Where Every Student Is Special
GSAS staff help non-degree scholars thrive at Harvard
Every year, top scholars from around the world study and research at Harvard through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ (GSAS) Visiting Students Program. Though small, the program’s history is long. Moreover, its mission of bringing some of the world’s brightest minds to campus is at the center of the University’s identity.
“The Visiting Students Program has existed as long as GSAS has,” says Director Alex Kent. “Its participants conduct research at many different parts of the University. Moreover, having scholars come here and create knowledge with faculty is aligned with the mission of GSAS and Harvard itself.”
Kent and his colleague Staff Assistant Karen Lounsbury make up the small but dedicated staff who help GSAS’s roughly two hundred visiting students navigate Harvard’s vast campus. Even as they do, they never lose sight of their core goals: to make non-degree students feel like full members of the GSAS community and connect them with all that the University has to offer.
The Home Office
Non-degree students at GSAS follow one of two pathways. Visiting fellows pursue research with an individual faculty member or lab, while special students take courses for credit among degree candidates at the school. After leaving Harvard, visiting students take their Harvard experience all around the globe and are integrated into the alumni community.
“There are a few folks who have gone through the program who I still keep in touch with,” Kent says. “Our students go on to secure amazing jobs or become degree candidates at Harvard and other great universities, and they do this by taking advantage of this program. They use their time here to bolster what they were doing before they come here and fill in the gaps in their work.”
Kent says that his role and that of Lounsbury is to liaise with different offices and staff around Harvard on behalf of visiting students.
“Our students, potentially, are getting paid,” he explains. “They’re getting scholarships. They’re living in GSAS housing. They’re using our health systems and other facilities at the University. Our role is to be their home office, and for me specifically, it is to direct and keep good relationships with our partners across Harvard.”
Kent and Lounsbury are a resource for students from application to orientation and throughout the academic year, but their work revolves around admissions. “We have two major deadlines throughout the year for admitting students,” Kent says. “That’s what starts a new cycle. A typical day here is dependent on that cycle.”
Many visiting students come to Harvard full of questions. Prospective participants trying to gauge their interest in the program have even more. As the office’s “front line” representative, Lounsbury’s job is to have answers for both groups. “I’m here to help people at all stages of the process,” she explains. “Right now, for instance, it’s an interesting time because we’re between terms. Participants who just left want to know about their transcripts. At the same time, prospective students are asking about their applications.”
Of course, the office’s primary role is to field questions from current program participants and to direct them to resources across the University—a process that has changed in the wake of the global pandemic. “Sometimes we have to be traffic cops and get folks to the right place,” Kent says. “Before COVID, we typically had students coming through the office and popping in to check with us. Now we have a lot of Zoom meetings.”
Many visiting students come from outside of the United States. Some have never been to Harvard—or even left their country of origin. “We do a lot of following up with international students about their applications,” says Lounsbury. “That also includes answering prospective students’ questions about how to register for a visa. It keeps you on your toes.”
What Success Looks Like
Throughout the academic year, the staff of the Visiting Students Program work closely with other offices at GSAS to make sure that all participants feel supported and have the resources to navigate life here. “We try to help people find their way through the University’s complexity and put together robust guidance to help them do that on their own,” Kent says. “Many visiting students live on campus. Sometimes random things pop up. So, we work closely with GSAS’s Office of Student Affairs and with other teams here to support our program’s participants as much as possible.”
Kent and Lounsbury are also there for students in times of crisis. In fact, Lounsbury says helping those in need is the most satisfying part of her job.
“A couple of students this semester were separated from their families while they were studying here,” she says. "At the end of the term, they were able to raise the funds and asked for their families to come here. I know one of the students was very grateful that she got to see her kids for the holidays. It was nice to be able to get the process started for her family’s visas.”
Success for Kent and Lounsbury is about seeing a student achieve their research and academic goals. It’s about watching them enjoy the larger Harvard experience—from clubs and concerts to coffee with new friends at the Café Gato Rojo. Finally, it’s about making sure that visiting students continue as members of the Harvard community after they leave campus.
“It takes a lot of work for a non-degree scholar to come to GSAS,” Kent says. “It feels good when we’re they’re able to make that goal happen and take advantage of the wealth of the School’s resources. It feels good when they’re here to enhance their experience and see them get involved in student and campus life. And when they leave, it feels good to connect them to the alumni network and integrate them into that community. That’s what success looks like to us.”
Photos by Tony Rinaldo
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