[MUSIC PLAYING]
JULIUS WADE: I think what Harvard
is really skilled at is bringing people together.
CAT ZHANG: I have definitely learned a lot about how
to be a person in the world.
There is like this infinite sense of possibility.
MADELEINE LAPUERTA: Being surrounded by all these people
that are pushing themselves inspires
me to then push myself.
STUDENT: One, two, three!
TEAM: RVL!
BRAEDEN FOLDENAUER: Pretty much everybody
I know is pursuing what they're pursuing because they desire
to have an impact.
ELSIE M. SUNDERLAND: They're on this mission of discovery
of really their own passion and how
to be an engaged citizen in society.
LINDEY KNEIB: When you're here, you're here for a reason.
Just hold on for the ride, because it's
fun and wild and crazy.
[CHEERING]
ROBERT REID-PHARR: Can you read that last sentence for us?
STUDENT: Yeah.
"No one, I read somewhere a long time ago,
makes his escape personality black."
ROBERT REID-PHARR: That's amazing.
I mean, that's a stunning sentence.
STUDENT: Yeah.
ROBERT REID-PHARR: Can I ask you, is that true?
Hold on one second.
Is that true?
STUDENT: I think it is.
ROBERT REID-PHARR: Why?
CLAUDINE GAY: What's so wonderful
about a liberal arts education is
that it's powered by a commitment to truth.
LAWRENCE S. BACOW: Truth is something
which needs to be discovered.
It needs to be uncovered.
STUDENT: You want it to be true, so you're
willing to suspend your belief.
ROBERT REID-PHARR: Everybody is on board with this--
that she's right about this.
What do you think?
RAKESH KHURANA: We really hope that students
learn to have an inquiring mind, to always
be asking questions and actually question authority.
STUDENT: It's useful in relation to some
of the things that have been missing from the other texts
that we've read.
ROBERT REID-PHARR: What's been missing from the other texts
that we've read?
STUDENT: [LAUGHS]
A lot of has been missing from the texts that we--
[LAUGHS] --that we've read.
ROBERT REID-PHARR: You're in the classroom learning
from students in ways that's just shocking.
It's just shocking.
Because they're asking questions that
are so practical and so concerned
with how it is that they're going to take charge.
CAT ZHANG: I went to a large public high school.
My graduating class was I think the largest in America.
And so I wanted to be part of a concentration that
was more intimate but also offered a lot of room
for skepticism.
BRAEDEN FOLDENAUER: My favorite class so far
was taking my freshman seminar.
You know, we would do a bunch of readings.
And we'd talk about some kind of free speech topic.
And then we would show up to class every week.
And we would just argue with each other.
I craved that challenge.
And I think that it was also really valuable,
because it forced me to step outside my comfort zone.
JU YON KIM: One great thing about the liberal arts
is that it really kind of opens the world in new ways.
They want the students to begin questioning certain assumptions
that they might have.
[BLOW HORN SOUND]
ERIC HELLER: If you can figure out why that happens,
you'll beat me by about a year after I first saw this.
JULIUS WADE: One thing that I cherish
about Harvard is that every person I've met
is like curious in some way about themselves
or about the world or about each other.
CAT ZHANG: I just found people like really interesting
and funny and unique in their own way.
And I think it made me feel like I
didn't have to be the person that I was in high school.
MADELEINE LAPUERTA: You know, three years ago,
would I imagine myself studying computer science?
Probably not.
And so I think just the way that Harvard has kind of
shaped me says a lot about how this environment promotes
growth.
JULIUS WADE: All of that does nothing
to band-aid the simple fact that there
comes a time when the world stops rewarding potential.
STUDENT: I think the first way you read it
was like the other way around.
JULIUS WADE: Yeah.
I came here without a clue about what
I wanted to do, no idea that I wanted to do theater.
And I just did it.
That made me very proud.
But also, it was like really terrifying.
STUDENT: So it's-- oh yeah, so it's like the first one
counterclockwise.
