals.

Professor Annette Gordon-Reed was at the Ed Portal to talk about her scholarship on the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.

Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents to the press, was the subject of the Ed Portal’s mock trial, as local residents determined his fate.

The annual “Giving Thanks” open house was an opportunity for members of the Harvard community to write notes of gratitude to fellow staff members and provide support for community programs.

Alumni from the Crimson Summer Academy discussed the importance of the Harvard program in opening doors to confidence and college.

Harvard welcomed 700 of its neighbors from Allston, Brighton, and Cambridge to the annual community football program on Saturday.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) on Oct. 17 unanimously approved Harvard’s 10-year development plan in Allston, giving the initial green light to seven new building projects and two major renovations.

This month, the Harvard Allston Education Portal has been offering dance lessons from Marco Perez-Moreno, a Harvard alumnus and professional ballroom dancer.

Almost 700 Harvard-affiliated athletes sponsored by Harvard Public Affairs & Communications and the Harvard Business School were among the 1,800 runners in the annual Brian J. Honan 5K Road Race on Sunday. The race benefits the Brian J. Honan Charitable Fund.

PBHA summer campers rise through the ranks to take leadership positions and start to give back to their communities.

East Boston elementary school children are exploring and interpreting “The Wizard of Oz” through the creative arts using a program called Pre-Texts, which was developed by Doris Sommer, the Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and director of the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard.

During a panel discussion, Crimson Summer Academy mentors, themselves graduates of the program, tell current students how they reached their academic goals.

While Harvard’s Farmers’ Market is known for transforming the Science Center Plaza into a farm fresh mecca, it also hosts a weekly read-aloud where children of all ages can enjoy stories read by a Cambridge Public Library staff member.