Find Your Center: Celebrating Harvard’s Finest—Graduate Appreciation Month 2026
Harvard Griffin GSAS students sit at the center of University life. They spend years creating new knowledge in nearly every field of study. They teach and mentor undergraduates, and contribute to their labs and academic programs. And they do it all while managing personal responsibilities, which often include families of their own.
At Harvard Griffin GSAS, April is dedicated to recognizing these efforts through Graduate Student Appreciation Month. “Our students are why we do this work. It is so wonderful to carve out time and resources to celebrate them,” says Janet Daniels, director of the Student Center at Harvard Griffin GSAS.
Daniels notes that the observance began as Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week, still celebrated nationally, this year, April 6–12. Harvard Griffin GSAS decided to extend the celebration to the entire month of April to provide more opportunities for students to participate. “In my work at Harvard, I often ask, ‘What about graduate students?’, or ‘WAGS’ as we say in higher ed,” Daniels says. “This month, we get to celebrate them in ‘pop-up moments’ across different campus locations.”
These pop-up moments are reflected in events across Cambridge, Longwood, and Allston throughout the month, enabling students to take a well-deserved break and join in the fun. Events like Graduate Appreciation Day in Cambridge (April 15) and Longwood (April 22) serve as anchors for the month. The Cambridge event also includes GRADitute: Cambridge Coffee & Cookies and Make & Mingle, an event in Lehman Hall on Wednesday, April 15, at 4:00 p.m., with a variety of crafting activities and a wide selection of sweet and savory snacks.
At Harvard’s Longwood campus, Graduate Appreciation Day will take place on Wednesday, April 22, 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m., with free swag, sweets, a raffle, and opportunities to connect with peers and staff. On April 27 at 6:00 p.m., an open-level yoga class will also be hosted in Longwood for anyone in the Harvard Griffin GSAS community.
Earlier this month, students enjoyed a visit with Sasha, Harvard’s first Community Engagement Dog. At a Coffee & Cookies and Make & Mingle session in Longwood, students enjoyed snacks and crafting with members of the Harvard Griffin GSAS Office of Culture, Community, and Engagement (CCE).
“Graduate Appreciation Month gives us language for something I feel all year, deep gratitude for our students and the chance to be in community with them,” shares Alicja Majer, associate director at CCE. “My favorite part of this work is every moment I get to be student-facing, listening to who they are and who they are becoming. Those are the spaces where we can bring parts of ourselves that do not always show up in the formal academic space.”
For Majer, these gatherings are all about connection and community. “Being part of Graduate Appreciation Month is meaningful because it shines a light on what makes this work so special: our students,” they note. “Every conversation is a reminder that this is a shared community, not just an academic institution, and I am deeply grateful to keep showing up alongside them.”
Daniels says that, ultimately, Graduate Student Appreciation Month is a time to give back to the people who give so much to Harvard throughout the year. “Our students work extremely hard and are very busy,” Daniels says. “I love that we can work as a team at our School to bring them moments of joy, relaxation, and treats during the last full month of the academic year.”
