Harvard, Tufts, MIT stage 3-day humanitarian disaster simulation
“We have a saying in the simulation: ‘Rain is educational,’” Stephanie Kayden said, considering the cold, wet New England forest around her on a drizzly spring day. Across the surrounding landscape, 115 students from Harvard, Tufts, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were getting a firsthand taste of life as humanitarian aid workers. Divided into 18 teams, they were spread along the roads, lakefront, and trees of Harold Parker State Forest. They interacted with 140 volunteers — some of whom were tasked with giving them a very hard time — who staffed a faux United Nations headquarters, border checkpoints, field hospital, and refugee camps. “The goal is to put just enough stress on the students so that they know how to do their work under duress,” said Kayden, director of Harvard’s Lavine Family Humanitarian Studies Initiative. “We make them feel what it’s like to really be an aid worker, when they’re cold,...