♪♪ [ Pop ]

♪ But now I’ve seen it through And now I know the truth ♪

♪ That anything could happen ♪

♪ Anything could happen Anything could ♪

♪♪ [ Vocalizing Continues ]

♪♪ [ Ends ]

[ Anthony Narrating ] Every day, when I wake up...

I still can’t believe I’m at Harvard.

Like every freshman, I get to live in Harvard Yard...

and I get to eat breakfast in Annenberg Hall.

- What’s up, you guys? - Hey.

I really enjoy my freshman seminar, “The Evolution of Aging.”

It’s just me, 15 other students and a faculty member.

And I get to work directly with my professor on research projects.

I’m able to visit any of the other great Harvard schools...

like the School of Engineering...

or the Kennedy School, where I’ve heard world leaders speak...

or the medical school, which is pretty cool...

because I’m also training to become an E.M.T.– I want to become a doctor.

Every day, I get to hang out with my friends and try something new.

[ All Shout ]

Harvard is one university with a million things to explore...

and I’m glad I’ve got the next three years to try them all.

My name is Anthony, and I’m from Tucker, Georgia.

The house system is here to make whatever you want to do at Harvard possible.

There are 12 residential Harvard houses.

[ Female Student ] Each house has its own dining hall, its own community...

its own population of students.

After freshman year, you are randomly sorted into one of those houses.

Not only is the house a center for non-classroom learning...

but it’s also a hub for social activity.

[ Female Student #2 ] You all live together and eat together...

and participate in events together.

[ Female Student #3 ] There are people from every country...

every religion, and that’s where you really learn.

A lot of the opportunities that you have...

to have those close one-on-one conversations...

with a professor, with someone who’s visiting from another university–

The place where you really get to engage with those people is in your house.

[ Man ] Our job’s really to try and help this house...

be as vibrant and intellectual and fun as possible.

[ Lowell Housemaster ] Lowell House is a place that has a lot of traditions...

like having tea on Thursdays at 5:00.

- [ Female Student #4 ] There’s an opera every year. - [ Male Student ] Dances in the house.

It’s a good time to get to know other people in the house...

to see your friends, catch up on the week.

It’s a place where you can be who you are and discover who you want to become.

I think coming back home is a very comfortable space.

[ Lowell Housemaster ] This is really an attempt to create a community within a college.

This is what makes a Harvard education very distinctive.

[ Jeremy Narrating ] I was born the middle child of Asian immigrants.

I’ve always loved playing the drums.

I was an editor of my high school newspaper.

And I got a summer internship working for a senator.

Academics have always been important to me.

I graduated from Harvard with a major in economics...

and a minor in sociology.

Harvard’s an amazing place that let me explore everything...

and the place where I learned I could become anything:

an economist, a politician...

or even a professional basketball player.

My name is Jeremy, and I’m class of 2010.

♪♪ [ Rock ]

[ Man ] ♪ Whoo-hoo ♪

♪♪ [ Continues ]

♪ Whoo-hoo ♪

♪♪ [ Continues ]

♪♪ [ Singing, Indistinct ]

♪♪ [ Ends ]

My name is Lucerito Ortiz. I’m from North Hills, California.

My parents are two of the hardest-working people.

My dad works in gardening.

My mom found work as a housekeeper.

We have a big family.

We have to find ways to save as much as we can.

I learned to sew.

We have chickens, so that way we don’t have to buy eggs.

They’re very, very delicious. Much better than store-bought eggs.

And we cook at home. It’s different ways to save money.

They’ll sacrifice anything and everything for their children...

and they’ve worked incredibly hard to get us to where we are.

My daughter is a very, very responsible person...

and she loved school.

But I ended up applying sort of as a joke, as a dare.

A couple of friends and I were out on the track one day, just chatting.

We just said– We were laughing–

“It would be so funny if you applied to Harvard.

We could frame your rejection letter.”

One day, Lucerito called me...

and she said, “Mom, guess what.”

The letter was there. I was on the phone with my mom.

I said, “Mom, hold on.”

And then she said, “Mom, I was accepted at Harvard.”

I ran all over my house, just yelling and screaming...

and told my whole family...

and we were all just in utter shock.

My husband and I talked about, “We don’t have the money.”

I found out that for a family like ours...

we wouldn’t have to worry about affording Harvard.

Harvard has such an amazing financial aid program...

that for us, in reality, it was much more affordable...

than attending any of the state schools.

I really, really admire her, and I’m so proud of her.

For me, Harvard wasn’t just for me...

it was for my whole family...

and I think my whole family has benefited immensely...

from our experience at Harvard.

It’s an incredible feeling...

to feel like I was finally able to give something back to my family...

after everything they sacrificed for me.

One of the most important aspects of teaching the humanities...

is to transmit cultural values across time.

We pursue the study with the conviction that we’re training global citizens.

Expanding your horizons and learning how to ask new questions...

and learning how to have your questions answered.

This is a place that has art museums that are unique...

in their depth and their breadth.

