phd in mental health harvard

Mental Health

• Climate Solutions
• Commencement 2024

The Harvard community is exploring how we cope with, manage, and understand mental health and how it impacts our lives.

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or you think you may have an emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately.   Please reach out to our  student and employee University mental health resources if needed.

Mental health at Harvard

Intellectual growth and academic achievement should not come at the expense of wellbeing. Together, we can create a culture at Harvard that embraces the importance of mental health and wellbeing.

Learn more about the initiative on wellbeing at Harvard

Managing mental health

Mental health impacts each person differently. Harvard experts share ways to care for ourselves and for others.

Learn more from the Center for Wellness and Health Promotion

• Early childhood

Building resilience through play

Far from frivolous, play contributes to sturdy brain architecture, the foundations of lifelong health, and the building blocks of resilience.

• Health care workers

Increasing investments in mental health benefits everyone

• College Students

Creating a culture of success—for all college students

Ways managers can support employees’ mental health.

• Spiritual communities

Cultivating a contemplative practice

• Adolescents

What do anxious teens need?

Is a mobile app as good as a therapist.

Mental health apps claim to treat depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses without therapy appointments. Do these apps actually work, or are they too good to be true?

Read more from The Harvard Gazette

The toll of a global pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rise in mental health concerns, including anxiety, stress, and feelings of isolation.

Mental health in a post-pandemic world

Matthew Nock discusses the increase in adolescents experiencing mental health issues and what treatment might look like in a post-pandemic world.

Coping with pandemic stress on campus

Many have struggled with health and safety concerns associated with working, teaching, and learning, both remotely and on campus.

How has the pandemic impacted children’s mental health?

A series of national surveys conducted in 1999, 2004, and 2017 provided a baseline for looking at children’s mental health, revealing some troubling underlying trends.

How pandemic stressors can affect mental health

Lifestyle disruptions during the pandemic may have triggered inflammation in the brain contributing to fatigue, concentration difficulties, and depression

Why returning to “normal” feels so not

Psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors have long predicted that once the pandemic’s physical impacts lessened, there would be a mental health fallout.

The cost of distancing

Experts share that for most healthy individuals, additional time spent socially distant from family and friends may worsen a growing national mental health problem.

Research and new discoveries

Bipolar breakthrough

Baby teeth and mental health

Changing the global face of mental health care

Lower risk of depression with elevated exercise

Can microdosing psychedelics improve your mental health?

A drug discovery platform for mental health conditions

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Related In Focus topics

• Mindfulness & Meditation
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Mental Health in Schools: Building Systems of Care

Additional Resources

• Request More Information

Across the educational system, trauma and threats to mental health are creating a direct, immediate, and potentially overwhelming impact on youth and adults. To effectively address this crisis, school leaders need to be equipped to support the development of mental health and well-being across their school community.

Mental Health in Schools: Building Systems of Care brings K-12 educators together for a four-day intensive learning experience on the Harvard campus. Working with your colleagues and guided by Harvard faculty, you will learn to identify structures and practices necessary to create comprehensive systems of care that foster healing and promote resilience. The program focuses on best practices in developing comprehensive school mental health systems that support promotion, prevention, and intervention strategies responsive to student, classroom, teacher, and system-level needs.

Program Details

Mental Health in Schools is a four-day in-person institute that combines evidence-based strategies with the latest research on youth - and educator -  development and well-being. You’ll have the opportunity to engage with fellow participants and HGSE faculty as you participate in live sessions, small group discussions, and reflective exercises, including creating an asset map to support the implementation of your learning.

As you move through the program, you’ll explore the foundations of school mental health. You’ll learn how to promote effective practices among teachers and students on individual, classroom, and system levels. And you’ll explore proven strategies for building comprehensive mental health systems of care to improve wellbeing across the entire school community. 

