Senior Section 2022

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The Harvard Crimson

MAY 2022

COMMENCEMENT 2022

Senior Section

A LETTER FROM THE CLASS MARSHALS

CLASS OF 2022 SENIOR SURVEY

WEDDING BELLS

Menat N. Bahnasy ’22 and Ruth H. Jaensubhakij ’22, First and Second Class Marshals, reflect on the Class of 2022’s time at Harvard.

Ten percent of surveyed seniors with 4.0 GPAs admitted to cheating in an academic context.

Almost two-thirds of survey respondents said they’ve used dating apps while in college.

Read the stories of the seniors in the Class of 2022 who are celebrating another life landmark: tying the knot. They shared how they met and their future plans.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

Table of Contents Foreword

Senior Section Staff

Over the last four years, we evacuated campus and returned, donned masks and took them off, and some of us even spent time alone in Harvard Square Hotel isolation. It was not a conventional college experience, but we enjoyed chronicling all of it — even when some of us were thousands of miles from Cambridge.

For this issue, The Crimson’s senior staff members surveyed our peers on their undergraduate experience, political views, and where they’re headed after Harvard, among other topics. Our class marshals shared their reflections on the past four years with graduates. And we documented the stories of our classmates who tied the knot during college or are soon to be married. We hope you enjoy this issue, our parting contribution to The Crimson and the Class of 2022.

EDITORS

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Sydnie M. Cobb ’22 Hana M. Kiros ’22 Declan J. Knieriem ’22 Michelle G. Kurilla ’22

PHOTOS

DESIGN

WEB DESIGN

Camille G. Caldera ’22 Matthew J. Tyler ’22

Richard A. Xu ’22

Menat N. Bahnasy ’22 and Ruth H. Jaensubhakij ’22, First and Second Marshals for the Class of 2022, reflect on college and thank their classmates.

SENIOR SURVEY

We share the results from our survey of the Class of 2022, ranging from statistics on dating to views on the now-dissolved Undergraduate Council.

NATIONAL POLITICS

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CAMPUS ISSUES

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OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Seniors report their political leanings and offer their views on national and international issues.

Seniors grade Harvard on the issues, reporting higher approval ratings of top administrators.

Sex, Dating Apps, Drugs: Read about how students spent their free time at Harvard.

Olivia G. Oldham ’22 Chloe A. Shawah ’22 Amanda Y. Su ’22 Matteo N. Wong ’22

Ryan N. Gajarawala ’22

A LETTER FROM THE 2022 CLASS MARSHALS

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James S. Bikales ’22 Ellen M. Burstein ’22 Camille G. Caldera ’22 Kevin R. Chen ’22

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ACADEMICS & STUDENT LIFE

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COVID-19

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AFTER HARVARD

Check out the academic and social interests of the class, from GPAs to House satisfaction.

The pandemic upended life on campus — read about how it impacted the graduating class.

Learn about what seniors are doing postgraduation and where they’ll be living.

WEDDING BELLS Hear from the couples in the Class of 2022 who are married or engaged to be married soon.

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

A Letter from the Class Marshals Menat N. Bahnasy ’22 and Ruth H. Jaensubhakij ’22 Dear Harvard Class of 2022, Today is the day. The one so many of us have been anxiously awaiting since we took our first steps in Harvard Yard. And it is so bittersweet.

With the excitement of our next chapters after Harvard comes nostalgia for the years that we have spent growing up here together. Nostalgia for the Annenberg rush during Sunday brunch, the late night study sessions in Lamont, the concerts where we watched our friends perform, the everlasting dining hall dinners.

The end of this chapter is inevitably emotional and challenging — but as our class has done countless times over the years, in hardship, we see the bright side.

It would be impossible to write anything about the past few years, or the Class of 2022, without recognizing the losses and tragedies that we and the rest of the world have experienced. We have experienced Harvard and the world in a completely new way. While trying to keep up with the day-to-day of our newfound Zoom lives, we faced a global health crisis, a deep reckoning for racial justice after the murder of George Floyd and numerous other Black and brown people, heightened political polarization, and a toll on our mental well-being. It has been really hard for all of us in one way or another. These challenges — some unimaginable and some all too foreseeable — touched each of us differently; some have been a shared among the Class, and in some have been borne in isolation.

