Campus & Community

Barrett Award presented to three

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Two Harvard seniors and a sophomore were honored as Joseph L. Barrett Award recipients at a special ceremony May 9. Administered by the Bureau of Study Counsel (BSC), the award commemorates Barrett, who was killed in an auto accident in his senior year (1973). The award recognizes promising young people at Harvard College who pursue their interest in learning with the “vigor and openness so characteristic of Joe.”

This year’s recipients:

Ernesto Gonzalez ’08 was honored for his outstanding service as an on-call peer tutor and Harvard Reading Course assistant. Gonzalez has been “a devoted and enthusiastic tutor for the bureau for the past two years in some of the most challenging courses offered at Harvard,” according to the BSC. Additionally, his own academic achievements have made him eligible to be a tutor for multiple courses, including molecular and cellular biology, physics, life sciences, Spanish, and French. This spring, Gonzalez served as a course assistant in the Harvard Course in Reading and Study Strategies. The course was recently updated, and Gonzalez was instrumental in helping the bureau fine-tune the presentations and computer program. “He worked cooperatively with his fellow course assistants and was thoroughly reliable,” according to a BSC statement.

Tamar Holoshitz ’10 was honored for her dedicated service to students and to the entire Harvard community. In her first two years at Harvard, she has worked with the BSC, the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, the department of Behavioral Health and Academic Counseling, and the Center for Wellness. In her role as an Undergraduate Council representative, Holoshitz has initiated programs such as the bureau’s “Office Hours” at Lamont Library during reading period. She helped organize the “Speak Out Study Break” sessions, which were held in every House as well as in the Yard. In addition, Holoshitz has been a staff member for the Response Peer Counseling group since her freshman year and currently serves as a co-director of the group.

Steven McDonald ’08 was recognized for his dedicated and humanizing service to the Harvard community, both as co-director of Eating Concerns Hotline and Outreach (ECHO) and as someone to whom other students turn for wise counsel. Last summer, along with his then-ECHO co-director, McDonald acted in a peer counseling training video. More recently, this spring he helped create a piece of ECHO-related art for a larger installation and went on to help arrange a recovery panel and other events that were part of ECHO’s “Love Your Body Extravaganza.” “His leadership inspires others in the group to be dedicated and thoughtful members of the staff,” according to the BSC.

The BSC is a resource center for academic and personal development, serving Harvard College and several of the Schools. The bureau provides a wide range of services to support students in their learning and growth, including academic peer tutoring, the Harvard Course in Reading and Study Strategies, and Web-based resources, workshops, and discussion groups on topics related to academics and student life.