Day 1: Introductions and Foundations of School Mental Health Day 2: Effective Mental Health Practices for Individuals, Classrooms, and Schools            Day 3: Creating a Comprehensive School Mental Health System Day 4: Building School Capacity and Looking Ahead

Learning Goals

• Understand national trends in school-based mental and behavioral health.
• Learn to identify and assess system-wide mental health stressors and strengths.
• Examine the role of cultural humility in understanding and responding to diverse mental health needs of students and school community.
• Understand best practices for mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention in schools.
• Learn to create comprehensive mental health systems of care for schools and districts.
• Map internal and external resources and assets to enhance school mental health capacity and infrastructure.
• Understand how to create a climate of well-being that reaches school, family, and community settings.

Faculty Chair

Vanja Pejic

Vanja Pejic’s interest and expertise center on the development, adaptation, and dissemination of trauma-informed and culturally attuned school systems with an emphasis on serving children and families impacted by forced migration and displacement.

Who Should Attend

Ideal for multi-disciplinary groups within a system, the program is open to leadership teams and contributors working in the following roles:

• School leaders and administrators
• District support staff and leaders
• Social workers, psychologists, school counselors, clinicians, and behavior health staff
• Teachers and teacher leaders
• Community partners and social service agencies
• Family engagement staff
• Deans of students, culture, and campus
• Intervention specialists

How to Apply

This program welcomes applications from both individuals and teams. First-time applicants need to create a Professional Education account to apply.

Individuals: Click the "Apply" button at the top of this page to log into your Professional Education account and access the application page. Proceed with the individual form until submission.

Step 1: Designate one participant or an administrative staff member as the Coordinator .

• The Coordinator should click the "Apply" button at the top of this page to log into their Professional Education account and access the application page.
• Proceed with the team form, including providing the name, email address, and job title of each participant in your team. 
• The Coordinator can choose to receive a team invoice.
• Contact us if you need to make any changes to your team after submitting the form.

Step 2: Upon the submission of the team application, all team members will receive an email notification with a link to their personal application form. Team members should complete their forms promptly. Once all team members submit their forms, the application is considered complete and ready for review by the Admissions Committee.

Invoices: Invoices will only be available upon your acceptance.

The tuition covers all instructional materials, a daily continental breakfast, and beverages and light refreshments during our scheduled breaks between sessions.

Travel, lodging expenses, and most lunches and dinners are not included in this fee. We have blocked a limited number of rooms in select hotels in the Cambridge/Boston area. The daily rates for these hotels typically range from $250 to $375 per room, plus applicable taxes. Once your applicants are accepted into the program, they will receive detailed information about these hotel options.

Tuition Assistance

Tuition assistance is available for this program on a need and application basis. Tuition assistance is granted based on participant and institutional needs. Requests for tuition assistance do not affect an applicant's prospects for admission. You may access the tuition assistance application after you have submitted your program application. Tuition assistance applications should be submitted at least one month prior to the final application deadline.

Interested in running a TPC program in your school or district?

Related news, how can schools ensure all students benefit from a high-quality school counseling program.

• Counseling and Mental Health
• K-12 System Leadership

Related Programs

Developing myself: a cael module, leading for excellence & equity: a cael module.

• Sep 9, 2024 - Dec 1, 2024 Price: $1,995.00

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• Publications

Advancing the Science of Spirituality and Mental Health

We use scientific methods to study the relevance of spirituality/religion to behavioral and emotional wellbeing and distress. Our ultimate goal is to generate novel methods to prevent and treat mental disorders.

Meet Our Team

Dr. david h. rosmarin.

Dr. Rosmarin (pronouns: he/him), is the director of the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital and an associate professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rosmarin’s program of research examines the relevance of spiritual/religious issues to psychopathology and its treatment. He has published over 100 manuscripts, editorials, and chapters, and served as co-editor of the Handbook of Spirituality, Religion and Mental Health.

