Hello. Good evening. Welcome. And for some of you, welcome back. Thanks so much for joining us for our second summer webinar series. For those of you who are able to join earlier this week or see us at Visitas, it's so good to see you again. 

For our families who are joining for the very first time, welcome. It's really, really great to have you here. My name is Jason Meier. I have the pleasure and honor of serving as the associate dean for Student Engagement at Harvard College. 

And I help support the teams that create the co-curricular and extracurricular community that all of your students are about to be a part of. As I've shared previously at a former webinars, we've been at Visitas, we have a number of deep dives this summer into our very, very vibrant campus community. 

And tonight's deep dive is all about academics. You're going to hear from our panelists in just a few minutes, more about the academic journey here at Harvard, and how you can best support your student as they're experiencing it. 

As always, I'm one of your moderators for tonight, with the incredible Katie Patrick, who I'll let introduce herself right now. 

Thanks so much, Jason. Hi, everyone. My name is Katie Patrick. I'm the interim director of Orientation and Family Engagement, and I'm really excited to be back here with you all tonight. 

In addition to these summer webinars, we also do webinars during the spring semester for all families to join. And if you're interested in watching some of those previous recordings, they are on our website. 

But right now, these summer webinars are just for you, all the incoming parents and families of our students. So before we move into our discussion, we have a couple quick tips and tricks for navigating our webinars. 

So as you may have heard, the session is being recorded, and we will post the recordings to our website, and we will also share it in a follow up newsletter, once we have the captions and transcription files ready. 

Sometimes, that can take about a week for them to be done, so just bear with us while we get those all sorted out, but we will share it as soon as possible. And our next piece of advice is that after this, we will have a survey pop up at the very end. 

I always appreciate reading the feedback, and we would love to know what other helpful topics would be for the spring semester. So we really look forward to that. And I appreciate you all filling that out. And I'll hand it back to Jason for our final piece of advice. 

Thanks, Katie. The last thing that we want to mention and share with you is regarding a law that all of our parents and family members should really be aware of, and this law is called FERPA, which stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. 

FERPA basically says that college students records belong to them and them alone. So since college students are in charge of their own records and that information, we, as faculty and staff, cannot share or talk about that with anyone, other than the student. 

So if you have any questions regarding your student's personal records, our advice is always to talk to them first, because they'll be your best point of contact about their own personal student records. 

Thank you so much. For tonight, we are joined by a variety of panelists. So we have some staff faculty, as well as two orientation welcoming committee students that are joining us. And as a reminder, our orientation welcoming committee students, our students who are helping us plan and organize orientation for your students. 

And there'll be some of the friendly faces that you see around Harvard Yard during move in day, so we are very excited to see you all then. And now, I want to pass it off to our panelists for them to come up and join us and introduce themselves. And we are going to start with Kat Veach. 

Rookie mistake. Zoom for six years, and I didn't unmute. Hi, everyone. My name is Katherine Veach. I am the assistant dean for first year academic programs here at the college, and my own scholarly work is in the field of religion. 

Thank you so much. Next up, we have Rachelle Gaudet. 

Hello, everybody. I'm a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and my research focuses on how cells sense and respond to their neighbors and to their environment. 

I've been on the faculty for 24 years, and I've worked with undergraduates in many different functions, including as a research mentor, course instructor, director of undergraduate studies. 

And maybe most relevant for tonight is that I teach in life sciences IA, which is an introductory chemistry and biology course that many first year students take. So perhaps some of your students will be in my class in the fall. 

Thank you so much. Next up, David Elmer. 

Hi, everybody. Hello. My name is David Elmer. I'm a professor in the Classics Department. My research is on ancient Greek literature, and especially the Homeric poetry. So the last couple of days I've been fielding a lot of questions in connection with the film that is about to come out. 

But for this audience, I would say of particular relevance are two things. One, I am the course head for another intro course for first year students called humanities 10. So if you have a student who's interested in learning more about the study, the humanities, that's a great course to take. 

And the other thing that's probably relevant is the fact that I have the great honor of serving as the faculty dean of Eliot House, which is one of the 12 upper class houses, one of the residence halls that students move into after their first year in Harvard Yard. 

And I live in that residential community. I eat in the dining hall, two meals a day, most days, and have many, many conversations with students. We'll be talking later, I'm sure, about advising networks. 

But I just stress this to gesture towards the web of informal advising that our students can take advantage of, especially because this is a residential community. And I'll stop there for now. 

Thank you so much. And I'll bring up our first orientation welcoming committee student, Megan. 

Hi, everyone. My name is Megan Schultz, and I'm a rising senior at the college. I am a proud member of Eliot House, and I study a double concentration in molecular and cellular biology and psychology. 

Thank you so much, Megan. And last, but certainly not least, Nell. 

Hi, everyone. My name is Nell Sparks. I'm a current rising sophomore here, so about to spend my first year in Winthrop House. I'm also doing a double concentration, studying ESPP or environmental science and public policy and psychology. 

Awesome. It's so great to have you all here, really excited for this conversation. And I have the pleasure of kicking things off. And we're going to start with a really big question, but one that I think Kat, Rachelle, and David can really help us get to the heart to. 

And that is what should be the main academic goals for students in their first year. And Kat, we'll start with you. 

Great. So I am very happy to share that this is not a secret. This is something your students have been told very explicitly in the summer orientation to academics at Harvard modules that were available as of earlier this month. 

