Uzma Issa ’25 Elected First Marshal for Harvard College Class of 2025

Updated September 20, 2024, at 7:29 p.m.

Uzma A. Issa ’25 and Srija Vem ’25 — two Neuroscience concentrators hailing from Hoover, Alabama — will serve as the first and second class marshals for the Class of 2025, the College announced on Friday.

Issa and Vem will lead the College’s 2025 Class Committee, which includes nine seniors who will serve as program marshals and six other seniors who were appointed Harvard College Fund marshals.

The group of 17 students is responsible for planning class-wide events and organizing the Senior Gift Fund for the graduating class. The roles continue long after College as the committee is also responsible for planning alumni events.

While past Class Committees have had six program marshals, the Class of 2025 will have nine due to a four way tie following two rounds of voting.

Issa said it was “quite a shock” when she learned that she had been voted first marshal and added that she was “super excited” to facilitate events to bring the seniors together, especially given the record number of students in the Class of 2025.

“There’s so many people in our senior class — we’re so huge that not everyone knows each other,” she said. “I wanted to have the opportunity to try to make as many fun events as I could for the whole class, to build that community, while it’s our last year on campus.”

“It’s honestly great that we actually have extra marshals this year, so that way we have more people that can plan more events and reach out to a bigger crowd and hopefully make our class even tighter,” Issa added.

She said she could not believe it when she heard that Vem, a fellow Hoover, Ala. native, was named as second marshal.

“Srija is the only person I knew before I came to Harvard,” Issa said. “We went to rival high schools. We played tennis, volunteered together, and everything.”

Vem said she thought it was “an amazing coincidence” that she and Issa hailed from the same city.

“It reminds me of home,” she said. “And it feels so full circle to come here with someone from Hoover, Alabama and then to wrap up the year also working alongside one of my closest friends and someone from Hoover, Alabama.”

“College is filled with ups and downs, but the reason I think I've made it so far is because of the people,” Vem added. “So the whole rationale behind running for class marshal was just to bring all of us together for one last hoorah senior year, and of course, for all our reunions moving forward.”

Program Marshal Henry Xuan ’25 said he was “just smiling from ear to ear” and “felt really honored to be given this position.”

“I feel like our class has experienced a lot of extreme turmoil over our three years here. We saw a lot of controversies,” he said. “So I’m hoping that these events that we plan bring our class together and focus on who we are as people and just enjoy having fun with each other.”

Program Marshal Reza M. Shamji ’25 said he hopes to bring a “sense of inclusivity” to the senior events and facilitate events to foster new friendships

“This place, Harvard, it’s somewhere that I think will be forever my favorite place in the world,” he said. “I care so much about so many people in this class.”

“My goal for this class is leaving here so that 10 years down the line, 20 years down the line, at least each person has a new friend that they could actually call decades forward that they wouldn’t have before,” Shamji added.

The program marshals include multiple current and former Crimson editors, including Crimson President J. Sellers Hill ’25.

In the next few weeks, the class marshals will begin interviewing candidates for the remaining roles in the 2025 Class Committee including Secretary, Treasurer, Media Team, and House Representatives. On Oct. 10, the final members of the Class Committee will be announced.

The full list of Class Committee members is below:

—Staff writer Madeleine A. Hung can be reached at madeleine.hung@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Joyce E. Kim can be reached at joyce.kim@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @joycekim324.