Writer’s note: As the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum enters another month of inspiring conversations with distinguished leaders and experts, it faces a profound loss. Institute of Politics Director Setti Warren passed away suddenly on November 2, 2025, at the age of 55. Warren dedicated his life to public service, serving in the Navy during […]
On Oct. 21, Harvard Kennedy School’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum hosted a conversation between United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo ’93 and former Treasury Secretary and Harvard professor Lawrence H. Summers. Together, they examined the Biden administration’s approach to industrial policy—particularly its push to rebuild America’s semiconductor and technology sectors—while debating the tension […]
For first-year students, midterms mark one of the first formal assessments of their Harvard College career. “It felt a little bit daunting or scary just because I never took a college—Harvard College—midterm, and I didn’t know what to expect,” Sarah Zhang ’29 told the Independent. The first major round of exams for Harvard College students […]
On Oct. 14, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on X that the latest version of ChatGPT would be more personable—an artificial intelligence engine capable of responding in a “very human-like way,” or even acting like a friend. This news comes amid rising controversy over how far AI should go in mimicking personal expression and the […]
“No Home, No Retirement, No Kids.” This New York Times headline from June 11 captures the uncertain future awaiting Generation Z. Confronted with an increasingly competitive job market, deep political divisions, and an escalating climate crisis, the world’s second-youngest generation sees a stable future slipping further from reach. While some have called Gen Z’s outlook […]
Her story started with loss. “My situation specifically was born out of a really difficult time,” nonprofit founder Olivia Zhang ’27 explained. What started as a mere effort to memorialize her mentors—her elementary school teacher and grandfather, who Zhang lost both to cancer within two months of each other—led to the creation of Cancer Kids […]
Every year, about 1,000 international students arrive at Harvard College to embark on their undergraduate journey. While this period of transition is filled with excitement, it can also be daunting, especially when home is thousands of miles away. As Harvard’s largest undergraduate student organization, Woodbridge International Society welcomes students from over 100 countries each year, […]
On Oct. 13, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences to Dr. Philippe Aghion, former Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at Harvard and one of the world’s leading scholars on innovation. Aghion shares one-third of this honor with colleague Professor Peter Howitt of […]
On Oct. 1, the Trump administration sent the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” to nine schools across the country, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After nine days of deliberation, MIT was the first institution to formally reject the deal, which would have granted it preferential access to federal funding. Brown University, the […]
“No Kings” protests swept across America on June 18 in opposition to President Donald Trump’s Military Parade celebrating the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, which coincided with his own 79th birthday. The summer unrest amassed approximately five million participants across nearly 2,600 rallies—one of the largest single-day rallies in history. Four months later, on Oct. 18, […]