So we're really clear that there's a lot that they're going to learn in the first year. It's an exciting time, but there are two things to really think about academically. One is building a solid foundation of skills that are going to underpin the work that they choose to do, as they specialize in their concentrations. 

So Professor Elmer and Professor Gaudet's courses are the kinds of courses that build those skills. We have plenty of those kinds of skill-building courses across various areas. 

So they want to really think about building those skills in the first year, refining their math skills, language skills, critical reading and writing skills, science skills, lab skills, things like that, depending on what they're interested in. 

They also want to really be thoughtful about evaluating their concentration options. At Harvard, students will declare their concentration, which many people know as a major elsewhere, but we call it concentration. 

In October of their sophomore year or November. It's changed recently. But in the fall of their sophomore year. And so they have time in this first year, where they're not pressured to actually say officially what they're planning to do. 

So in this first year, we really want them to think about, I might be interested in a really interesting topic. Like, why do people do the things that they do? So we have a couple of psychology concentrators here. 

Psychology offers one way to think about that, but so does sociology, or anthropology, or even government and things like that. So they may want to think about the things that interest them and compare some different ways of approaching those questions and topics. 

They have a list in that summer orientation to academics at Harvard. Modules. There is a list in the second section of all of the gateway courses that are appropriate for first year students, that are on offer this fall and this spring, that they can really feel confident starting with. 

So we tell them that we really want them to build skills. We really want them to evaluate the different concentrations they may want to pursue. And then we really have ways for them to do that in an appropriate level that we've spelled out for them. 

So please encourage them to do that, and I think that that's a big picture explanation of how we think about this, but we have even greater detail to share with you. 

That's such a great start, Kat. Professor Gaudet, I'd be really curious from your perspective what those goals should be. 

So I think-- and I like that Kat really talked about how to lay out a foundation that gives them flexibility. But I think another key word from my perspective is exploration, that, really, I encourage students to come here with an open mind, as they start their journey at Harvard so that they can find some opportunities for intellectual risk. 

They might already know some things they're interested in, but mix it up a little bit in the first year, especially, just to make sure that they keep thinking about their tastes might change, as they grow here at Harvard, so they want to be prepared for that. 

I think that's right. That's really great insight. Professor Elmer, what do you see from your perspective? 

Oh, I was going to say exactly the same thing, actually, about exploration. I think one academic-- a major academic goal should be to choose courses that expose, that the students should choose courses that expose him or her to really a range of subjects. 

So you definitely want to take something that you think might be a possible area of concentration. But I would also encourage students to take something in a subject that is completely new to them, because this is one of the great differences of studying at the university. 

There's just such a vast range of topics and subjects here that, really, no student has the chance to be exposed to before arriving at Harvard. 

I think that's right. I think one of my favorite things about exploring the course catalog is just that sheer volume of just ways to be exposed to new ideas. It's really quite powerful. And I think that's a beautiful way to bring us to our next question. 

So, Kat, I'd be curious, from your perspective, how should students think about building out their schedules for the fall semester? 

So we've talked a lot about exploration, and that is an important part of this. I'll tell you a little bit about how we think about this at a high level, but also give you some very specific tips and expectations for that. 

So one of the things students are actually being told right now in the small group advising sessions called Building Your Harvard Education, that they have the opportunity to attend before the end of the month is that not only is exploration expected here. 

This is something that we've built the curriculum to contain. We don't have a curriculum that rewards, knowing exactly what you want to do immediately. We have a curriculum that actually creates the space for students to try new things in the way that we've been recommending. 

So that is not only expected. It's also more valuable than they might imagine. And I think students sometimes share with us what kind of courses they never thought would put a new spin on the things that they study, or the courses that actually end up changing their lives. 

I don't know if Professor Elmer knows this, but my very first course in college was ancient Greek, and I wandered in there, and it ended up changing my life. I did graduate work in the subject, but it also helped my brain be different. 

I think he could probably speak to that, too. There's a very Greek brain of the way of thinking about words in the world that really brought into my experience and my existence that was really valuable for me. 

So exploration is both expected and valuable, and students are very much hearing that. There are also some things to just keep in mind. So every student in the first semester may only take exactly four courses. 

So those four courses typically have four credits each. So a full load for which you should not take more or fewer credits is 16 credits. And another thing that students are told in those summer orientation to academics at Harvard modules is that we really want to think about balance in a few different ways. 

So you might want to think about a course that has problem sets, math, homework, things like that to be balanced with something that's going to ask you to read a little bit more, to think and reflect and write a little bit more. 

These things are all important to really shaping your experience, to thinking about that balance is important. Thinking about a balance, of course, sizes is really important as well. There are courses of varying sizes and ways of teaching. 

So understanding that you might not want to have all really big lecture courses. You want to blend in a first year seminar that has only 12 people at most in that course, really getting to know and work with a faculty member. 

So thinking about balance is really, really important. And also, just reassuring students who have, as you, as families know better than anyone, really worked hard to get where they are right now. They have tried to check all the boxes and do the right things, and they're here at Harvard. 

So that's taught them that this is really something that's valuable. And then we ask them to stop checking boxes and just meander a little bit. And that's a really tough transition, sometimes. But it is one that is valuable, and it's one that's worth doing. 

