Name: Vivian Shaw
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Year: 2015
House: Dunster
Concentration: Sociology
What are you involved with on campus?
I do PBHA and HMC- Harvard Model Congress.
So I know you were an important leader in PBHA last semester. What exactly was your position, and what did it entail?
I was one of PBHA’s programming chairs last semester. PBHA has eighty-ish programs, and programming chairs are broadly in charge of working with all of them. That mainly entails trouble shooting, like with financing changes, but also it’s a lot of helping programs evolve. So many of our programs began in the 1980’s to fulfill needs that were pressing back then. Fortunately, some of those needs aren’t there anymore, but new ones evolve as times change. I help to make sure programs are addressing relevant needs and tweak programs if necessary. The main goal is to maintain program quality over time.
Wow, eighty programs across all communities in Boston! What was it like to be responsible for so many people — volunteers, kids, community members — and so much change?
I would say it was a little bit more background work, so it wasn’t as much as being directly responsible for all of the specific people in all of the programs. As a programming chair, you’re doing more of the background thinking while the individual program directors are more responsible for everyone in the program. However, for what I did, the stakes were huge in the sense that it was a broader responsibility to the communities we serve on a general level, unlike directors who are just responsible for campers and staff. I was in charge of making sure our presence was serving the community in a positive way — a lot of seeing what we were doing, and how we could do it better. It sometimes hurt my brain to think about whether we were achieving outcomes, whether we were leveraging the database, to get what we wanted to do with it, and whether our program was doing anything for the community overall.
Do you think that in the long run you, with all of your years of service for PBHA, achieved your intended goal of making a difference?
I’m definitely proud of my work. I think that this organization (PBHA), the fact that it’s basically run by twenty student officers — finances, communications, marketing of the nonprofit all managed by students — is truly something to consider. In an ideal world, if i had more time, there are so many things I would have liked to have done, but I definitely did what I could, and I’m proud of what I’ve done.
What advice do you have for other students looking to get involved in service in local communities?
Definitely learn as much as you can about the community and get involved. Volunteering at an after school program is one thing, but getting involved and going to town meetings and rallies for change in the community is super important. Actually taking the extra time to put yourself there, in the community, taking a part in community events, has a huge impact on the service you do.
Do you have any plans for next year?
Not yet. Unclear. Broadly I want to do non-profit or education work, so I’m looking at teaching positions and positions in non-profits. I would love to do non-profit programming managing, like I did here at PBHA. I’m definitely going somewhere warm, though! After this mess (gestures at six-foot high piles of snow outside), I’m leaving this place.
What will you miss most about Harvard?
The people. The biggest thing that scares me about graduating is that there are a lot of people who mean a lot to me, who I’m good friends with, but not best friends with, or that I wouldn’t necessarily make the effort to fly out and see. It’s sad and scary to know that I might not see these people — who are very important to me! — ever again.