Welcoming the Class of ’17
Before they began their academic lives at Harvard, the members of the Class of 2017 already experienced a taste of adversity, and demonstrated resiliency. In April, the manhunt for the second suspected Boston Marathon bomber forced the lockdown of Cambridge and surrounding communities, the closure of Harvard University, and the cancellation of Visitas, the Harvard tradition in which admitted freshmen arrive for their first exposure to campus life. Instead, Harvard College students and incoming freshmen connected through a “virtual Visitas” online. On Monday, Mother Nature forced the class to make a quick adjustment for another, newer Harvard tradition, Freshman Convocation. Because of the chance of strong thunderstorms, officials moved the convocation from outdoor Tercentenary Theatre into Memorial Church and Sanders Theatre. But challenges have a way of bringing members of a class closer together, which President Drew Faust and the rest of the convocation speakers stressed is critical to success at Harvard. “The most...