Dr. Caroline C. Kaufman

Dr. Kaufman (pronouns: she/her) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital and has a dual appointment at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kaufman’s main research interests are in the intersection of trauma, alcohol use, and spirituality among first responders (i.e., law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics) and other groups exposed to adversity. She is interested in developing spiritually integrated treatments to address overlapping posttraumatic stress and alcohol misuse in psychiatric settings.

Sean Adam Minns

Sean (pronouns: he/him) is a senior clinical research assistant in the Spirituality & Mental Health and Program at McLean Hospital. Sean combines art, science and technology to provide more accessible and culturally sensitive psychosocial treatment for behavioral health. In the Spirituality & Mental Health Program, he oversees the development and testing of the new DigitalSoul smartphone app, and assists with developing a video-based training course in Spiritual Psychotherapy for Inpatient Residential & Intensive Treatment (SPIRIT).

Mia (pronouns: she/her) is a senior clinical research assistant in the Spirituality & Mental Health Program, and the Geriatric Psychiatry Research Program at McLean Hospital. She manages several datasets to explore spirituality and mental health in collaboration with laboratories and clinical programs throughout McLean Hospital.

Poorvi Mandaym

Poorvi (pronouns: she/her) is a clinical research assistant in the Spirituality & Mental Health Program at Mclean Hospital, as well as the Meditation Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital . She assists with neuroscience studies on spirituality and mental health.

Dr. Steven Pirutinsky

Dr. Pirutinsky (pronouns: he/him) is a data scientist in the Spirituality & Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital, and an Associate Professor at Touro College Graduate School of Social Work (New York, NY). He oversees the development of a brief psychometric scale to assess spirituality for mental health science and clinical practice, and provides advanced statistical consulting for many other research projects.

Rev. Angelika A. Zollfrank

Mdiv, bcc, acpe, hec – c.

Angelika (pronouns: she/her) is an ordained minister, chaplain, and director of Clinical Pastoral Education within the Spirituality & Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital. She provides spiritual guidance and insight for our DigitalSoul and SPIRIT projects and serves as a liaison between our research team and the clinical staff at McLean Hospital.

Alissa Oleson

Rev. alissa oleson, mdiv.

Alissa (pronouns: she/her) is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American and part-time chaplain at McLean Southeast. She provides guidance for our research projects and serves as a liaison between our research team and the clinical staff at McLean Hospital.

Collaborators

Brent p. forester, md, msc, diego a. pizzagalli, phd, matthew d. sacchet, phd, marisa m. silveri, phd.

Director, Neurodevelopmental Laboratory on Addictions and Mental Health, McLean Hospital

David G. Harper, PhD

Associate Director for Research, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry

Cheri L. Marmarosh, PhD

Director of the Center for the International Study of Spirituality and Mental Health

Suzanne Hollman, Psy.D.

Divine Mercy University – McLean/Harvard Collaboration

Avijit Chowdhury, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Meditation Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital

Moses Appel, MA

Research Associate, McLean Hospital

Sarah Salcone Eleanor Schuttenberg Alana Johnston

More psychotherapists are incorporating religion into their practices

Psychiatry Needs to Get Right with God

Unlocking Inner Peace When the World Is on Fire

Current projects.

Clinical Training in SPIRIT

Previously we developed Spiritual Psychotherapy for Inpatient Residential & Intensive Treatment (SPIRIT) and evaluated its utility to over 1400 acute psychiatric patients at...

Neuroscience of Prayer Study 

The goal of the Neuroscience of Prayer Study is to use advanced human neuroscience techniques to provide foundational contributions to our understanding of the role of the brain...

Spirituality & Alcohol/Substance Use Among Adolescents

In collaboration with the McLean Hospital Neurodevelopmental Laboratory on Addictions and Mental Health, we are evaluating the relevance of spirituality to initiation and use of...

Spirituality & Geriatric Psychiatry

Our longstanding collaboration with the McLean Hospital Geriatric Psychiatry Research Program evaluates the relevance of spirituality to older adults, with a focus on mood...

