Nation & World

As a global university, Harvard not only attracts students and faculty from around the world, it sends them out, to teach and work, extending Harvard’s influence far beyond its local boundaries.

Harvard undergrads on Alternative Spring Break learn construction techniques while helping to complete a rebuilt Alabama church.

Two top players in the field of higher education explored two almost polar approaches to learning during a discussion at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Harvard students and alumni arrive at work sites to begin construction, tutoring, other tasks as part of Alternative Spring Break, a tradition of public service initiated by the student-run Phillips Brooks House Association.

Leading government technology officers explored how technology can drive democracy forward during a discussion at the Harvard Kennedy School Forum.

Richard Holbrooke, a diplomat for nearly 50 years, imparts to a Harvard audience his insights into current international conflicts, particularly in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir.

Activist Noam Chomsky tells the Memorial Church gathering that President Obama, after a year in office, projects a foreign policy with real vision, but “hasn’t succeeded much in practice.”

Transporting patients from one location to another in post-quake Haiti can be a complicated task; often involving barriers of logistics, distance, and language. Sometimes the greatest challenge is a ticking clock.

Canadian Supreme Court judge, child of Holocaust survivors, argues passionately that nations should value human rights over simple laws, and that the United Nations should step up.

A panel of religious scholars examined the role of organized religion in helping to shape the national debate on economic reform and the country’s moral direction.

Patients at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative field hospital at Fond Parisien, Haiti, share their stories of the deadly Jan. 12 earthquake and its aftermath.

Among the millions of “Haiti earthquake stories” from January 12, 2010, here is one.

Caring for volunteers who care for Haiti’s sick and wounded is a full-time, round-the-clock job, requiring the barest of necessities.

Haitians face a long road for post-earthquake recovery. Some Harvard faculty members will walk it with them.

Radcliffe Fellow Nancy J. Smith-Hefner studies the “gender paradox” among Muslim youth in Java.

An HGSE student project over January break leads young students to create photographic art, along with exhibits in two countries.

In some Muslim societies, the tension between genders can lapse into violence. Some Radcliffe Fellows can tell that tale.

First grants from Harvard fund to aid Haitian community in helping employees to take care of their families.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for critical reforms to the nation’s public education system, during a discussion at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Leader of the Choctaw Nation visits Harvard classroom to discuss how he helped the Indian tribe to reorganize and solve many of its own problems.

Weeks after the earthquake, as populations of Haiti’s tent camps grow, so too does the threat of disease.

White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett offered a personal look at President Barack Obama, as well as a take on some of the troubles in Washington, during a talk at a Harvard Kennedy School forum.

Harvard Kennedy School program looks at ways to prosecute and prevent modern-day slavery, and to protect the millions now in bondage.

Top Obama official discusses the need to integrate the nations of southeastern Europe into the rest of the continent.

Volunteers assist with a variety of medical skills, from nursing to orthopedics to medical equipment repair, playing a critical role in the response to the Haitian earthquake.

A member of the Harvard women’s squash team recounts the squad’s combination training and service trip to India during winter break, and how team members were changed in the process.

Bady Balde, a learned émigré from Guinea, uses Harvard’s Bridge Program to go from Dining Services worker to bank teller to Harvard Kennedy School graduate student.

A series of tents now function as Port-au-Prince’s primary hospital, as post-earthquake medical volunteers make ends meet during the night shift.

Speakers, including Paul Farmer, discuss how Harvard offshoots can collaborate with Haitians to try to build some stability in the earthquake-battered nation.

Harvard Law School today (Feb. 9) announced the creation of the Public Service Venture Fund, which will start by awarding $1 million in grants every year to help graduating students pursue careers in public service.