And when students can really embrace that, and they can try new things, and they can evaluate their options, and they can think about balance. They can think about trying the science and balancing it with the language or something in the humanities. 

They really get to have a sense of who they're becoming, as they become their own intellectual self at college. So the more that you can encourage them, within those boundaries I gave you-- balance, 16 credits, four classes, that thing, building those foundational skills. 

The more that you can really encourage them to think big and think about how they might want to do something new, the better their experience is going to be. 

That cues up my next question so wonderfully. We're so lucky to have students here to participate in this conversation. Megan, as a rising senior, you've had this experience a number of times, so I'd be curious to learn from you. Any advice you have in helping students approach building their first fall schedule? 

Yeah, so I think it was explained really well that exploration is really important your first year, but how exactly does that look for you or your student. And I think that as mentioned before, one of the main ways that is really important is first year seminars. 

Now, these classes, again, they're very small courses, only around 10 to 12 students in them, but they're also set on SAT, so you're not receiving a letter grade, and you're truly getting the opportunity to just explore something that you might be interested in, or at the end of it, you might not be interested in it, but it's OK. 

Because you have that time built in as a first year to explore these courses. And as you're reviewing the course catalog, I know it can be very overwhelming. Still, for me, as a senior, it's extremely overwhelming sometimes. 

But you will have the opportunity to connect with your peer advising fellow within the next month or so. And basically, they're an upperclassmen student, who are taking the time to connect with you as an academic resource, extracurricular resource, personal resource, as you transition during your first year. 

And they'll be able to give you advice on selecting courses that maybe they've taken in the past, or they've heard their friends have taken. And it's just another level to that advising network that you'll have as a first year, that will allow you to pick the courses that are best suited for you. 

I think that's such great advice. The peer advising fellow network is such a valuable resource, and I know you're a path, Megan. And it's such an incredible opportunity to connect on such a profound level with our incoming students. 

And I think one of the things I'm going to go back to you, Kat, a lot of students are concerned about pitfalls and traps. Is there any advice for students who maybe are trying to avoid what they perceive to be a pitfall? 

Oh, that's so good. I mean, one pitfall that they're afraid of is that exploration is somehow bad, and we've covered that that's not true, that's the opposite of the case. We actually have some guidance. And Professor Gaudet would agree with this, I'm sure. 

Some of our science faculty and departments really want students to be sure if they're interested in science courses to take a math course, but not more than one science gateway course introduction to the discipline. 

So that's, again, asking them to really invest in this balance. Think about a language, think about a writing course, et cetera. So if you're thinking about STEM, your students thinking about STEM, science, anything like that, you want to make sure you're at the right level for math. 

And there are ways we can chat about it in just a second, that you can determine that. But you also want to make sure not to overload, even if you are the most sciency student that you could possibly be. 

There is too much science as a good thing in that first semester. So our faculty have asked us to share that as we advise students. The other important pitfall to avoid is we have really ambitious students at Harvard. 

It's really easy to think, I can self-study and skip up several math courses and things like that. We have so much evidence that that's actually more detrimental to students than it can ever be valuable. 

So we have a really great introductory math sequence, in particular, faculty that think a lot about making that transition from high school to math, or high school math to college math. So there are some ways that students can understand what their math placement is. 

They have a placement exam they're all required to take. That existed My Harvard as of, I think, yesterday. So they can see what math they've been recommended for. And then at the very beginning of the semester, in their first class, they'll even have an opportunity to make sure they're in the right place, and they can move as needed. 

So making sure to really understand the placement for math is really important. Making sure to balance that is really important. I think the other pitfalls are really just not giving yourself a place to explore. 

Often, when I talk to students about it, this is like the biggest candy store in the world intellectually. And you may only have a specific-sized bag that you can fill, but you really should think about taking advantage of the riches that are here. 

So that would be a pitfall outside of the very specific math- and science-related instructions I've relayed, is just making yourself a little bit robbed of that intellectual possibility that we offer here. I've been here for nearly a decade, and it really blows my mind every single day, so it's something to embrace. 

Wonderful. Thank you so much, everyone, for those responses. So next, I'm actually going to throw this to Professor Elmer. And I'm going to start with what is intellectual transformation, and what does it look like for a student's academic journey? 

I'm excited about answering that question, but I wanted to begin by just seconding that last pitfall. And I speak now as a former Harvard undergraduate, who took something like 19 courses in the classics department over four years. 

And I can tell you, that, now, as a 50-year-old member of the faculty, I regret some of the choices I made in college in selecting my classes. And I really wish, for example, that I had taken some math, any math course, frankly, and science. 

But to address the question about intellectual transformation, I think there are a couple of things I could highlight. I think maybe the most important is that this we do hope that all of our students experience a intellectual transformation, and that we know and expect to be challenging, and sometimes, difficult or uncomfortable. 

So students should expect to be exposed to ideas that are very new, approaches that are very new to be-- they should also expect to find themselves, perhaps in a classroom. We were talking about this a little bit with the transition from high school math to collegiate math. 

The same thing is true in my own area, where we are helping students grow as readers and writers. Students come into the classroom, and they may find that an approach that has been the way to succeed in high school is no longer the way to succeed in one of the Harvard classrooms. 

And that can be a bit uncomfortable. Wait a minute, I'm doing just what I was taught to do. And the students should, I think, really lean into those challenges and welcome the idea that they're going to be asked to do things that push them, and they should be pushing themselves. I know others will have lots to say, so I will leave it there. 

