Scenes of student ingenuity at Harvard Arts Festival
The four-day celebration, organized by the Office for the Arts at Harvard, features music, dance, theater performances, visual art exhibits, and hands-on art activities at venues across campus.
Student Life
Presidential dreams can wait. For now, she can’t stop painting.
Inspired by the trailblazing female politicians of her native Costa Rica, which elected its second woman president earlier this year, Daniela Solis ’26 arrived at Harvard with a dream to run for office. Then an arts class in her junior year opened her eyes to an entirely new calling she never would have predicted.
From rugby pitch to lab bench
Tiahna Padilla ’26 has never been afraid of a challenge. While working on her senior thesis, the two worlds she inhabited at Harvard converged through the development of a mobile artificial limb that gives unique insight into the capabilities of athletes’ muscles.
Childhood passion becomes bioengineering success
Find Jiani Johnson’s fifth-grade yearbook, and you’ll find a surprising response to the question of what she wanted to be when she grows up: a bioengineer. She liked tinkering and building things, and she always wanted to help people, making bioengineering the ideal interdisciplinary collaboration.
Starving the cancer, sparing the brain
In the Kanarek Laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital, Alan Wong, who will receive his PhD in biological and biomedical sciences this May from the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, focuses on developing new approaches to treat pediatric leukemia while reducing harm to the brain.
Mattea Conforti ’28 stars in ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ sequel on Hulu
The Pforzheimer House resident filmed through the spring and summer for the “The Testaments,” a new Margaret Atwood adaptation.
Where rural America tops the agenda
The Harvard Undergraduate Rural League hosts a first-of-its-kind forum to address small-town America’s most urgent issues, while confronting the urban-rural divide.
Renovated pool theater debuts with ‘Rent’
A student production of the 1994 musical showcases the Adams House venue’s best features
Letting it fly
Hurling a 16-to-35-pound metal ball attached to a long piece of wire might not sound balletic, but the hammer and weight throw is one of the most graceful — and thrilling — events in track and field.
Housing Day Spirit Week 2026
This year, Harvard College’s Housing Day tradition expanded to an entire week of Housing Day programming, building upon community, connection, and House pride.
Retelling Frederick Douglass’ story, with a soundtrack
Quadree “Dree” Palimore paced the floor in a campus studio recently as Yerim Colin prepared to sing. The students were workshopping a number from Palimore’s original musical — an ambitious retelling of the life of Frederick Douglass.