But we have not allowed these dark moments to define our college experience. If this year’s return to campus — being thrust into senior year as leaders on campus when we left as mere sophomores — has taught us anything, it is that we as a class are capable of far more perseverance than we realized. Despite nearly a year and a half off of the field, we have returned triumphantly for our senior seasons and led our teams to NCAA championships. Despite not being able to rehearse together in person, and having to demonstrate immense flexibility and creativity to make virtual performances hap-

RYAN N. GAJARAWALA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

pen, we have helped bring the performing arts community at Harvard back to life.

Despite the onslaught of tragedy and injustice that we’ve seen around the globe, often targeting already-vulnerable communities, cultural and advocacy organizations have worked tirelessly to ensure that causes both inside and outside of the Harvard community can be uplifted.

As we prepare to go our separate ways, it may seem as though even more challenges and uncertainty lie ahead of us. But we know that the Class of 2022 is going to take these challenges and uncertainties and transform them into opportunities for growth and flourishing. We have learned how to stay connected to one another in spite of distance, making us better equipped to maintain our relationships after college than perhaps any who have come before us. We have learned that opportunities and experiences are not to be taken for granted — a lesson that can help us live fully in the moment and make the most of whatever comes next.

We have learned how to navigate our values, goals, and identities both inside and outside of the traditional college environment, preparing us to continue developing as rich and complex individuals outside of Harvard. We can’t wait to see who each of you will become, and the positive change that you’ll bring about.

We’ll be forever bonded together as a class full of grit and light. The ebbs and flows of the last few years prove it. As you exit this chapter and enter your next, we hope you will ask yourself: How can I push the world around me forward just a little bit each day? Then, take the tools and experiences that Harvard has given you and run with them! If we all find the answer to that question as often as we can, we will always be connected by the magic that we shared together and what we built with it.

It has been an immense honor for us to witness all of the strength, beauty, and love that this class has shared with one another and with the world. We have been and will continue to be inspired by each of you.

Love, Menat and Ruth

Menatallah “Menat” N. Bahnasy, an Economics and Modern Middle Eastern Studies concentrator in Eliot House, is the First Marshal of the College’s Class of 2022.

Ruth H. Jaensubhakij, a Social Studies concentrator in Eliot House, is the Second Marshal of the College’s Class of 2022.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

Class of 2022

Senior Survey W

hen the Class of 2022 first stepped foot on campus, Harvard had just welcomed two new administrators: University President Lawrence S. Bacow and Faculty of Arts of Sciences Dean Claudine Gay. Single-gender social organizations were disappearing one by one after Harvard announced sanctions on these groups in 2016. The Students for Fair Admissions lawsuit against Harvard’s raceconscious admissions policies was soon to go to trial at John Joseph Moakley Courthouse in Boston. The long-anticipated Smith Campus Center had just opened its doors.

Since this class’s freshman year, however, single-gender social organizations have returned after Harvard lifted the sanctions. The SFFA lawsuit has winded its way up to the Supreme Court. The University divested its endowment from the fossil fuel industry after decades of student activism.

Students overwhelmingly voted to dissolve the 40-year-old Undergraduate Council. And less than two years after its opening, the Smith Campus Center — like the rest of campus — shut its doors indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Outside of campus, the Class of 2022 has also witnessed a new presidential administration, nationwide protests against systemic racism, and one million deaths from the coronavirus.

Around half of surveyed seniors said they felt the country is “off on the wrong track.” Roughly half view President Joe

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Biden favorably, a drop from 2021, when two-thirds viewed him favorably. Meanwhile, seniors’ views on University administrators including Bacow, Gay, and Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana improved significantly from last year.

Support for affirmative action remains prevalent among the senior class, with 68 percent of survey respondents reporting a favorable opinion. Seventy-four percent said they approved of the University’s decision to divest from fossil fuels, an increase from last year. Thirty percent of respondents belong to campus social organizations, up from 25 percent in 2021.

Each year, The Crimson conducts a survey of Harvard’s graduating class of seniors, collecting data about where the class is headed next, how they spent their time at Harvard, and what they think of the College and the nation. This year’s edition drew 493 responses, representing roughly 31 percent of the class. The survey, emailed to each senior, remained open from May 3 to May 15 and was anonymous. To check for potential response bias, The Crimson compared respondent demographics with publicly available information on student demographics provided by the University (see “Methodology” section for more).