Thank you. Professor Gaudet. 

Yeah, I think one way that I like to think about intellectual transformation is that, often, we start learning in disciplines by learning well-established facts. And as you go deeper and deeper into discipline, then you start developing the ability to evaluate the evidence and sit at the edge of certainty and uncertainty and much more complexity. 

So you have to start to feel comfortable with all of those complexities, uncertainties. And I think the transformation becomes when you can live at that edge and understand that you're in it for a lifetime of continued learning and growth. 

To me, college is not just learning all the facts now. It's learning how to keep learning. So that transformation, I think, happens a lot for students in their first couple of years of college. So that's something that I always look forward to. 

I'm teaching first years. I often have to keep some of the concepts that are new to them, very simple compared to the way I view them. And then in office hours, I love to try to challenge them a little bit and share a little bit more. 

So I think this is something that a lot of students will also experience, talking with faculty outside of the classroom to learn more about what's really on the edge of the different fields that their faculty are involved in. 

Definitely. And Professor Elmer, I'm going to jump back to you for this one. You talked a little bit about-- and I think we all have a little bit in some of the past webinars as well-- that the transition from high school to college, what work then maybe doesn't work now. 

So being in classrooms with first year students, what have you seen that students do that really set them up for success? 

I'm not sure if it's the number one thing, but really up there at the top would be seeking out advice from your instructors, whether that's the professor teaching the course or the graduate student who's leading a discussion section. 

So going to office hours or talking with your instructors after class, with follow-up questions, these kinds of conversations-- I mean, oftentimes, when I'm talking to students in office hours, for example, they come with one question, which they think is going to be the thing that they need to have answered in order to figure out this paper that they're working on, or whatever it may be. 

And it turns out that, that question is unimportant, that there are other things that we discover in conversation that are really going to be much more important for shaping that student's understanding of the course material and mastery of the course material. 

So I think that, again, there are other things that I could highlight, but I think I would encourage that that's my number one piece of advice, especially for new college students. Go to office hours and have those conversations outside the lecture. 

Can I chime in a little bit? I love that recommendation, go to office hours. And I'll emphasize that students, sometimes, have the misconception that they should have questions, or that they should only go to office hours if they're facing some issue. 

But I think office hours are just a place to have much more open conversations than in the classroom. So if you have-- a student that has any interest in the discipline should just feel like they're going to be welcomed at office hour. 

And I think the other thing, especially in the sciences, we often-- not every course. Different courses have different ways of functioning. But in my course, we encourage students to work together on problem sets to work with peers. 

Often trying to explain things to peers is how you really solidify, have I really understood something? And office hours are a great way to meet some of those peers and start to form peer study groups. 

So in addition to office hours, finding peers that you work well together in terms of study groups, because a lot of the learning is going to be done outside of the classroom. You have to stay motivated. So, sometimes, finding people to keep you honest in putting in some hours is a good way to develop good habits. 

Well, Professor Gaudet, let's keep you up here for a second. One of the things that I think both you and Professor Elmer are talking about is this major distinction from high school to college, where students take control of their learning. Is there anything additional that you want to talk about how students might best take control of their own learning? 

So I mean, I guess I was starting to already indicate some of the things that I think are important to figure out how to pace yourself and how to put time. Because I think a big difference between high school and college is the number of hours in the classroom versus number of hours that you spend doing your own work for learning outside of the classroom. 

And sometimes, I see in course evaluation reports, students said, I was confused in lectures. I only learned when I started to really work through the course material on their own. And I'm thinking, yes, it worked right. 

Sometimes, they think, well, that was a failure of the class. But I think that was actually-- usually, in the classroom, we want to try to point them to where they still have learning to do, we do a lot of activities and questions back and forth. 

And then they know where to look. So I think trying to find for students to identify what they understand, what they don't, and then they can figure out where to invest the most time in terms do their own homework, I think, is a good habit to try to develop. 

I think it's a great habit. Professor Elmer, what have you seen? 

I agree with everything that Professor Gaudet has to say, always. I've always found that to be the case. And she's so-- I love what she had to say about so much of the learning happening outside the classroom. 

And then the corollary, which is that time management and really structuring your time so that you are able to do that outside the classroom work, that is really where most of the learning happens. 

There's a, I don't know, maybe a dirty secret among lecturers, which is that, really, giving a lecture is the worst way to get a student to learn some content. It's when they're actively engaged with the material, doing those problem sets or the reading outside of class or whatever the case may be, that they really-- that they really absorb it. 

So, time management. And then I think taking control of learning at the college level can also involve at this-- I don't have quite the right words. I recall being a high school student and welcoming the handouts or the notes that my teachers would provide and write up on the board. 

And I knew that those were the 10 things that I had to memorize and keep in mind for the upcoming exam, and so on. At the collegiate level, so much more-- the student has to do a lot more of the synthesizing and the extracting from the course material of, what do I need to know? 

What do I need to get out of this scientific article or this novel that I've been asked to read? And it can take a while to develop that skill. This is one of those foundational skills, I think, that we mentioned at the outset. 

And I think a great way to accelerate the acquisition of that skill is just to hammer on themes that we've already talked about is to go to office hours or talk with peers in the class and compare notes and get as much input as you can about what is the important thing to hang on to in this material? 