Harvard Index of Spirituality & Religion (H-INSPIRE)

Research and clinical assessment of spirituality is encumbered by a lack of measurement. We are developing a brief 6-item scale to assess for positive and negative facets of...

DigitalSoul

DigitalSoul is a mental health app being developed by our program that provides acute psychiatric patients with the opportunity to integrate spirituality into their treatment....

Sample Publications

*Indicates a mentee

Rosmarin DH, Pirutinsky S, *Park S, *Drury M, Harper D, Forester B. Effects of religion on the course of suicidality among geriatric patients with mood disorders. Psychol Med. In Press.

Rosmarin dh, *salcone s, harper dh, forester bf. predictors of patient response to spiritual psychotherapy for inpatient, residential & intensive treatment (spirit). psychiatr serv. 2021;72(5):507-513., rosmarin dh, koenig hg, pargament ki. spirituality and mental health: challenges and opportunities [comment]. lancet psych. 2021;8;92-93., rosmarin dh, *salcone sg, harper dh, forester bf. spiritual psychotherapy for inpatient, residential, and intensive treatment (spirit). am j psychother. 2019 sep 1;72(3):75-83., rosmarin dh, forester bp, shassian dm, webb c, björgvinsson t. interest in spiritually-integrated psychotherapy among acute psychiatric patients. j consult clin psychol. 2015;83:1149-1153., rosmarin, d. h., kaufman, c. c., ford, s. f., keshava, p., drury, m., minns, s., marmarosh, c., chowdhury, a., & sacchet, m. d. (2022). the neuroscience of spirituality, religion, and mental health: a systematic review and synthesis. journal of psychiatric research., rosmarin dh, *bigda-peyton js, ongür d, pargament ki, björgvinsson t. religious coping among psychotic patients: relevance to suicidality and treatment outcomes. psychiatry res. 2013;210;182-187..

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Get In Touch

Contact us with thoughts, questions or prayers.

[email protected]

(310)-924-2595.

Counseling and Mental Health Service

HUHS Counseling and Mental Health Service provides confidential support to students year-round.

USEFUL LINKS

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Counseling and Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is a counseling and mental health support service that seeks to work collaboratively with students and the University to support individuals who are experiencing any measure of distress in their lives. This may include bereavement, adjustment difficulties, depression, anxiety, stress, concerns interfering with work or relationships, sexual concerns, or high-risk behaviors around food, alcohol, or other substances.

Treatment options include individual counseling, medication management, group therapy, peer counseling, and workshops. All visits are confidential. Mental health records are held separately from the rest of the medical records, except for information on medications. Counseling and mental health services are also offered at satellite health clinics on the Harvard Law School and Longwood Medical Area campuses.

CAMHS Cares Line

The CAMHS Cares Line is available 24/7 for help and support ​and is as close as your phone ​and the back of your Harvard ID!

• During CAMHS business hours, press 1 to speak directly with a CAMHS administrative assistant to make, change, or cancel a routine appointment; request a refill; or request an in-person urgent care appointment for that day.​
• Students can opt to speak to a CAMHS Cares counselor directly by phone by following prompts, if currently in crisis or unable to wait for a daytime appointment, or if they “just need to talk right now about an issue.”​
• During non-business hours when our office is closed—evenings, weekends, and holidays—students can call anytime to speak directly with a CAMHS Cares Counselor about an urgent concern at 617-495-2042.​

Learn more about CAMHS through the following links:

Make an Initial Consultation

CAMHS Services Overview

CAMHS Groups & Workshops

How to Find a Therapist Off Campus

Videos from "CPR for mental well-being" Workshop

CAMHS Locations

Smith Campus Center (75 Mt. Auburn Street, 4th Floor) 617-495-2042 

Harvard Law School: Pound Hall 617-495-4414

Longwood Clinic: Vanderbilt Hall 617-432-1370

CAMHS Cares 24/7 Mental Health Support Line 617-495-2042

Medical Urgent Care 617-495-5711

The ‘Hidden Curriculum’ of Mental Health in Higher Education

• Posted April 1, 2024
• By Ryan Nagelhout
• Career and Lifelong Learning
• Counseling and Mental Health
• Higher Education Leadership
• Student Achievement and Outcomes

As mental health remains a crucial and evolving aspect of teaching students across all levels of education, Professional Education at HGSE has developed programming to help educators evaluate the institutional supports and programs behind caring for student mental health.