Despite an unconventional four years weathered on campus and off, the vast majority of surveyed seniors were satisfied with their college experience. Given the chance, 92 percent of the respondents said that they would choose Harvard again.

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

National Politics

By ELLEN M. BURSTEIN

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CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

hile navigating the more traditional demands of undergraduate life — papers, problem sets, friendships, and extracurriculars — the Class of 2022 lived through extraordinary political disruption in the United States, including the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 presidential election, and a global reckoning with systemic racism.

Like previous classes, the majority of this graduating class identified as progressive and affiliated with the Democratic party; they were deeply critical of former President Donald Trump and the Trump administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, seniors were more split on foreign policy and many domestic policy issues.

POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS Fifty-five percent of respondents reported that they were registered with the Democratic Party; just four percent were registered Republicans. Fourteen percent were registered as independent, and roughly a quarter were not registered with any political party.

A smaller percentage of male respondents — 49 percent — reported being registered Democrats than female and genderqueer/nonbinary respondents, at 61.5 percent and 64.3 percent, respectively.

More than one in four — 27 percent — surveyed seniors identified as holding “very progressive” political views, an increase from the one in five who said they held those views prior to attending Harvard. While 44 percent identified as “progressive” coming into freshman year, 41 percent said their political views are “progressive” now. Few members of the graduating class identified as conservatives – just 4 percent said their political views were conservative and 2 percent replied “very conservative,” compared to 7 and 2 percent, respectively, freshman year. Roughly a quarter — 23 percent — of respondents identified themselves as moderates both prior to and after attending Harvard.

Harvard seniors largely socialize with people who share their political views.

Ten percent of respondents said that all of their closest friends share their political views, and more than half — 52 percent — reported that most do. A third said that some share their political beliefs.

POLITICAL VIEWS Ninety-three percent of respondents viewed former President Donald Trump unfavorably, a nearly identical figure to the 94 percent of the Class of 2021 with the same views.

Roughly half — 52 percent of respondents — viewed President Joe Biden favorably, and 30 percent viewed him unfavorably. Biden’s favorability dropped sig-

nificantly in the past year; two-thirds of Class of 2021 viewed Biden favorably.

Seniors were similarly split on the Biden administration’s handling of the pandemic. Forty-six percent of respondents approved of Biden’s response to Covid-19, and 30 percent disapproved.

Respondents overwhelmingly — 86 percent — disapproved of how the Trump administration handled the pandemic; just 3 percent approved.

They were largely supportive of Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony S. Fauci, who has been a face of the Covid-19 response for both presidential administrations. Sixty-nine percent of respondents viewed Fauci favorably, while 13 percent viewed him unfavorably.

Seniors were more divided on foreign policy issues relevant to the last four years. Forty-five percent of respondents approved of the international response to the war in Ukraine, and 24 percent disapproved.

Similarly, 43 percent approved of the U.S. decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in August 2021; 22 percent disapproved. Thirty-four percent of respondents favorably viewed the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement; 21 percent disapproved. The Crimson Editorial Board recently endorsed BDS, drawing backlash from campus Jewish groups and some faculty and alumni.

Domestically, surveyed seniors overwhelmingly supported anti-police brutality protests and legislation targeting anti-Asian hate crimes, at 77 percent and 78 percent of respondents, respectively.

Fifty-four percent of respondents favorably viewed defunding or abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement; 20 percent disapproved.

More than half — 55 percent — supported the Green New Deal, a set of environmental proposals championed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), while 14 percent disapprove.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents supported the #MeToo movement, and 8 percent disapprove; 88 percent of female respondents said they viewed it favorably, compared to 66 percent of male respondents.

Seniors also weighed in on recent controversies involving social media platforms. Fifteen percent of respondents said they approve of Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter, but 56 percent disapproved.

Sixty-eight percent approved of some social media platforms’ decisions to remove or restrict Trump’s access to the platform, and 15 percent disapproved.