Thank you so much for that, Professor Elmer. I think we're really lucky to have Nell with us, who is just finished up her first year. So I'm curious, from your point of view, what did it mean to you to really take control of your own learning? 

Yeah, thank you. I'll try not to repeat too much. I think all the advice that was just shared is exactly what I would say first. So I think, for me, one of the biggest differences between high school and college is the lack of hand-holding. 

I mean, I come from a class of 65 and all girls, so very different from co-ed undergrad class of 1,800 of us, I think, in my grade. So the accountability and the ownership was completely new to me. 

And at first, it felt intimidating. In high school, you have school from 8:00 to 3:00, and then sports from 3:00 to 5:00. And then you go home and you have dinner with your family, et cetera. 

But for me, honestly, I think the ownership and independence that I gained this year was one of my favorite parts because I got to really build a schedule and routine that works for me. 

For example, I learned in the first semester that I work really well in the mornings, so getting up early and doing work before class is something that works for me, as well as scheduling myself 9:00 AM, which I know is a hot take. 

But I'd love to schedule myself 9:00 AMs. And my roommate was the exact opposite. She loved her 3:00 PM classes, so she could sleep in, and she worked until some days, like 3:00 AM in Lamont Library. 

But for me, I got to learn all those things. Something else I learned was, for me, taking ownership means almost treating my classes like a fun job. So, at the beginning of each semester, I would put all my exams, all my assignments, any important deadlines, or anything like that into my Google Calendar, so nothing snuck up on me. 

And honestly, this sounds, again, a little bit crazy to say, but I even, sometimes, schedule like fun time with my friends, because all of us had such-- our schedules did not overlap at all. We all had very different extracurriculars, very different class schedules. 

So putting it in a shared GCal of Friday Night. We are not doing any work. No one's in Lamont. No one's doing homework until 3:00 AM. We're all just going to hang out in our dorm, or we're all going to go into Boston and go to a nice restaurant dinner. 

So I would say, like scheduling fun is really-- it sounds a little funny, but if you don't make space for it, I think that school and schoolwork and homework and studying can just really take over. And then quickly touching upon something else-- I know it's already been touched upon, but really being proactive in your learning. 

If I didn't understand something, I often went to office hours or ask questions or form study groups, and that will be my final piece of advice is, I think taking ownership and actually reaching out to people in your class to make a study group, to not only make sure you show up, and you actually are studying for stuff, but also, active recall, teaching someone else. 

I think it was Professor Gaudet said that, but teaching someone else is the best way to learn. So that's my piece of advice. Because the professors and the TAs, they want you to succeed in their classes. 

They're not hoping, I hope this person fails. I hope they don't do well. I hope they get a bad grade. No, they want you to succeed, but they're not going to hold your hand every step of the way. So if you want help, really be proactive about it and reach out. 

Now, that's just great life advice, especially the I still schedule into my work calendar, my moments to connect with friends and to have those social moments. It's so important. I think that's so wise. 

But another part that we spent a lot of time is past year talking about is the importance of mastering course material. It has been at the forefront of so many conversations. So, Kat, I'd be curious to hear from your perspective what course mastery might mean. 

For sure. First, I will say, no, I also was kind of dismayed to learn I was a morning writer, that I needed to do my best work first thing in the morning. And I tell students that all the time because part of what you're learning is how you do your best work. 

And sometimes, it's a surprise, like I need to be writing at 6:30 in the morning. So mastering course material, because we talked earlier about how one of the most important things to think about in the first year is really building that core of knowledge and skills. 

Mastery is really important. And I can make this relatively short and just say the biggest surprise that doesn't seem like such a surprise when you think about it, is that mastery takes repetition. It takes revisiting material. 

And many students in high school, particularly those that come to Harvard, were great at studying the night before, reading through something, and getting enough of it to do a really great job on an essay or on an exam or something like that. 

But here, mastery means revisiting, and that's some of the ways-- that some of the time you need to spend outside of class is revisiting something that may feel complete. You may read a chapter of a book or an article. 

You may finish a problem set, something like that, and it's not done until you've really revisited it. You've learned from mistakes and feedback, that you get when you turn it in, or when you talk to somebody in the course about it. 

You're really revisiting this constantly and learning where you went wrong, where you went right, what the principles are that you can apply to further study. 

Professor Gaudet, I see you smiling. So what is your thought about this? 

Yeah, I mean, I really like what Kat said, and it was resonating with me. And I think part of the revisiting will also happen through course sequences. The way the curriculum is structured at Harvard, there's often interesting pieces of overlap. 

Or sometimes, people will come and say, oh, I learned all of this that you teach in S1A in high school. And I always think, you saw a lot of these concepts, but you probably haven't seen them the way we're going to teach them. 

Thus, revisiting really solidifies foundations. And I think mastery is when you can come in and reapply, figure out what is it that you already know, and that you can use as a basis to approach a new problem that you're facing. 

And then start from there. So being able to identify what it is, that's new, what it is that you already know. And then you can really feel like you start to master things beyond just learning for the exam. 

And I think there is stuff that's naturally built into the way we structure the curriculum at Harvard. But it also takes work and all the habits that Nell mentioned, I think, are great ways to be able to build your foundation. 

I love watching that build year after year, and we see that progression. And it's so powerful and incredible to watch that transformation. Professor Elmer, what do you see around this? 

