Find Your Center: Rolling on the River
Rowing Club at Harvard Griffin GSAS builds community on the Charles
Each fall, the Rowing Club at Harvard Griffin GSAS (the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences) sets its sights on one of the sport’s most iconic events: the Head of the Charles Regatta. First held in 1965, this three-day race brings top crews and thousands of spectators to Cambridge from across the globe.
“It's a real privilege, because it’s the largest regatta in the world and it's right on our doorstep,” says PhD student Ben Gregson, president of the club. “It’s amazing that we’re able to compete, but it’s especially great because it attracts Harvard graduate students to the club. There are people who might not know about grad rowing, but they’ll know about the Head of the Charles, and because of that, we can find them.”
Finding Harvard Griffin GSAS students—and helping them to find themselves and each other through rowing—is the rowing club's mission. And even as the members hope to beat rival teams from Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, their larger goal is to make rowing more inclusive and accessible, and to strengthen the University’s graduate student community.
Reviving a Legacy of Rowing
Graduate student rowing at Harvard dates back to 1879, when students at Harvard Law School formed their own boat. Over the following century, other graduate schools followed suit, with a call for men across graduate departments at Harvard to row in 1897. However, in 2020, the tradition was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, the Rowing Club at Harvard Griffin GSAS was created by students who wanted to restore rowing as a meaningful part of life at Harvard Griffin GSAS. Since then, the club has grown rapidly, with more than 100 members today. It focuses on students from Harvard Griffin GSAS and welcomes other graduate schools, and embraces all levels of experience, from complete novices to former collegiate rowers.
Gregson began rowing as an undergraduate at Oxford, where the sport is woven deeply into student life. One of his goals for rowing at Harvard Griffin GSAS is to “break down the barriers to access for rowing” by keeping costs low and making the sport possible for anyone interested, regardless of their experience or availability.
“We're pretty flexible, and we're very welcoming,” Gregson says. “You would not be the first person to learn to row with us, and likewise, you would probably not be the person with the least availability. You know, if someone wants to row once a fortnight, that's something that we can accommodate. If someone wants to row every day, that's something that we can try and accommodate.”
[The Rowing Club] has been an amazing way to meet people both inside of Harvard Griffin GSAS as well as from across the University, and come together to do an incredible sport.
–Lauren Potyk
Welcoming Students to the Water
The club currently uses the Charles River dock of the Boston Latin School. This partnership helps keep it connected to the wider Boston community and reinforces its commitment to access. The group also helps connect students across programs. Club Vice President Lauren Potyk, a PhD candidate in environmental science and engineering, says the rowing club “has been an amazing way to meet people both inside of Harvard Griffin GSAS, as well as from across the University, and come together to do an incredible sport.”
Those who want to start rowing on the Charles can encounter high barriers to entry. Outside of Harvard, local rowing clubs often require an extensive onboarding process, including recommendations and annual fees that can range from $1,000 to $1,500, more than many graduate students can afford. “If you’re a Cambridge homeowner or professional, that might not seem like a lot of money, but if you’re a graduate student, it is,” Gregson said.
As an alternative, the Rowing Club at Harvard Griffin GSAS is student-run and offers a welcoming environment to train, learn, and connect at an affordable price, with financial aid available. Practices typically take place around 6:00 a.m. on weekdays, with additional sessions on weekends. Gregson says the way teammates show up for each other in all kinds of conditions makes the early mornings worthwhile.
“Last week, on Thursday morning, it was atrocious weather. It was so wet,” he recalls. “You step out of your apartment, and before you've even got on your bike, you're completely drenched. Then you cycle to the river, in the dark, in the rain, for 20 minutes. But when you get there, you're greeted by 18 other people who are also wet and cold, and they've all shown up for each other. You get in the boat, and you have a lovely time, and when you land, you feel like, ‘That was why I came.’”
A Terribly Perfect Team Sport
Gregson jokes that, in some ways, rowing is a terrible team sport. “You don't pass to each other. You don't speak to each other. You don't even look at each other,” he says. “You're all in a line, looking at the back of the person's head in front of you.”
But rowing is also a perfect team sport, Gregson says, because of the way it forces the members of a team to act as one. “It’s a collective effort,” he says. “You have to be in complete synchronization with each other. That naturally creates a bond.”
While rowing itself demands intense physical coordination and discipline, Gregson says it’s what happens before and after practice that forges the strongest bonds. After morning practices, members often grab breakfast together and discuss rowing, research, and life. “You end up chatting, and you share stories about other rowing experiences you've had, but also how everything else is going in your lives,” he says. “People stop being the back of the head in front of you in the boat, and they start to become colleagues and friends.”
[Rowing is] a collective effort. You have to be in complete synchronization with each other. That naturally creates a bond.
–Ben Gregson
Potyk, who joined during her first year after moving from Bozeman, Montana, says the club offered her more than just a sport. “I was really missing the mountains and my favorite activities to do back home, and I was looking for a new sport to do here that would allow me to see the city in a different way,” she says. “Since joining two years ago, I’ve gained much more beyond just that. We traveled to Zhejiang, China, in the spring of 2024. I have found a great community with the club here in Cambridge, too. The Rowing Club at Harvard Griffin GSAS has been a great way to meet people from across the University.”
Rowing Matters
The 2025 Head of the Charles Regatta takes place from October 17 to 19. Potyk says she can’t wait.
“The Rowing Club at Harvard Griffin GSAS’s participation in the regatta is an exciting focus point for our men’s and women’s competition teams,” she explains. “It brings together our community both within and beyond our club.”
As athletes and competitors, both Potyk and Gregson hope the club’s teams finish in the top half of their divisions, guaranteeing them a spot in next year’s regatta. The real win, though, will be the way the event increases the group’s connections to each other and to the Charles River and global rowing communities.
“You're in the Esplanade with all of the 50 other boats that are going to race in your division,” Gregson says. “There are 20 marshals driving around on launches, telling you where you need to be. You've just seen hundreds of boats going past. You've seen thousands of people on the banks. Suddenly, you feel like rowing matters to a lot of people, not just you. It's really fun to feel like you're part of that global sporting community.”
The Rowing Club at Harvard Griffin GSAS invites the University community to gather, enjoy the Head of the Charles, and cheer them on from the banks of the river at their watch party, Saturday, October 18, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
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