Being a part of the College Events Board has been an incredible part of my time at Harvard. I was one of those people in high school in charge of coming up with dance themes, fundraising drives, pep rallies, and spirit weeks, and the CEB is basically a well-funded group of like-minded people that take event planning to the next level. Planning events for a campus of 6,000 undergraduates is no easy task, but seeing our projects come together makes it all worth it.
The board is responsible for planning all major campus-wide events and initiatives (rather than just for particular houses or student groups), and our three largest events each year are a Welcome Back party, the Harvard-Yale Pep Rally, and Yardfest.
The welcome back event is held during the first week of school each September in Harvard Yard. In the past, this has taken the form of a luau, carnival, summer camp, etc. and its mission is to bring new students and returning upperclassmen all together in one place for free, relaxed fun. Barbeque food, fire pits, games, performers, and rides are just some of the things we as the CEB work to coordinate at the event.
The second main event of the year is the Harvard-Yale Pep Rally. This event takes place right at the John Harvard Statue in the Yard the Thursday night in November before the football team’s historic rivalry game against Yale. This past year we got in touch with several on-campus performing groups and put together a show filled with Harvard talent, inter-athletic eating competitions, and lights and fog, all culminating in a pre-victory speech from the football team itself.
Our final “signature” event is a spring concert in the Yard known as Yardfest. As the weather gets warm and the end of the year rolls around, we invite a popular artist or two to perform on the steps of Memorial Church. Tire swings abound and HUDS (Harvard University Dining Services) fires up their grills to make for one last chill event of the year where the whole campus can come together for an afternoon of music and fun at the center of campus.
In addition to these “big three” events, we are constantly brainstorming new ideas and initiatives that take place throughout the entire school year. We’ve recently begun a new trend of screening free new-release movies in the Harvard Square movie theater twice a year and have sponsored music mash-up contests for budding DJs on campus. The board itself is only a few years old, so the possibilities for cool new events are endless.
Being on the board itself is beyond fun in its own right. The 18 of us have become a close group of friends and my fellow CEB-ers are some of the most fun people I’ve ever met. A lot of my home friends would laugh at the idea that Harvard can be a “fun” place, but my experience on the CEB, the people I’ve met through it, and our successful events have really proven otherwise.
In some late-breaking exciting news, we’ve just announced this year’s lineup of artists to perform on April 18th: Kid Cudi, Wale, and Patrick Park. Everyone on campus is amped up for the spring show, and for us that means one thing: mission accomplished.
