HESA Attracts Talented Leaders
and Growing Numbers

New Extension Student Association Flourishes

Jeff Amsel, president; Monica Brooker, vice president; and Amit Chatterjee, founder of the Harvard Extension Student Association

When Amit Chatterjee, a 17-year-old undergraduate degree candidate at Harvard Extension School, walked into the Dean of Students Office three years ago to join the Harvard Extension Student Association (HESA), he was informed that no such organization existed. A group calling itself the Harvard Extension School Student Society had met a few times and even drafted a constitution, but the initiative fell on hard times when students attempted to add one more ball to the many they already juggled, including classes, jobs, and family responsibilities.

But Chatterjee, soon to be Extension's youngest ALB graduate at 18, was undaunted. "Well then, let's try again. Many of us want to get better acquainted and be more involved. Harvard Extension School should have a student association!"

And so it began.

Today, sharp-eyed Internet surfers will notice the acronym HESA tucked into the list of resources on the Harvard Extension School website. Two more clicks take you to the organization's homepage (www.extension.harvard.edu/hesa), with its welcoming slogan "Building community within our student body" and announcements of their extraordinary programs. On February 6, for example, the monthly First Friday meeting featured former congressman Ron Mazzoli (D-KY), who spoke about his 24 years in the US House of Representatives and his new life as a 70-year-old graduate student at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. On March 5, First Friday welcomed Extension School staff members to its observance of the all-University program Caring for the Harvard Community: Diversity and Community at Harvard, an open forum with guest speakers from Harvard's United Ministries.

Two days later, on Sunday, March 7, the Harvard Extension Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medical Society (HEPPS, http://people.dce.harvard.edu/~hepps/), one of the many student interest groups that exists within HESA, held a professional exploration symposium, Medical School and Beyond: Insights into the Medical Profession, featuring a diverse panel of physicians. As if this weren't enough excitement for one month, the Courage Project, another HESA-related group, held its own program focused on the personal lives of Harvard continuing education students on Friday, March 12. Titled A Life of Courage, Risk, and Daring in the Face of Mortality, this gathering featured Dr. Paul Montgomery, the volunteer and bereavement coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital Palliative Care Service, and Extension School Dean of Students Christopher Queen, both of whom spoke on the impact of illness, death, and dying in the life of students. The evening included a showing of the latest segments of an ongoing video documentary of Harvard Extension students, reflecting the crossroads of academic and personal life.

Finally, the members will hold a roundtable discussion with Harvard University President Lawrence Summers on Friday, April 23. This is the first time a Harvard president has been invited by Extension School students to exchange views in an informal setting.

Planning such a busy schedule of events is not the work of one or two student leaders. Scores of Extension School students have added "an extra ball" to their juggling act over the past year. At the heart of the organization is HESA's first elected board of governors, comprising Jeffrey Amsel, president; Monica Brooker, vice president; Patrick Rivera, treasurer/secretary; Emilio Zamalloa, public relations officer; Ashley Pollock, ALM liaison; Xenia Kumph, multimedia officer; Jaden Hastings, HCP liaison; Richard Omanya, ALB liaison; and Charles Mulvey, CSS liaison.

Beyond this core of dedicated officers are the founders and coordinators of a growing number of clubs and interest groups that have spun off from HESA. In addition to HEPPS and the Courage Project, there is the Harvard Night Owl News, edited by Katrina Bohannon (watch for its online debut this spring), the Chess Club, the Extension School Democrats, the HESA Hoops Basketball Club, and the Tennis Club. And some of HESA's leaders are well-connected indeed. In addition to his duties as public relations officer and coordinator of the Tennis Club, Emilio Zamalloa finds time to serve as President Summers' personal tennis coach. On the court, "it is not always possible to separate pleasure from business, such as inviting the president to address our student association," Zamalloa admits.

HESA president Jeffrey Amsel, a retired police officer and father of four grown sons, deserves generous credit for the Association's rapid rise. While maintaining honors grades as an Extension School Dean's Scholar in the ALB Program, Amsel has challenged fellow students to get involved at all levels of the organization. Many programs will endure as testaments to his vision and determination, such as the Book Prize Fund and the Book Fund Raffle that supports it. "We are so proud to be able to award book prizes of $50 to 30 deserving students this year, thanks to the generosity of the students who participated in the raffle and the local business leaders who donated the prizes and cash." These included the Cambridge Trust Company, Sears at Galleria Mall, Cambridge Bicycle, and Grafton Street Pub and Grill in Harvard Square.

HESA counts current degree and certificate candidates--about 1,500 students--as its voting members but extends most of its programs to the entire Extension School student body, numbering more than 13,000. Over the past year, the board of governors and its working committees have attracted faithful attendance at its frequent meetings, while the First Fridays have attracted crowds of 30-60 students. Symposia and forums, usually held in the new Fong Auditorium and Ticknor Lounge in Boylston Hall, have regularly attracted more than 100 students. And following these meetings, in a Harvard Extension School tradition that reaches back nearly 100 years, new acquaintances and old friends retire to the eateries and watering holes of the Square to ponder the deeper questions of life.

Monica Brooker, Association vice president and president-elect, is an ALB candidate from Texas and staff member at Harvard's Murray Research Center (see story). She recently reflected on the popularity of HESA programs among professionally oriented degree and certificate candidates, the core membership of the organization. On the other hand, she says, "I would like to see us include a larger segment of the student population, including those who have outside interests, commitments, and responsibilities--such as parenting and community service--but who would like to feel they are part of the Extension School community."

Two recent initiatives of the Association have pointed in this direction. Last November 12, HESA officers met for the first time with officers of the Harvard Extension Alumni Association to discuss common goals, especially that of fostering a sense of belonging and affiliation with the larger Extension School community. The two bodies were delighted to discover that, unlike student and alumni leaders in a traditional college, their ages and life experiences overlapped and resonated to a remarkable degree. All vowed to meet again and to collaborate on social and intellectual events that will create personal and professional networks among the students and alumni of the Extension School.

Another initiative that promises to attract new HESA members and to link them to students of Harvard College and the University is the affiliation with the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA), Harvard's student-run public service organization. Consisting of 77 program committees, more than 1,800 student volunteers, and serving close to 10,000 clients in the Cambridge and Boston area, PBHA is dedicated to social service and action. Ria Riesner, an ALB candidate, a co-founder of First Fridays, and a long-time community service volunteer, has spearheaded meetings with Gene Corbin, the PBHA director; Assistant Dean of Harvard College Judith Kidd; and Assistant Dean of Students for Continuing Education and the advisor to HESA, Dr. Robert Neugeboren, to facilitate Extension School student participation. "These linkages will bring our student volunteers into close collaboration with their counterparts in the College, which will benefit both the students and the community. Certainly this is in the spirit of the Harvard Extension School, which has historically been one of Harvard's ways of giving back to the communities of Cambridge and Boston," says Dean Neugeboren.