The humanities shift and change as the great public issues...

and public questions of our times change.

By the time you graduate and you’ve picked a concentration or a major...

you’re really poised to do many and often unpredictable things.

Harvard is, in the best sense, a global university.

[ Emerance Narrating ] You can look just about anywhere from my house...

and you would see strictly land, and that’s about it.

I live in Alberta, Canada.

My great-great-grandparents came over here over a century ago...

and started a farm, and my dad still farms the same farm today.

In Canada, there’s only two seasons. One season is farming season.

The other is hockey season.

I have a brother, Bronson. My sister is Brittaney.

I have a brother, Brock, and a younger brother, Kache.

We all play hockey.

Since I was little, there was just one team. I played with the guys.

After that, I continued playing guys’ hockey.

I wanted to challenge myself all the time...

and prove to everyone that I could be just as good as the guys.

When I was 13 years old, the team that I was playing on...

went to Boston for a tournament.

My mom and I went together, and we toured Harvard.

I fell in love with it right away.

I told my mom, “I’m gonna go here one day.”

My mom and dad taught us kids to work really hard...

and always challenge ourselves.

They told us to have a good work ethic, and no matter what...

no matter how hard it was, to stick with it and you’ll get through it...

and eventually, you’ll have success.

My name is Emerance Maschmeyer...

and I play goalie for the Harvard women’s ice hockey team.

[ Nicholas Narrating ] I’m a journalist and Harvard class of 1982.

I’ve lived all over:

Egypt and Oxford.

China and Congo.

And in my travels, I’ve discovered that Harvard isn’t just a place...

it’s a community.

I found support through Harvard bonds.

There are more than 350,000 alumni scattered all over the world.

We’re waiting for you to join us.

My name is Nicholas Kristof.

When you consider Harvard, make sure to consider...

what comes after.

[ Male Student Narrating ] My professor is the president...

of the Society for the Study of Evolution...

and the American Genetic Association.

He’s respected for employing genetic tools for the study of evolutionary biology.

He believes that close social bonds help the group to work better together in the lab.

We work side-by-side to analyze the data from my field research in Australia...

and to study the evolution of a pathogen.

We’re doing the kind of science that the world expects from Harvard.

I just never expected to do it over breakfast.

The first line of my application here...

said, “For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be an actor.”

It was asking kind of who you were, and that was really who I was...

and I wanted them to know who I was...

and, whether they accepted me or not...

I wanted them to know who they were gonna let in or not.

Having grown up here, I think I had one way of looking at Harvard–

kind of a townie view of the school.

Suddenly walking through as a prospective student...

I just started to really take in how impressive it was.

I assumed if I could get into an Ivy League school–

That kind of touched every base for me.

And then I got into Harvard, and it’s a very tough place to turn down.

This great teacher named Anthony Kubiak– I took a number of his classes.

This was the final one that I took. It was the playwriting class.

I handed in the first act of a three-act movie–

what eventually became Good Will Hunting.

I apologized to him when I handed him this 40-some-odd page document.

I just said, “I don’t think I did what you wanted.

I was supposed to write a one-act play...

and this is clearly the first act of a three-act movie.”

He was unbelievably encouraging.

He gave me a flat “A” in the class, which was a big deal.

He wrote extensively in the margins–

or on a cover page that he put on it–

to “please keep up with this”–

that it was worthy, that it was good...

that it wasn’t anything close to a failure...

that it was something I had to pursue.

So I showed it to Ben Affleck, and the rest is history.

[ Crowd Cheering ]

[ Chattering ]

[ Crowd Cheering ]

[ Joanne Narrating ] I didn’t plan to end up in the food business.

I started, right after graduation, working for a consulting firm.

I left the consulting firm and got a job at a restaurant...

and then I fell in love with it.

So I came back to Boston and opened a bakery.

Now I own four bakeries and a restaurant.

When I got to Harvard as a freshman–

I’d always been kind of a math geek in high school...

so, to me, it seemed natural to kind of fall into math.

I realized there were so many other things that I didn’t even know existed...

that I could possibly be interested in.

I think Harvard spends a lot of time trying to make sure that all of its offerings...

are really enticing and well put together.

When I first started, there was a whole world that kind of opened up.

It’s like going to a buffet where there’s all the best desserts in the world.

You just don’t know where to start.

Would imagine everybody who goes just takes a moment...

says, “Wow. I thought I was gonna be ‘X’...

but now I could potentially be ‘Y’ or ‘Z’”...

which is the fun part.

My name is Joanne Chang. I graduated in ’91, and I lived in Leverett House.

My name is Evgenija Stojcevska.

I’m from Skopje, Macedonia.

My name is August, and I was born in Vietnam.

My name is Audrey, and my home is Oakland, California.

I’m from Thessaloníki , Greece.

My name is Gaby Ruiz-Colón, and I’m from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

My name is Haley Adams, and I’m from Bureau County, Illinois.

My name is Herman Bhupal, and I’m from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.