They Entered But Never Left

Life after Harvard can be trying.

But for some alums, leaving the alma mater never has been tried. For a number of recent and not-so-recent alums, the University provides postgraduate employment for short- or long-term careers.

Since he graduated last June, David C. Grimm '85 has been working in the Admissions Office that brought him here almost a half-decade ago.

"It wasn't something I initially pursued," Grimm now says. "I saw an announcement in the [Office of Career Services] newsletter and decided I wanted to take at least a year off before going to med school."

Grimm, who is one of three recent grads working as an admissions office intern for a two-year stint, says he frequently falls back on his experience as a undergrad when presenting the school to prospective candidates all over the country.

"It's very easy for me to give a 45-minute presentation on Harvard," he says. "Usually they go a lot longer."

Although many interns use the position as an interim period between graduation and grad school, Grimm says, "If you're doing a good job they may ask you to stay on, which they have done in the past."

"We're very anecdotal, especially the recent grads," he says. "I love to tell stories about my roommates."

"I think its a great innovation," Grimm says of the position, which was started seven years ago by then-Dean of Admissions L. Fred Jewett '57, the College's current dean.

How did Grimm land the job? "It was a fairly rigorous interviewing process because they really want to see what you're like," he says. "I was a Psychology major and I did a lot of work with children throughout my four years."

"Not only are you staying associated with the University and seeing it from a different perspective," says Grimm, "but you're also giving back to it."

Another recent grad who snapped up an administrative post was Lisa Chertkov '85, a patient advocate at University Health Services. As a doctor-patient liason, she serves on several committees and also handles complaints, comments and suggestions from users of the health services.

"I'm interested in health care and I wanted to work in a health care setting before I made any pre-med decisions," Chertkov says.

Chertkov says that although she lacked specific patient advocacy experience, her Harvard background has filled in the gaps.

"I think having gone here did help because of the sort of position this is," she says. "That familiarity with how Harvard works makes a big difference."

Chertkov says her social service activities as an undergrad had a lot to do with why she decided to look into the job. "I'm not sure that if I had not done peer counseling and work with students with disabilities that I'd be where I am," she says.

Looking toward the future, Chertkov says she feels her particular job is at best temporary. "I feel I would not be as productive if I stayed more than three or four years."

And David W. Johnson '68, who has been working in the Development Office since 1984 as a writer, editor and spokesman, doesn't intend to stay much more than that either. Johnson says he is looking at his job from a "two to five year point of view. [The Development Office] is in a rebuilding stage right now. This is a chance to do some exciting things."

"The principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press and the public interest have a lot in common with what Harvard stands for," Johnson says, "which is an environment in which people are free to explore possibilities, teach, learn, and freely express what's on their minds."

Johnson, who started writing for the University's fundraising office after working for the Salem Evening News and doing some writing for the Boston Globe, came back because the job was right.

"It was the perfect combination of editorial work and communications," Johnson says. "For me, it was the perfect job." He says he edits a newsletter and other publications for the Development Office and did public relations work during the recent $350 million Harvard Campaign.

Johnson says his status as an alum has made a difference in his effectiveness. "Harvard is a corporate culture," he says. "The more you know about the people you are communicating with, the better off you are."

Other alums, including Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 and Thomas E. Crooks '49, like it here so much they've never really left. But Crooks, who is the special assistant to the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Parents Association, never planned it that way. In fact, both administrators thought of working here in the same temporary terms echoed by Johnson and Chertkov.

"I never dreamed of working at Harvard until they offered me a job," Crooks recalls. The timely offer came upon graduation, enabling him to support his family and accept a scholarship to graduate school. After a two-year stint teaching at West Point in lieu of service during the Korean War, Crooks says he was again solicited to come back as director of the Summer School in 1956. He's been here ever since.

"I've been lucky. Every time I've been on the point of being fed up with what I was doing, something else came along," he says. "There came a time when I thought `Well, I guess this is my life,'" he says. "I've never regretted it."

"As an administrator, you really are a servant of the faculty," he says. "I've always felt an almost religious awe of great scholars."

"I never knew why anyone asked me to work here," Crooks says.

For the dean of the College, it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Then he, like so many others, found himself pulled into Harvard administration and loving it.

Jewett, who is midway through his first year as dean of the College, has been a part of the administration since he graduated from the Business School in 1960. After serving as a proctor for freshmen, he was asked to stay on and start the Senior Adviser program.

"Even at that time I assumed it would only be a temporary interlude from the business world," Jewett says. "For the first five or six years, I didn't necessarily view it as a permanent career path."

As for advice to aspiring undergrads, Jewett says that there is a great deal of luck involved. "One of the problems with it is that there isn't a clear cut path as in law or medicine," he says. "I was lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time."

Jewett, like Crooks, found himself unwilling to leave in the face of new assignments. "Every time I was about to leave, a new and interesting opportunity came along to do something different," Jewett says.

So if you're willing to take things as they come and you don't mind hanging around students for a few more years, you might want to think about sticking around for life after Harvard.

"I think Harvard is a great place to work," Johnson says. "It's a good cause."