Yeah, thinking about course mastery or content mastery in courses, I guess, I would return to something that Professor Gaudet brought up earlier in the conversation, which had to do with the difference between just learning a given set of facts, and then on the other hand, sitting more at the edge of those facts and working in a space where it's about more, somehow. 

She spoke about uncertainty or what is not a given accepted piece of knowledge. I would say, in my area of the humanities mastery of course material, what really sets apart the students who've mastered the course material is that they are able to really think with and say, bring some new insight forward, say something new, with the material that we've given them. 

So it's about more than just, say, learning the plot outline or some key characteristics that define a text. It's about being able to go from that, connect that text to others that we haven't included in the course content, make connections across this domain, and really build a perspective, an argument of one's own out of the material that we give them in the course. 

Thank you all so much. So speaking of being in the classroom course material, something that inevitably will happen in the classroom is that students are going to be exposed to challenging materials, new conversations. 

So I would love to hear what advice you would give to students, navigating those challenging conversations, maybe for the first time. And Kat, I'm going to throw it over to you to start. 

Of course. I think there's one piece of advice to keep in mind, that I'll mention before I turn it over to other folks. But I also want to say one thing I hope you take away from all of this conversation tonight is that we think a lot at Harvard about your students transition here, academically, residentially, socially. 

All of the different things that are going to be a part of their experience, we think a lot about that, and we want to equip them with what they need to do that successfully and to feel confident. So I want you and your students to know we have a plan for you. 

We have materials for you. We have things like that for you. And one of those materials that are really important is a set of modules online called intellectual life and constructive disagreement. So those are something your students have access to. 

They actually give you real advice from a Kennedy School professor, who was an undergraduate at Harvard College herself. And based on her research that says, here's how you actually navigate complicated discussions in all sorts of areas of your life. 

So we're giving students access to something that says, here's how you do this difficult stuff. And the other part of that module is, here's what the intellectual virtues are of our community. Here's what participating in this intellectual community is like. 

And those are things, like curiosity, and open-mindedness, and intellectual courage, and intellectual autonomy, where you really learn to think for yourself. So we're really showcasing for students, that this is really, really important, and we're giving them the tools to start that navigation, as early as this summer. 

So they have access to that now. But the pithy piece of advice that I will say that is tough from college is, as somebody who's worked in the humanities, everything that they are assigned to read does not mean that it is the perspective or the cosigned truth by the faculty member assigning that thing. 

Often, these are things that are designed to be in conversation with each other, so that people are having constructive arguments and disagreements, and things like that, as we seek the veritas that is at the center of Harvard's motto. 

So in high school, it often feels like we're telling you what to read and think and understand, and what is the truth. In college, it gets more complicated. So understanding that is a really important first step. 

Thank you. And Professor Gaudet, I see you nodding, so I'm going to hand it off to you. 

I guess I was hearing Kat and also reflecting on one of the things that happens, arriving at Harvard is there are people from so many different places, and that have so many different life experiences. 

And so, I think, if you want to come open to hearing things from perspectives that are very different than you, and also expect that some of your perspectives might change, that your conversations might change somebody else's perspective, but that all of this is part something that biologists, I'll say, evolution, right? 

So that the first conversation might be challenging. You might be left frustrated, but that doesn't mean that it hasn't touched somebody. It doesn't mean that I think-- so there's just lots of different ways that these conversations and these challenges can prove fruitful. 

So just be open and realize that some of these conversations might end up frustrating, but that's all, in a way, part of the process. And sitting at the edge of veritas, at the edge of truth. 

Thanks. Professor Elmer. 

So my headline is a word that Kat used a moment ago, which is curiosity. Really, I think that's the mindset to bring to both the classroom and the social, residential side of the Harvard experience. 

The point of this experience is to expose people to ideas that they are new to them, that may be challenging to get them to help students examine their own assumptions and beliefs, and then hold them more strongly after that examination or come to see ways in which they could be adjusted. 

So that happens, both in the classroom, and so instructors are trying to introduce different viewpoints and put them in dialogue with each other in the classroom. And it also, of course, as Professor Gaudet pointed out, it happens in our residential community, because we do have this absolutely extraordinarily diverse set of students. I'll rest there. 

Thank you all so much. So something that we talked a lot about, and I know we're all hearing a lot about is the advising network. So Kat, I was wondering if you could give us an overview of what actually compromises the advising network. 

Absolutely. So the advising network has some built-in things that every student gets. So a path, like we have with Megan, who's a peer advising fellow is something every student will have access to. They'll be introduced to them later in this month or early in August. 

They also have a resident dean of the first year who is the person in charge of their yard, about 400 or so students. That really helps them navigate this transition, helps them think about big picture things, move through the Harvard bureaucracy at times, things like that. 

They also have a proctor who lives with them in their dorm. That is something that's a little different at Harvard than at many places, because these are adults. These are graduate students, staff members, that really have had experience and are bringing a more mature perspective than might be found in just a resident assistant who's another college student. 

So we have this near peer adult and very professional network for every student that that's the beginning point. And then after that, we encourage students and try to provide ways for them to build their advising network beyond that. 

So they may go to a professor's office hour because they're really interested in what that professor is teaching. They may find somebody else, a librarian, a staff member, any number of people who they really want to just ask questions to and really develop that mentorship and advising. 

