Lowell House News Volume 32, Issue 13 Monday, December 1 *Deadline for to *cancel* housing for Spring semester 2009 * CIAO! Italian Language Table, 6:00-7:00pm, Dining Hall Tuesday, December 2 * Lowell Roundtable Dinner with Nieman Fellows, 6:00-7:30pm Small Dining Room * Pre-Law Dinner & Advising, 6:15-7:00pm, Dining Hall Wednesday, December 3 * UHS counselor drop-in hours, 5:00-7:00pm, N-14 * Chinese Table, 5:30-6:30pm, Dining Hall * Lowell Chemistry Tables, 8:00-10:00pm, Dining Hall * Physics table, 9:00-10:00pm, Dining Hall * Plan of Study Event for Sophomores, 9:00-10:00pm, Dining Hall Thursday, December 4 * You are warmly invited to TEA, Master's Residence 5:00pm. * Holiday Baking in the Master's Residence, 7:00-9:00pm, Master's Residence * Holiday Decorating Party, 9:00-11:00pm, Dining Hall Saturday, December 6 * Yule Ball - Reception, 9:00-10:00pm, Library; Dancing, 10:00pm-2:00am, Dining Hall; Food, 10:00pm-2:00am, JCR ...Followed by… Sunday, December 7 * Yule Ball Post Reception, 2:00-3:00am, Library Monday, December 8 *High Table (sorry, no InterHouse this evening) * CIAO! Italian Language Table, 6:00-7:00pm, Dining Hall Tuesday, December 9 * Pre-Law Dinner & Advising, 6:15-7:00pm, Dining Hall Wednesday, December 10 * UHS counselor drop-in hours, 5:00-7:00pm, N-14 * Chinese Table, 5:30-6:30pm, Dining Hall * Lowell Chemistry Tables, 8:00-10:00pm, Dining Hall * Physics table, 9:00-10:00pm, Dining Hall Thursday, December 11 * You are warmly invited to TEA, Master's Residence 5:00pm. * Karaoke Stein, 9:00-12:00pm, Grille Sunday, December 14 * Lewin Musicale, 10:00pm, Library *********************************************************** FROM THE RESIDENT DEAN * Ryan Spoering, Allston Burr Resident Dean Room A-22, 5-2283 (lo-abrd@fas.harvard.edu) As your Resident Dean, I am here to help you with all kinds of academic matters, and to connect you to Harvard's many resources. Please come to me with questions and concerns of any kind--in addition to my advising and administrative roles, I also help Lowell House students manage personal struggles, illness and anything else you may encounter on your way to your degree. - FAS EMAIL ACCOUNTS. If you use gmail or another email service to check your FAS email, be careful! Students often have trouble with important emails not being forwarded properly or being filtered by gmail. Your FAS email account is used by the university for important communication, and you need to be sure that you are receiving those messages. - HOUSE RENEWAL. Please fill out the important House Renewal survey at https://survey.fas.harvard.edu/. This is a chance to provide feedback on all aspects of your residential academic experience and to inform the renewal of the House system for the next century. - UHS FLU SHOT CLINICS. Harvard University Health Services will be offering the flu vaccine on a walk-in basis to adults in the Monks Library (UHS second floor) on Mondays and Tuesdays in November and December, 12:00pm – 3:00pm. - OFFICE HOURS THIS WEEK. I will have walk-in office hours this week Mon 10:00am-noon and Wed 3:00-4:00pm. I'm also available other times; please contact me or Kit in the House office (5-2283, lowell@fas) to set up an appointment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ASK BETH, the HOUSE ADMINISTRATOR * Beth Terry, A-22, 5-2283 (lo-admin@fas.harvard.edu) Dear Beth, Who are all of our visitors walking around with the Super? Why are they always knocking on my door? And, if they have been in my room already why do they keep coming back?! Signed, Irritable in I Dear Irritable, Welcome to the Land of Plans. The Land of Plans is not a geographical area, it is not even a physical space. It is a state of being. You cannot take a ferry to this land, you cannot even call a cab. In most cases, you simply wake up there. It’s like Narnia. You are through the magic wardrobe into the Land of Plans in Harvard housing. It will be an interesting year. So, I am guessing that most of you have not yet experienced house ownership before firsthand, right? You have not yet been held in the death grip of an evil contractor nor been hypnotized by the machinations of an elusive engineer. Understand that right now, your stoic building manager Bob Sammonds is experiencing something akin to Mega-Home-Ownership: multiple contractors, multiple