One of those programs, Mental Health in Higher Education: A Theory-to-Practice Approach for Student Well-Being , aims to confront the complex challenge managing student mental health presents in higher education. Led by Lecturer Alexis Redding , the four-week virtual institute features a theory-grounded approach to mental health topics in an effort to provide educators clarity around the wide variety of mental health challenges seen in student populations.

“One of the principles of our program is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to the college mental health crisis,” says Redding, faculty co-chair of HGSE’s higher education concentration. “Instead, we will give our participants the opportunity to learn from experts in the field who each offer a set of key questions to consider as they craft a tailored solution to meet the need at their home institution.”

Redding explained one of the goals of the curriculum is to bring “a new approach to thinking about student well-being” by using experts across a variety of educational disciplines. Rather than present a uniform set of solutions, the programming offers “a set of key questions to consider” that will help educators find solutions that match their own culture, existing programming, and resources available.

The program features a long list of education experts, including HGSE faculty such as Senior Lecturer Richard Weissbourd , director of Making Caring Common, and Emily Weinstein , executive director and co-founder of the Center for Digital Thriving. Other guests providing insight for the program include the Jed Foundation Chief Medical Officer Laura Erickson-Schroth, faculty director of Boston University’s Newbury Center Anthony Jack and Ball State professor and author Amanda Latz.

“When you look at our faculty, every person has an entirely different vantage point on student mental health and will help us consider a different aspect of the student journey,” Redding says. “We will follow the arc of what students experience from before they even get to college through the job search and graduation. Along the way, we will think critically about the issue of belonging on campus, basic needs security, and students who have been traditionally underserved.”

The vast perspectives considered, and mental health factors explored, allow participants to go beyond the numbers and data to gain new insights and avoid the “hidden curriculum” — assumptions of common knowledge about mental health that can create barriers between educators and student needs.

“This approach will allow them to create solutions that fit their institutional culture, existing programming, and the availability of resources,” Redding said. “Every participant will leave the program with a concrete set of questions to ask related to each of our topics, resources to use, and models of practice that they can consider for inspiration.”

Learn more.

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Day to remember

Six receive honorary degrees.

Honorary degree recipients Jennie Chin Hansen (clockwise from top left), Sylvester James Gates Jr., Lawrence S. Bacow, Joy Harjo-Sapulpa, Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez, and Maria Ressa with interim President Alan Garber and interim Provost John Manning.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Recipients include an educator, conductor, theoretical physicist, advocate for elderly, writer, and Nobel laureate

Part of the commencement 2024 series.

A collection of stories covering Harvard University’s 373rd Commencement.

The University will confer the honorary degrees during Thursday’s Commencement ceremony in Tercentenary Theatre.

Lawrence S. Bacow

Doctor of laws.

President emeritus of Harvard University, Larry Bacow is widely admired for his decades of distinguished leadership in higher education. As Harvard’s 29th president from 2018 to 2023, he worked to advance interdisciplinary initiatives in areas including climate change, quantum science and engineering, the future of cities, natural and artificial intelligence, and the legacy of slavery. He is known for his efforts to expand educational opportunity, to promote international exchange, to encourage public service, and to guide Harvard through the COVID-19 pandemic. A scholar of environmental studies, Bacow served as president of Tufts University from 2001 to 2011, strengthening its commitment to academic excellence, inclusion, and civic engagement. He previously served for 24 years on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he led centers on environmental initiatives and real estate and rose to become chancellor. He has served as chair of the Association of Governing Boards’ council of presidents, chair of the executive committee of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, a member of the American Council of Education’s executive committee, and a Fellow of Harvard College. His numerous honors include the ACE’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez

Doctor of music.

