Undergrads To Tour Middle East to Recruit Students

In the first trip of its kind at Harvard, eight undergraduates will spend intersession travelling in the Middle East to recruit high school students to the College.

The trip, which is composed entirely of students and begins tomorrow, will include nine Middle Eastern countries. It was organized by the students and will be primarily paid for through a center at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG). The admissions office has provided logistical, but not financial, support.

While the group has sought assistance from a variety of sources, the trip is “student-run from A to Z,” according to Deena Shakir ’08, who is participating in the trip.

“It was single-handedly masterminded by the students,” said Juhi G. Dagli, a research fellow at the Belfer Center who assisted in the organization of the trip. “Who to meet, what to do, everything was organized by students.”

Four students will leave tomorrow for Qatar, the first stop in the 18-day trip, and four more students will join them in Dubai next week. The group will visit nine Middle Eastern countries, including Kuwait, Israel, and Lebanon, before returning to Harvard on Feb. 5.

Many of the destinations included in the itinerary, including the West Bank and Lebanon, were recently removed from the list of areas where Harvard-sponsored travel is prohibited.

The students will visit schools in each country to talk with high school students and college counselors, Shakir said. The group will make longer stops in Dubai, Kuwait, and Cairo, where it will hold larger information sessions for multiple schools in addition to specific visits.

“Our goal is to spur the number of Arab applicants to Harvard by encouraging to apply and advising them in the process,” said Shakir, “and to engage in and promote future cross-academic exchanges between Harvard and the region.”

The trip is being sponsored by the Governance Initiative in the Middle East, a program run by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at KSG in conjunction with the Dubai School of Government, according to the KSG website. The initiative’s contribution was “a big chunk of change,” according to Dagli, who estimated the price tag to be well over $20,000.

“The objective of the Governance Initiative is to encourage lots of interaction...between the Middle East and the Kennedy School so we can understand, on the political and economic level, what is going on in the Middle East,” said Dagli, who added that the Governance Initiative hoped that the trip would attract Arab students who would eventually return to “become agents of change” in their countries.

Ambassador Barbara Bodine, the director of the Initiative, did not respond to requests for comment last night.

The expedition has also received help from alumni in the region, who have provided logistical support such as helping to book hotel rooms.

While all eight of the students speak at least some Arabic, and visas to all the countries are sold in their airports, Shakir said the planning was nonetheless somewhat complicated.

“I’ve literally spent more time this semester on this trip than all my classes combined,” Shakir said.

The Office of Admissions and Financial Aid has provided peripheral support, according to Robin Worth, director of international admissions for the College.

“I was contacted after they got their plane tickets,” said Worth, who added that her office has supplied admissions materials and helped the students connect with alumni in the region.

“While we didn’t initiate the trip, we’re delighted that the students are going,” Worth said, noting that the Middle East is “definitely” under-represented in the Harvard student body.

Despite high hopes, Dagli was cautious about whether the recruiting efforts would pay off immediately.

“We hope it makes a difference, and we’ll keep close tabs on what happens next year,” Dagli said.

—Staff writer Laurence H. M. Holland can be reached at lholland@fas.harvard.edu.