architects, multiple engineers, all bidding on a bunch of projects in Lowell House to take place in the summer of 2009. History: Every year the wizards in FAS prepare for the summer work on Houses. Engineers, architects, project managers and vendors arrive from their far away lands to look at proposed work. Once explorations and proposals are made (usually after an initiation rite known as Destructive Testing) there are bids to consider. Once bids are settled, there comes a time of incantations and exhortations known as Fine Tuning the Schedule. This can take months. All of these various stages involve visitations to student rooms and disconcerting apparitions of carpenters in tunnels. But don't be afraid! These Spirits of Renovation are always accompanied by Bob or one of his trusty staff. Even though they irritate you they serve our common goal: the House's greater good. So take heart and be patient. On an aside, I would also point out that the Magic is sorely needed this year. These projects will require a perfectly calibrated schedule in order to be completed in the shortest summer in Harvard's memory (an era long-prophesied by Harvard seekers and now referred to as 'Universal Calendar Transition'--when all the Harvard planets align and trigger a supernova ..) Remember that even Aslan, with all the forces of newly-wakened faculty beside him, cannot reverse the fact that we will open before Labor Day next year. Shudderingly, Beth ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FROM THE FELLOWSHIPS TUTORS * Josh Goldman (jdgoldm@fas.harvard.edu) * Courtney Peterson (cmpeters@fas.harvard.edu) * Susanna Mierau (susanna_mierau@post.harvard.edu) * website: http://lowell.harvard.edu/fellowships SENIOR TRAVELING FELLOWSHIPS: Lowell House nomination is required for the Gardner, Shaw, Sheldon, and Trustman fellowships for a year of purposeful travel in a foreign country. If you are interested in these fellowships, please visit the House Nomination page of the Lowell House fellowships website. Please note that the House deadline is in December! NEW LOWELL HOUSE FELLOWSHIPS WEBSITE We've redesigned the Fellowships section of the Lowell House website, featuring an all-new list of common fellowships designed to make it easy to find fellowships that will fund whatever it is that you're hoping to do. Check it out at http://lowell.harvard.edu/fellowships LOWELL FELLOWSHIPS MAILING LIST Want to know what fellowships are out there? Want to know about them before the deadlines appear in the newsletter? Want more information on the fellowships listed below? Subscribe to the fellowships mailing list to get notices about once every week or two of upcoming deadlines and things to think about (relevant for sophomores, juniors, and seniors). To subscribe, go to http://lists.hcs.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lowell-fellowships . OFFICE HOURS We hold office hours on Sunday evenings in the dining hall, during which we'd be happy to discuss your plans and look over your application essays. To visit us during office hours, you need to sign up at least one day in advance on the sign-up sheet next to the fellowships bulletin board, right next to the entrance to the JCR. If you have specific questions, please email us at any time. UPCOMING INFOSESSIONS - 02 Dec, 4:30 PM: Kawamura Fellowship - 08 Dec, 6 PM, Philips Brooks House Parlor: Center for Public Interest Careers Summer and Postgraduate Fellowships - 09 Dec, 3 PM: Public Service Fellowships (this is session is offered by OCS and is different from the CPIC infosession) - 09 Dec, 6 PM, Philips Brooks House Parlor: Arthur Liman Public Interest Law Fellowship Information Session - Summer research activities for science students * 03 Dec, 7:30 PM, Dunster JCR * 09 Dec, 7:30 PM, Pfoho Hastings Room * 11 Dec, 7:30 PM, Winthrop JCR - 06 Jan, 6 PM, Philips Brooks House Parlor: Center for Public Interest Careers Summer and Postgraduate Fellowships (same as session on 12/8) * * * UPCOMING FELLOWSHIPS * * * FOR GRADUATE STUDY ABROAD: - 02 December: Harvard-Cambridge Scholarships. Funds one year at Cambridge University. - 05 December: Mackenzie King Harvard Scholarship. Partial support for study in Canada. - 08 December: Knox/Henry/von Clemm Scholarships (common application). Funds one year of study at various universities in