Known for his dynamic musicianship and his devotion to the power of the arts, Gustavo Dudamel is an internationally renowned conductor. Currently the music and artistic director of both the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, he will become the music and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic in 2026. He has conducted major orchestras worldwide, featuring works by composers from Beethoven to Mahler to John Adams, and his discography includes more than 65 recordings. Born in Venezuela, he began violin studies as a child through the celebrated El Sistema program. By his teens he had distinguished himself as a conductor, becoming music director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela at 18 and winning the inaugural Gustav Mahler Competition at 23. He is a passionate advocate for music education through his work with Youth Orchestra Los Angeles as well as the Dudamel Foundation. Named one of Time’s most influential people in 2009, he has received such honors as Spain’s Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, the Konex Foundation Classical Music Award, and the International Society for the Performing Arts’ Distinguished Artist Award.

Sylvester James Gates Jr.

Doctor of science.

Sylvester James (Jim) Gates Jr. is an eminent theoretical physicist known for his contributions to supersymmetry, supergravity, and superstring theory and for his dedication to promoting public understanding of the wonders of science. With two S.B. degrees and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Gates holds the Clark Leadership Chair in Science and a joint appointment in the Department of Physics and the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He is also a Distinguished University Professor and a University System of Maryland Regents Professor. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Gates also received the 2011 National Medal of Science. He served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) under Barack Obama and was the vice president of the Maryland State Board of Education. Gates was the recipient of the American Institute of Physics’ 2021 Andrew Gemant Award, given in recognition of contributions to the cultural, artistic, or humanistic dimension of physics. In addition, he has served as Ford Foundation Professor of Physics and director of the Theoretical Physics Center at Brown University, as well as chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Howard University. He is past president of both the American Physical Society and the National Society of Black Physicists. He co-authored both “Superspace,” a groundbreaking book on supersymmetry, and “Proving Einstein Right: The Daring Expeditions that Changed How We Look at the Universe.” He has appeared in numerous documentaries about science.

Jennie Chin Hansen

Doctor of humane letters.

Jennie Chin Hansen is an innovative and influential leader in care for older people. Raised in Boston, she received her B.S. at Boston College and her M.S. in nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. She served for more than 25 years as the leader of On Lok, a California nonprofit that pioneered new models of comprehensive community-based care for older adults. Its programs became a prototype for the federal Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), available to states nationwide. She went on to serve as president of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), playing a key role in advocating for the Affordable Care Act. She next served as CEO of the American Geriatrics Society, dedicated to the care of older adults. She continues her work on issues important to older Americans, such as dementia, emergency medicine, and health equity. Past president of the American Society on Aging and a former member of the U.S. Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, she has been honored by such organizations as the American Academy of Nursing, the American Society on Aging, the National Council on Aging, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

Joy Harjo-Sapulpa

Doctor of literature.

Joy Harjo is an acclaimed poet, educator, author, playwright, and musician. She served as the 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate, only the second Poet Laureate to serve three terms (2019–22). A member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, whose work draws deeply on Native histories and traditions and on themes of remembrance and transcendence, she is the author of 10 books of poetry, including “Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: 50 Poems for 50 Years.” She has also written several plays and children’s books, and two memoirs. Her many honors include lifetime achievement awards from the National Book Critics Circle and the Poetry Foundation, as well as Yale University’s Bollingen Prize and the Academy of American Poets’ Wallace Stevens Award. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and former chair of the board of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. She is also an award-winning musician who has released seven albums. A graduate of the University of New Mexico and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she has taught at UNM and several other universities, and she is the inaugural artist-in-residence of the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Maria A. Ressa

Principal speaker doctor of laws.