More than half of respondents — 56 percent — said they felt the country is “off on the wrong track.” Fourteen percent felt things are “generally headed in the right direction.” Thirty percent said they were unsure of their answer.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

Campus Politics

By KEVIN R. CHEN

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CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

he Class of 2022 is graduating during an academic year marked by the first full return to campus since the start of the pandemic. Seniors reported significantly more favorable views of Harvard administrators than the previous class, who graduated amid remote learning, and a majority supported the University’s easing of Covid-19 restrictions. After students overwhelmingly voted to dissolve the Undergraduate Council in April 2022, graduating senior respondents reported support of the UC’s dissolution, but ambivalence regarding the Harvard Undergraduate Association, the new structure that replaced it.

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case challenging Harvard’s race-conscious admissions, graduating seniors still largely report support of affirmative action.

CAMPUS LEADERS Sentiment towards Harvard administrators among respondents improved significantly over the past year, during which the College invited all students back to campus and gradually eased Covid-19 restrictions.

Favorability ratings for University President Lawrence S. Bacow, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana, and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay all increased, with more students reporting favorable views than unfavorable views on each of them.

Favorability for Bacow among Class of 2022 respondents increased by half from the previous year, rising from 22 percent to 33 percent, though a plurality of respondents — 36 percent — said they had

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no opinion. Twenty-four percent of seniors reported unfavorable views on Bacow, down from 42 percent last year.

A majority of seniors — 54 percent — reported viewing Khurana favorably, up from 40 percent in 2021. His unfavorability rating roughly halved from 39 percent last year to 20 percent this year.

Gay’s favorablity also increased, rising from 22 percent last year to 30 percent this year. Though, like with Bacow, a plurality of graduating seniors — 42 percent — said they had no opinion. Eighteen percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of Gay, down from 23 percent in 2021.

Support for student leaders also increased, with 28 percent of respondents reporting favorable views on former Undergraduate Council President Noah A. Harris ’22 and Vice President Jenny Y. Gan ’22, who served during the 2021 calendar year.

This is a 11 percentage point increase from 17 percent of senior respondents last year who supported Harris and Gan’s predecessors James A. Mathew ’21 and Vice President Ifeoma E. “Ify” White-Thorpe ’21. A plurality of respondents — 37 percent — said they had no opinion on Harris and Gan’s administration, and 27 percent said they had an unfavorable view.

Still, students overwhelmingly voted to dissolve the UC in favor of an alternative student government structure this spring after relentless campaigning by former Undergraduate Council President Michael Y. Cheng ’22, who was elected to serve during the 2022 calendar year and resigned after the UC’s dissolution.

Cheng was a polarizing figure, with a slim plurality of respondents — 33 percent — reporting unfavorable views of Cheng, and 32 percent reporting favorable views.

A plurality of respondents — 42 percent — favorably viewed the dissolution of

the UC, with 18 percent reporting an unfavorable opinion.

However, students felt largely ambivalent about the formation of the new structure, the Harvard Undergraduate Association, with a plurality of respondents — 43 percent — reporting no opinion. More students said they viewed the formation of the HUA unfavorably than favorably, with 25 percent and 20 percent responding as such, respectively.

COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS AND COMMENCEMENT Harvard has gradually lifted its Covid-19 restrictions over the course of the past year. After inviting all students back to campus last fall for in-person classes for the first time since March 2020, Harvard ended isolation housing and contact tracing this spring. Harvard then lifted its indoor mask mandate along with the city of Cambridge in March and stopped requiring Covid-19 testing by May. A majority of respondents — 68 percent — said they approved of Harvard’s lifting of its Covid-19 restrictions, with 19 percent in disapproval.

For the first time in three years, Harvard will hold an in-person Commencement for its graduating class. Roughly half of respondents — 53 percent — held a favorable opinion of the selection of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as Commencement speaker, while 45 percent of respondents held a favorable opinion of the selection of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 as Class Day speaker.

Last year, an overwhelming majority of respondents — 84 percent — disapproved of the University’s decision to hold Commencement virtually in 2021 while many peer institutions held their cere-

monies in person. This year, Harvard will additionally hold a combined in-person Commencement for the Classes of 2020 and 2021, fulfilling its pledge to do so.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION After the Supreme Court agreed in January to hear lawsuits challenging the use of race-conscious admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the group suing the schools asked the Supreme Court earlier this month to overturn precedents allowing the consideration of race in university admissions.