the U.K. - 08 December: Harvard-China Scholarship. Funds a year of study or research in China. - 16 December: Herchel Smith Harvard Scholarship. Funds one year at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University in experimental natural sciences, computer science, or mathematics. FOR PURPOSEFUL TRAVEL: - 06 December: Gardner, Shaw, Sheldon, Trustman traveling fellowships. Funds a year-long project of your choice in a foreign country. This is a Lowell House deadline, and you must have Lowell House nomination in order to apply. Application at http://lowell.harvard.edu/fellowships/nomination.php - 12 January: Kawamura Fellowship. Funds an all-expenses-paid grand tour of Japan, plus a week in Thailand. FOR GRADUATE STUDY: - 05 January: National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. Tuition + stipend for three years of Ph.D. study in science or engineering. - 06 January: Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship. Tuition + stipend (up $50,000/year) for up to six years. Funds graduate and also professional school. - 06 January: Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Graduate Fellowship. Tution + stipend for up to 3 years of Ph.D. studies in the sciences, social sciences, or engineering - 14 January: DOE NNSA Science Stewardship Graduate Fellowship (SSGF). 4 years tuition + $32,400 stipend for Ph.D. studies in certain fields of physics or materials science. - 21 January: DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF). 4 years tuition + $31,200 stipend for Ph.D. studies in certain fields of physical, engineering, computer, mathematical, or life sciences. FOR UNDERCLASSMEN: - 04 December: Thouron Prize. Funds a summer of study at Cambridge University. - 11 December: Beinecke Scholarship. $2,000 for senior year and $30,000 for graduate study in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. FOR UNDERGRADUATES: OTHER - 07 January: Udall Scholarship. $5,000 for students in environmental public policy or for American Indian students. - 08 January: Artist Development Fellowships. Up to $1500 for artistic projects at Harvard to be undertaken this academic year. FOR MORE INFORMATION: See the Lowell House fellowships website. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FROM YOUR CAREER AND PRE-BUSINESS ADVISING TUTORS * Russell Miles - Resident Tutor (rmiles@oxfamamerica.org, 3-2990) * Christopher Laconi - Non-Resident Tutor (claconi@mba2009.hbs.edu) Thinking about what you will do after Harvard? It's never too early or too late to start!! Who can help you with this? One great place to look for resources and information is the Office of Career Services http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students.htm. The website is fabulous with a lot of great information. The OCS office is just around the corner from Lowell House at 54 Dunster Street and there are many people there who are available to help with all of your specific needs. OCS also has a very full program of events throughout the year - from career fairs to resume clinics, interview workshops and meet-the-recruiter nights. Check out the website regularly for the latest event calendar. The General Career Adviser at Lowell, Russell Miles, is here to help you think through that decision and work out what you really want out of life and your career! There are so many interesting and valuable options available to you which are worth exploring. Russell can be contacted on rmiles@oxfamamerica.org or call 617-493-2990 to make an appointment. Or you can find in him J-11. Drop in times are: Weekdays 6:00pm - 10:00pm and Weekends 10:00am - 10:00pm. Christopher Laconi is a Non-Resident Tutor from the Harvard Business School and he can specifically help on Pre-Business discussions and exploring careers in banking and consulting. He may be reached at claconi@mba2009.hbs.edu or call 207-344-8923 for appointments. In addition to helping you think through your career decisions, Chris and Russell can also help get you on the path to further resources and can also help you finalize your resume and prepare for interviews. Russell is creating an e-mail list in order to send out messages about key dates and events. Please contact him if you are interested to have your name on this mailing list - rmiles@oxfamamerica.