[VOCALIZING]
Yeah.
BRAEDEN FOLDENAUER: Coming to Harvard
was terrifying, especially being the first my family
to go to college and stuff.
I was definitely in uncharted territory.
JULIUS WADE: The fear that I think a lot of people
that I felt coming in, it's like a fear
that you're the only one that feels that way.
And when you discover that like, well,
that person feels that way too, and that person,
and this person, this like whole club of people,
there's a strange solace.
(SINGING)
RAKESH KHURANA: We recognize that talent is everywhere.
There's nobody here who doesn't deserve to be here.
BRAEDEN FOLDENAUER: When I was applying to college,
cost was really crucial for me.
One of the things that I discovered when applying
is just how generous Harvard's financial aid is.
JULIUS WADE: The thing that I tell
people who have insecurities about their backgrounds
and stuff, was that none of that stuff matters.
The only thing that really matters
is like who you are and the kind of person that you want to be.
(SINGING) [VOCALIZING] My kind of love.
STUDENT: Hey, nice run through.
[LAUGHTER]
STUDENTS: One, two, three!
(SINGING) OH LEV, OH LEV, OH LEV, OH LEV!
RAKESH KHURANA: We want the place to feel alive.
JULIUS WADE: Aah!
LINDEY KNEIB: (SINGING) I'm so excited for Harvard and Yale.
FOOTBALL PLAYERS: One, two, three, CRIM!
[CHEERING]
CLAUDINE GAY: There is no one way
to characterize the community here,
because there are so many communities.
STUDENT: Yo, Siva, can we get some real South-Asian music?
[CHEERING]
CLAUDINE GAY: What's common to all of them
is how incredibly vibrant they are.
LINDEY KNEIB: I love working with the Special Olympics.
Coming here, I feel that I've received so much.
It's just that sense of giving back.
STUDENT: Let's do some fractions.
MADELEINE LAPUERTA: Being a woman in computer science
is actually pretty awesome.
You're setting a huge example for girls
that they can do this, because you're doing this.
ELSIE M. SUNDERLAND: It's very important for young women
to be able to identify women who are in positions
that they might aspire to someday.
LAWRENCE S. BACOW: When we recruit great faculty,
we offer them the opportunity to work with great students.
When we recruit great students, we
offer them the opportunity to work with great faculty.
They love each other.
DUSTIN TINGLEY: I came to Harvard
to be in an environment that emphasized the liberal arts
but also was a major research institution.
I get so excited when I work with a student
all the way up to a point where it
becomes really clear I need to be
co-authoring with this person.
JU YON KIM: And they're actually doing what we're doing.
And by the time they get to the end
of their project, what they have is
a real intellectual contribution.
CLAUDINE GAY: We tend to attract students
who already see themselves as agents of change in the world.
STAFF SERGEANT: Good afternoon, sir.
SECOND LIEUTENANT: Good afternoon, staff sergeant.
ROBERT REID-PHARR: You have to rethink how you are actually
helping to educate them for what it is that they want
and what it is that we need as a culture.
BRAEDEN FOLDENAUER: We've got our different goals
in different parts of the world.
And we can all take what we have experienced
and bring those back to our home communities.
MADELEINE LAPUERTA: You're learning so much
from the people around you.
It's an environment of always being able to learn
and from that always being able to grow.
LINDEY KNEIB: My biggest accomplishment here
is I finally figured out who I was.
JULIUS WADE: Harvard cares deeply
about who we are as people and the capacity
that we have as human beings to affect a new and better world.
CAT ZHANG: I feel like my life coheres
more, that I have like a very clear purpose and mission,
in a way that wasn't apparent to me when I was in high school.
RAKESH KHURANA: One of the most gratifying things in my life
is to be able to be around these amazing young people, who
are idealistic, who have a strong sense of urgency
of making a difference in the world.
Every day, my heart is renewed with a sense
of possibility and hope.
Because each day, in my job, I get
to look into the eyes of the future.