So we are telling students in the materials that they have and the small group advising sessions they're attending, currently, that they start with this. This is a wonderful set of resources for them. 

And then they build that themselves in a way that really helps them create their own advising network that will support their individual goals, hopes, dreams, visions, future career, et cetera. 

Thank you so much. And I want to hand this off to our students on the call as well. So, Megan, I'm going to start with you. From your experience being a student and in your role as a path, how have you utilized the advising network and what advice would you give? 

I would obviously say my first piece of advice is to reach out to your paths. As I said before, we are upperclassmen. We've lived through that, experiencing the transition from high school to being a first year student. 

But the biggest thing is-- because, obviously, you haven't been introduced to your paths yet, the most important thing to stress is that we're not just there to help you pick your courses for the fall semester. We're with you throughout your entire first year. 

And so we can answer questions about picking courses for spring semester, or when you're considering what to do over the summer, or even if you don't have academic based questions. We're there as a constant resource for you. 

So definitely, lean on us. We're more than happy to help and give advice on any questions that you have for academics. And then another thing that I would like to stress is the fact that you can reach out to professors in various concentrations, even though you're not in that concentration already. 

They would love to have a conversation with you or read an email, just by saying that you're interested in their topic. I'm sure that they would love to chat with you about it. Even if you end up not being interested in that concentration, taking that step towards, again, taking ownership of your academics to go back to that we stated previously. 

And actually finding the resources that you will use throughout your four years at Harvard is really important. So those are my two biggest pieces of advice is reach out to your path, of course, as a fellow student, but also get to know the professors in potential concentrations that you're interested in. 

Thank you. That's wonderful. And Nell, having just gone through this, what are your thoughts? 

Yeah, of course. I really want to reemphasize what Megan just talked about of getting to know professors, especially, for me, I used my office hours. I'd ask a few course-related questions. But otherwise, it was more about asking the professor about their research and their career paths, and how they found their field and what their day-to-day looks like. 

And for example, I know at least three of my friends who have research opportunities this summer and are getting to know a different field solely because they went to office hours and built a connection with their professor. 

And for me, that's how I knew. I came into college as an econ major, and talking in office hours with my econ professor made me realize, I don't want to do econ. And that's perfectly fine. And then in one of my other classes, I went-- we had a field trip to one of the islands in the Boston Harbor. 

And I talked with my environmental science professor, the entire time about his research and his work and his career path. And that made me realize that is what I'm interested in, and that is what I want to do. 

So my advice is to not wait until you have a problem, or you don't understand course material to talk to professors or introduce yourself. And I mean, like Megan said, this comes back to taking ownership of your own education and taking accountability for yourself. 

So send the email, stop by office hours, ask someone, ask a professor to go for a coffee or for lunch or for a walk, so yeah. 

It's such incredible advice. Again, I know, anytime anyone wants to really deeply connect with someone, ask about their interests. It's such a powerful tool. And I don't want to get too far ahead. 

But I would suspect a couple of our parents and families right now are already wondering about job prospects and how their student might land a job after their four years at the college are up. 

So, Kat, can you talk to us a little bit about any recommendations you might have for parents and families who are already thinking about the job market? 

Of course. And that is a question we are increasingly getting in an uncertain world, rise of AI, all of these kind of things. I mean, I want to say, broadly, that the education students get at Harvard is applicable in so many ways. 

Students are getting an education, and while they're preparing for careers, they're preparing for many careers because of the way that they're learning to think here, the connections they're building, and things like that. 

So there is very much a truth that, at Harvard, you're not necessarily locked into, even if you graduate with a particular concentration, into the thing that feels like it's the next best step for that concentration. 

So just to know that the way of thinking about the world, seeing the world, and building skills is what's really valuable. But also know that in our, we have a plan for you, the Mignone Career Center is your one-stop shop for really thinking about these things. 

So that is our career center that centers everything, from internships and post-graduate work to applying to graduate schools and professional schools. It is a place that has so many resources, webinars, resume templates, people that really know what the job market looks like. 

And this is something your students will have access to. They have a very-- Katie can send this out in the materials that they share. They have a very useful website that has a Harvard College student section, that you should just explore as a student. 

My favorite thing that too few students know about is their career advising section, where they can actually match with Harvard community members, graduates, alumni who do specific things. So I've helped students who wanted to go to law school and are from Dallas, Texas. 

Find a lawyer in Dallas to talk to. They can have those kinds of experiences they can share with them. So that is a very rich resource that should be something people are looking at. 

The Mignone Career Center is an incredible resource. We're so lucky to have them for sure. Well, we are running so fast today. I want to jump to our final question of the night, and that's what is one final piece of advice that you might have for our parents and families. So, Professor Elmer, I'm going to start with you. 

So I'm going to speak-- well, actually, first, on that last point, let me just say that I've served as director of undergraduate studies in classics for many years, and all of our classic students go on to lucrative and rewarding careers. And they have degrees in classics, so I'm just going to let that sit with this audience for a moment. 

But then I'm going-- I want to, yes, give you this piece of advice. And for that, I'm going to switch to a different hat, which is my hat as a parent. I have two children. I know how deeply involved parents are with the education of their children. 

And I think college can be a really challenging time because this is a time when one of the goals that we have in the university is to help students build their independence and put them in charge of their own education and begin directing and charting the course of their lives. 