Maria Ressa is an intrepid journalist and media innovator known for her fierce commitment to safeguarding freedom of the press and advancing the pursuit of truth. Her many honors include a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her efforts to promote free expression, to combat disinformation, and to expose abuses of power in her native country, the Philippines. She is co-founder and CEO of Rappler, a digital news outlet in the Philippines focused on investigative journalism, editorial independence, and building communities of action for a better world. Before launching Rappler online in 2012, she served as chief of CNN’s bureaus in Manila and Jakarta and as senior vice president of multimedia news operations at ABS-CBN, the largest news organization in the Philippines. She is the author of books on terrorism, social media, and defending democracy against authoritarianism. A graduate of Princeton University and a former Shorenstein Fellow and Hauser Leader at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, she will become a professor of professional practice at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in July 2024. She was named a Time Person of the Year in 2018.

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Who is Shruthi Kumar? Indian-origin student who blasted Harvard University over Gaza protests response in viral speech

S hruthi Kumar, an Indian-American student at Harvard , criticised her alma mater for its response to pro-Palestine protests during her commencement ceremony speech on the university campus. Kumar, one of the three students who won the honour to speak at the graduation, veered off from her prepared speech titled “The Power of Not Knowing”.

Kumar pulled out a piece of paper from her gown and addressed the intolerance of freedom of speech and civil disobedience on campus. She highlighted the plight of 13 undergraduates from the class of 2024 who were not allowed to graduate due to their involvement in the Gaza protests.

“The students had spoken. The faculty had spoken. Harvard, do you hear us?” she said.

After her speech, students staged a walkout in support of the 13 students barred from graduating for their protests against the war in Gaza.

Read| Netizens fume as Harvard University students fly Palestinian flag in spot reserved for American flag: 'Fall from grace’

But who is shruthi kumar here’s all you need to know about the harvard student.

1- Shruthi Kumar is the eldest daughter of South Asian immigrants. She is the first in her family to attend a college in the US.

2- She grew up in the Great Plains of Nebraska alongside cattle ranches and cornfields.

3- Kumar did her schooling at Marian High School.

4- She is the founder of GoYogi - a non-profit organisation focused on mental health education.

5- Shruthi has been the President of the Harvard South Asian Association since May 2022.

6- She also serves as the co-director of the Wellness Educator Program at Harvard University.

7- Fluent in English, Kannada, and Tamil, she also has limited working proficiency in Spanish.

8- She has interned at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among others.

Also Read| US campus crackdown 10-point update: Protestors detained across USC, Harvard, Columbia

Shruthi kumar’s off-script speech at harvard.

“As I stand before you today, I must take a moment to recognise my peers, the 13 undergraduates… in the class of 2024 who will not graduate today. I am deeply disappointed by the intolerance of freedom of speech and the right to civil disobedience on campus. What is happening on campus is about liberty,” said Kumar.

“The students had spoken. The faculty had spoken. Harvard, do you hear us?” she stressed.

The Indian-origin student went on to say, “Now, we are in a moment of intense division and disagreement in our community over the events in Gaza. I see pain, uncertainty, and unrest across campus. It’s now, in a moment like this, that the power of ‘not knowing’ becomes critical.”

“Maybe we don’t know what it’s like to be ethnically targeted. Maybe we don’t know what it’s like to come face to face with violence and death. But we don’t have to know,” she added.

She further expressed, “Solidarity is not dependent on what we know because ‘not knowing’ is an ethical stance. It creates space for empathy, solidarity, and a willingness to listen.”

“I don’t know - so I ask. I listen. I believe an important type of learning takes place, especially in moments of uncertainty, when we lean into conversation without assuming we have all the answers. Can we see humanity in people we don’t know? Can we feel the pain of people with whom we disagree?” Kumar concluded.

Read more news like this on HindustanTimes.com