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FROM YOUR RESIDENT INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT/ INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ADVISER * Russell Miles (rmiles@oxfamamerica.org, 3-2990) Interested in international relations, international aid and development? Want to discuss international issues raised in class? Need help thinking about research paper topics? Want to meet and talk with people working in the development or humanitarian sector? Interested in an international career in public service, government or private sector, or simply wanting to travel to other regions of the world? E-mail me or come and talk with me about all these questions. If you would like to make an appointment to talk for a longer period, I am available for meetings on Saturday afternoons from 2.00pm-5.00pm. We will meet in the SCR. I am creating an e-mail list in order to send out messages about key dates and events related to international development and international relations. Please contact me if you are interested to have your name on this mailing list - rmiles@oxfamamerica.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS * ROADS TO SUCCESS: BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING FOR WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP. Is there a glass ceiling for women? How did they break through? Come meet some of the most successful women in leadership to discuss how they have encountered and shattered the glass ceiling. 7:00pm- Road to Success Event (Fong Auditorium) Panel Discussion 8:30pm- 9:30pm- Road to Success Reception (Boylston Hall Lounge) Event will feature Guest Panelist, Vicki Palmer, Executive VP Coca Cola, Adebola Osakwe Head of Diversity Recruiting, Morgan Stanley, Sheila Jackson Lee, U.S. House of Representatives, 18th District, and Miriama White-Hammond, Director, Project Hip Hop. * HOLIDAY BAKING IN THE MASTER'S RESIDENCE Thursday, Dec. 4th, 7:00-9:00pm Master's Residence Celebrate the season by baking holiday cookies in the Master's kitchen. Bring your own recipe or use ours. Drop in anytime. Sample our creations while decorating the Dining Hall at 9:00pm. Maggie Cao and Amy Vest * ROUNDTABLE CONVERSATION WITH OUR NIEMAN FELLOWS Tuesday, December 2, 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Small Dining Room With Hannah Allam, Guy Raz and Andrei Zolotov Jr. You are cordially invited to join our Lowell House Nieman Fellows for a conversation over dinner on journalism and related topics. Our Fellows are accomplished journalists with a striking range of experience, but here are a few highlights on their backgrounds: *Hannah Allam, Cairo bureau chief, McClatchy Newspapers, studies sectarianism within Islam, focusing on Arab-Persian relations and Sunni vs. Shiite doctrine on governance, armed struggle and family law. *Guy Raz, defense correspondent, National Public Radio, studies the collapse of ancient and modern empires and the effect of such collapses on global order. He was recently awarded the 2008 Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for a three-part series entitled "Rescuing the Wounded: Iraq to Germany" which aired on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered in October 2007. *Andrei Zolotov, Jr. (Russia), editor and publisher, russiaprofile.org, studies the interrelationship between politics, religion and media, including the adoption of Russia's 1997 law regulating religious organizations, and the historic role of religion in nation building. All are welcomed, and this should be a very lively conversation! * EARLY MUSIC CONCERT The Chamber Singers of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum is proud to present Missa Compilationem, a concert of sacred music from the Middle Ages through the late Renaissance. Featuring composers such as Josquin, Palestrina, Ockeghem and Machaut, the program provides a look at various composers' interpretations of the Catholic Mass over the course of three hundred years. The concert will take place on Friday, December 5 at 8pm at First Church Cambridge, 11 Garden Street. Tickets may be purchased at the Harvard Box Office (617-496-2222 ) or at the door, and are $10 in advance or $14 at the door for adults, and $5/$7 for students. This year's student conductor is senior Michael Schachter, assisted by junior Rachel Carpentier.