Despite these legal challenges, support for affirmative action remains strong among the senior class, with a majority of respondents — 68 percent — reporting a favorable opinion of race-conscious affirmative action and 14 percent reporting an unfavorable opinion.

An overwhelming majority of Black respondents — 88 percent — held favorable opinions of affirmative action, compared to 79 percent of Hispanic or Latinx respondents, 66 percent of Asian respondents, and 66 percent of white respondents.

DIVESTMENT Harvard announced in September that it would divest its endowment from fossil fuels, following years of activism from Harvard affiliates. This year, 74 percent of respondents said they were in favor of the University’s decision to divest, while only 7 percent of respondents said they were opposed. Last year, before Harvard announced its intention to divest, 65 percent of graduating senior respondents said they believed the University should do so.

Support for divestment was divided sharply along political lines, with 91 percent and 85 percent of very progressive and progressive students in support, respectively, and 0 percent and 18 percent of very conservative and conservative students in support, respectively.

On the other hand, support for divesting the University’s endowment from the private prison industry held steady, with 72 percent of respondents saying Harvard should divest from the prison industry, the same as last year.

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

HARVARD POLICE Following the retirement of Harvard University Police Department Chief Francis D. “Bud” Riley at the end of 2020, whose department had been tainted by allegations of racism, sexism, and favoritism, Victor A. “Vic” Clay began as HUPD’s new chief in July 2021. Clay oversaw several sweeping changes, with only three of Riley’s original senior leadership team remaining by March.

A majority of seniors — 58 percent — said they fully or somewhat trust HUPD, up slightly from 52 percent last year. Trust among Black students was lower than among other students, with 39 percent of Black students reporting trust of HUPD, compared to 54, 63, and 59 percent among Hispanic or Latinx, Asian, and white students, respectively.

A lower proportion of students — 46 percent — said they fully or somewhat trust the Cambridge Police Department.

SEXUAL ASSAULT AND HARASSMENT The Class of 2022 has seen multiple faculty members face allegations of sexual misconduct. The Crimson found that three prominent Harvard Anthropology professors faced allegations of sexual harassment. Harvard then stripped one of these faculty, Gary Urton, of his emeritus status, and placed another, John Comaroff, on administrative leave.

In a controversy drawing national attention, nearly 40 faculty members, including some of Harvard’s most prominent faculty, questioned the investigation into Comaroff. Most of them quickly retracted their support after three graduate students sued Harvard alleging that it ignored sexual harassment complaints against Comaroff for years.

Twelve percent of respondents said they have been sexually harassed or assaulted at Harvard. Of those students, 82 percent identify as female, 14 percent identify as male, and 4 percent identify as genderqueer or nonbinary. Only twenty-seven of respondents who were sexually harassed or assaulted at Harvard chose to report their incident.

In 2021, the University combined its sexual harassment and assault resources — formerly split between the Title IX Office and the Office for Sexual Assault Prevention and Response — under one entity, the Office for Gender Equity. Just 33 percent of respondents said they fully or somewhat trusted the Office for Gender Equity, while 21 percent said they somewhat or fully distrusted the office.

Nearly half of respondents — 45 percent — reported being dissatisfied with Harvard’s efforts to prevent sexual assault and harassment on campus, with 18 percent reporting being satisfied.

MENTAL HEALTH Thirty-nine percent of seniors reported that they sought mental health support from University Health Services during their time at Harvard, marking a slight decrease from last year. A similar share of respondents — 31 percent — sought support from off-campus professionals, and nine percent sought help from on-campus peer counseling groups.

Among those who sought support from HUHS, 32 percent said they were somewhat or very satisfied with their experiences, a drop from last year when 47 percent of seniors in the Class of 2021 reported being satisfied with HUHS. Fifty-one percent said they are dissatisfied, a slight uptick from last year’s 44 percent.

By contrast, 63 percent of those who went to an off-campus professional indicated

they were satisfied with their treatment.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they somewhat or fully trusted HUHS, while 29 percent indicated some or full distrust.

RENAMING BUILDINGS In recent years, some students and affiliates have pushed for the renaming of Mather House and Lowell House. Students have criticized the Houses’ associations with their namesakes: former University Presidents Increase Mather, who was a slave owner, and Abbott Lawrence Lowell, who enacted racist and homophobic policies at Harvard.