So I know, as a parent, that it can be difficult to step away a little bit and give your student the space to do that exploration. So my advice is embrace that, and see the value for your student in developing that independence. 

Beautifully stated, sir. Professor Gaudet, what's your final piece of advice? 

So maybe continuing on this theme of making sure to give students space to develop their independence. I think you can ask questions that are open-ended so that you're not checking on grades or things like that. 

But for example, you could ask them what was something that was the most challenging or the most surprising or the most rewarding aspect of a course or any other academic experience that they share they've had? 

So keeping it open-ended, but helping them think deeper than maybe some of the first surface level thoughts. 

Thank you so much for that. Totally agree, the open-ended questions are certainly better than did you have a good class today? Yep. Kat Veach, what's your final piece of advice? 

So I'm fully acknowledging that I'm going to sound like a shill for big administration when I say this. But we have created so many resources for your students, from people, to online resources, to websites, things like that. We see the questions they have. We see the things that are important to them. We see the challenges that they're going to need to rise to meet, and we've created things to help them do that. 

So the more that you can help them understand to use the resources-- they're not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of navigating this place in the same way that we hope they'll navigate the world as future leaders and industry captains, and all of the things that they'll go on to do. So they should really learn to ask for help, learn to use resources, learn to seek information that we have for them and just really learn to show up and be vulnerable and let themselves grow here. 

And gosh darnit, some of these resources are beautiful and fantastic. Megan, as you're approaching the final year, what advice would you give? 

Yeah, so I guess to be a little less academic here, but I think that you need to make sure that you're also checking in with your students' well-being and their mental health. Academics here will be challenging for them, but that's really important for their learning and their progress throughout their four years. 

So maybe take time to check in with them, make sure that they're also taking time for themselves, and they're actively blocking out in their schedule non-academic times, where they are focusing on their mental health. 

Because burnout can happen so easily, and having a resource like parents and family, backing them up and knowing that you're there for their support is extremely important for their academics here. 

Just a little cheerleading in that back corner can really change someone's entire day for sure. Nell, what about you? 

Yeah, I always encourage, as I've been talking to some incoming freshmen and their families, I encourage them to remember that the transition really does look different for everyone. So some students-- for example, some of my roommates called their parents every single day for the first semester. 

I called my mom once a week, and I was lucky enough where she would come in once a month. She lives 6 miles away. So she was able to visit me. I was able to see her pretty often. And trying to let, but also letting the student set the rhythm. 

And that's the thing I appreciated most about my family is that when I wanted to call them or when I had time to call them, and I had an hour to myself or whatever, they just let me talk, or rant, or whatever, talk about whatever I wanted to, and didn't try and step in for me or try and fix it for me, but rather just listen. 

And if I wanted advice, I would ask for it. I'd be like, hey mom, what do you think about this? What do you think about these courses? Like, what should I do? Or she would just listen and be supportive model cheerleader in my life. 

So, yeah, my biggest piece of advice is to really trust the foundation that you guys have already built as a family, between the relationship of you and your kids, et cetera, and trust them to call you at least once a week, and that they're learning themselves, and they'll figure it out. 

Spoken beautifully again now. Totally agree. I know my advice to all of our parents and families is to enjoy this ride. The academic journey is not a straight line. It's going to be quite wiggly. It's going to deviate. It's going to circle back in on itself, and that's OK. 

Ask those questions and go along with your student's journey because they know what is truly best for themselves, and they're going to experience some incredible things. So Katie, what's your advice, and take us home. 

Thank you so much. So before I jump into my piece of advice, I do just want to point out, we did receive a lot of questions for this webinar tonight, and I know we weren't able to answer all of them in the time that we had. 

But if you did have any questions or if this prompted any new ones, please email us. So that's going to be my advice. Reach out to us, and I'll put our email up here in just a moment. But we are going to share some helpful links that we talked about through this webinar in the newsletter. 

We'll post it on the website. So if you're looking to click around into different websites, we'll provide those to you. But if you're looking for anything to dig into tonight, I would recommend looking up the Harvard student handbook page, which lists the Harvard student handbook, as well as the fields of concentrations. 

That just has a lot of really wonderful information for your students to dive into, so they should look into that, as well as visiting the incoming student website that is updated very frequently with different webinars, different resources. 

Your students should have access to that through the many different newsletters they've received over the summer. So have them look into that, keep an eye on it, and keep revisiting it. And we'll also make sure to share the Mignone Career Center information as well in our next newsletter, so you all can dive into that. 

But also, feel free to look it up tonight, if you're interested. So my final piece of advice is going to be-- and let me find my screen here-- to reach out to us if you have any questions at all. 

So if you have any specific academic questions, you can always have your student reach out to the Office of Undergraduate Education, and that's the oue@fas.harvard.edu. As Kat said, there's a lot of different webinars and things happening throughout the summer. 

They should have no shortage of resources to connect with, but if they have any questions, they can reach out here. But for our families and friends and loved ones, if you have any questions for us. 

Or if you're looking to get pointed in the right direction, please email us parents@fas.harvard.edu, and we're more than happy to chat with you and make sure that you get answers to the questions that you are looking for. 

So I just want to thank our panelists once again. You all are so wonderful. And thank you all to our families and friends for joining us tonight. It was really wonderful having you, and we will see you next week for our Life on Campus conversation. We hope you can join us then. Thank you all very much. 

Good night.