Harvard Foundation awards its fall grants

The Faculty and Student Advisory Committees of the Harvard Foundation awarded 87 grants to some 40 different undergraduate student organizations for projects in the fall 2001 semester. More than $20,000 were disbursed for intercultural and race relations projects ranging from an East Coast Chicano (Mexican-American) Student Conference to a Korean Association lecture on the Korean “Comfort Women” of World War II to the French Club’s play, Moliere’s “Le Malade Imaginaire.”

“We are pleased to assist such a diverse group of students in sharing their cultural interests with the Harvard community,” said Ada Maxwell ’02, an intern at the Harvard Foundation. “These grants support student initiatives and help to continue an intercultural dialogue at Harvard.”

Other projects sponsored by the Harvard Foundation include a panel discussion on “Reparations: Post-Genocide/Post-Holocaust” by the Harvard Armenian Society; the Asian American Association’s presentation of “Golden Child,” a David Henry Hwang play featuring the Harvard Asian American Players; the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers’ Minority Professionals Mentorship Luncheon; the Chinese Brush Painting Workshop sponsored by the Chinese Students Association; the Italian Cultural Society’s culinary series; a South Asian (Indian) Association program titled “Coalition Against Racial Discrimination”; and an interfaith collaboration between Jewish, Muslim, and Catholic students organized by Harvard Hillel.

“The students have done an excellent job in reviewing the grant applications and awarding projects that fit with the foundation’s mission of improving intercultural and racial understanding,” said William M. Gelbart, professor of molecular and cellular biology and a member of the Harvard Foundation’s Faculty Advisory Committee.

The foundation’s next round of grants will be awarded in February. Last spring, the foundation awarded more than 100 grants to various Harvard student organizations.

“We have received some of the most remarkable and creative student grants in our 20-year history,” said S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation. “We are delighted to support Harvard college students in their intercultural initiatives, and to enable them to conduct programs of their choice.”