A plurality of seniors — 43 percent — reported they believe that Harvard should rename buildings such as Mather and Lowell because of the actions of their

namesakes, whereas 27 percent reported they believe Harvard should not.

Gay, the FAS Dean, outlined procedures for removing controversial names from buildings and titles earlier this month.

Harvard released a landmark report in April that detailed its extensive ties to the institution of slavery. The report identified a wide array of prominent Harvard affiliates who owned slaves.

A plurality of respondents — 30 percent — said they held a favorable view of Harvard’s handling of its historic ties to slavery, while 20 percent said they held an unfavorable view, 28 percent had no opinion, and 21 percent said they did not have enough information to respond.

CAMPUS PUBLICATIONS A majority of respondents — 54 percent — indicated a favorable view of The Harvard Crimson, up from 46 percent last year. Eighteen percent viewed the newspaper unfavorably, down from 28 percent last year.

Only about 16 percent of seniors reported a favorable opinion of the Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine, while a majority — 61 percent — reported an unfavorable opinion. This marks a slight improvement from last year, when 8 percent of seniors viewed the organization favorably and 72 percent viewed it unfavorably.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

Lifestyle

By SYDNIE M. COBB

N

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

otwithstanding Covid-19, Color tests, and the Community Council, the Class of 2022 forged ahead to replicate a social experience similar to pre-pandemic times — though occasionally punctuated by dreaded “I tested positive” texts from friends and bouts in isolation housing.

Though a global pandemic bifurcated their college years and kept many from Cambridge for 18 months, Harvard seniors still managed to undergo a transformative experience in their limited — and socially distanced — time on campus.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents reported losing their virginity as undergraduates, while 39 percent reported having their first sips of alcohol during their time at Harvard. In addition, more than half of surveyed seniors — 63 percent — reported using marijuana for the first time while a student at the College.

Despite partaking in these “traditional” college experiences, many members of this year’s class flouted Harvard’s very own traditions.

A majority of this year’s class opted not to complete the four things — including a plunge into the Charles from Weeks Bridge — every undergraduate “must do” before graduating.

Among those that did participate, how-

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ever, the most popular of the three things was Primal Scream; the least popular was sex in the Widener Library stacks, which only 69 of 422 respondents reported having completed.

SEX AND DATING The Class of 2022 loved love (or hookups). For many seniors, their sexual awakening happened freshman year, with nearly 17 percent of respondents reporting losing their virginity during their first year of college.

Nearly 62 percent of respondents reported using dating apps as undergraduates. However, despite this affinity for dating apps, a sizable share of this year’s senior class tended to shy away from actual dating.

Twenty-five percent of respondents reported being single throughout the duration of college, while a plurality — 39 percent — reported only being in one relationship.

On the other hand, hookup culture was alive and well among the Class of 2022, with respondents averaging four sexual partners. Nearly 10 percent of respondents reported having 10-20 sexual partners throughout college. This figure was higher for recruited athletes and members of all-male final clubs, with more than 20 percent of both groups reporting 10-20 sexual partners.

DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

THE FOUR THINGS

4/20 didn’t just come once a year for Harvard seniors — 27 percent of respondents said they smoked marijuana at least once a month. In 2016, Massachusetts residents voted to legalize recreational marijuana.

It is also no secret that seniors in the Class of 2022 frequented C’est Bon Market & Liquors throughout their time in college to fulfill all their darty and pregame needs.

More than 40 percent of respondents said they indulged in seltzers, tequilas, and everything in between at least twice a week. Though a majority of respondents did not drink as frequently, nearly all — 92 percent — said they have drunk alcohol in the past year.

Tobacco use was more popular among the Class of 2022 than with previous classes. Nearly 31 percent of respondents in this year’s class reported using the substance in the past year, compared to 25 percent in the Class of 2021.

A smaller percentage of respondents — 18 percent — reported using hard drugs during college, a figure consistent with the Class of 2020 and Class of 2021.

An even smaller percentage of the graduating seniors — 6.5 percent — reported using non-prescribed study drugs, like Adderall, during their four years at the College.

Per Harvard lore, each undergraduate “must” complete four traditional tasks before graduating from College: jump off the John Weeks Memorial Bridge into the Charles River, urinate on the John Harvard statue, mark the eve of finals season with a nude run called Primal Scream, and have sex in the stacks of the famed Widener Library.

Taking a nude jog around the Yard tended to be the most popular among this year’s class, with nearly 36 percent of respondents saying they participated in Primal Scream.

This was closely followed by urinating on the John Harvard statue of which more than 31 percent of respondents completed.

Across the Yard in Widener Library, Harvard seniors spent time on more than just problem sets, projects, and papers.

After enduring a dry spell with the Class of 2021, Widener Library saw more action with the Class of 2022, as more than 16 percent of respondents said they got busy in the stacks this past year. The stacks — which contain 3.5 million volumes, the largest university library in the world — consists of five miles of aisles across ten levels and three wings.

Just 12 percent of the class braved the waters of the Charles by jumping off of Weeks Bridge.

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

TECH AND SOCIAL MEDIA After undergraduates evacuated campus in March 2020 and scattered across the world, they kept up with each other through various social media platforms.

Despite controversy, Mark E. Zuckerberg and his social media platforms Facebook and Instagram were favored by the vast majority of respondents. Instagram took the top spot, at almost 85 percent, while about 80 percent of respondents reported using Facebook. Closely trailing behind these apps was the professional networking platform Linkedin.

Almost one-third of seniors in the Class of 2022 also reported that they use Sidechat, a new social media app that swept campus after its launch in late March. Sidechat allows students who verify their enrollment at Harvard with their email address to author anonymous posts, comment, upvote, and downvote.

Despite the ubiquity of social media among this year’s class, a third of respondents reported deleting their accounts on at least one social media platform during college. Of these apps, photo-vanishing app Snapchat — a vestige of many seniors’ middle and high school days — was the most likely to be deleted.

It seems unlikely Harvard seniors will break up with other social media, though, as the majority of respondents reported spending more than 30 minutes per day on Instagram and 15 percent said they spent over an hour per day on TikTok.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

Academics & Student Life

By JAMES S. BIKALES and MICHELLE G. KURILLA

H

Surveyed seniors reported sleeping an average of seven hours a night.

CONCENTRATIONS

GPA

Academics were the top priority for the graduating class, with about 93 percent of respondents rating it as “very important” or “important.”

Surveyed seniors reported spending an average of 34.3 hours per week on academics, a slight decrease from the total hours from last year.

The most popular concentration among respondents by far was Computer Science, followed by Economics, Government, Mathematics, and Applied Mathematics. After coming in as the third-most popular concentration in 2021, Social Studies fell to the sixth most popular concentration this year.

Including joint concentrations, a plurality of respondents — 43 percent — concentrated in the Social Sciences division.

Three in ten concentrated in the Science division, 26 percent concentrated in fields in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and 20 percent concentrated in the Arts and Humanities division.

Seventy-six percent of respondents reported they would concentrate in the same subject again. More than half of respondents — 54 percent — said they wrote or are writing a senior thesis.

Grade point averages continued to rise this year. More than two-thirds of respondents — about 69 percent — said they have a GPA of 3.8 or higher rounded to one decimal place, compared to 64 percent last year and 54 percent in 2020.

Eighty-two percent reported a GPA of 3.7 or higher. An A- corresponds to a 3.67 in the College’s grading system.

Sixteen percent of respondents said they had a near-perfect GPA, rounded to 4.0, compared to 12 percent in 2021 and 9 percent in 2020.

Harvard professors have reported concerns over grade inflation for years.

This year, 71 percent of those who responded to The Crimson’s survey of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences said that grade inflation was “very much” or “somewhat” a problem in their departments. In December 2013, administrators revealed that the median grade at the College was an A- and the most commonly awarded grade was an A. Students whose parents or guardians had a combined income of less than $40,000 composed 7.1 percent of the seniors who reported a 4.0 GPA or higher, while 11.4 percent of the seniors who re-

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

arvard undergraduates returned to the classroom this year for the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic — at first masked and distanced, and, after March, maskless.

The long-anticipated Science and Engineering Complex in Allston opened its doors to students this fall. The 544,000-square-foot, $1 billion campus houses offices, labs, and classrooms for various STEM disciplines.

Across the river, renewal projects continued at the College’s undergraduate houses. A gleaming Claverly Hall reopened this year after a full renovation, though other Adams House buildings remain under construction.

After initially taking a cautious approach to the pandemic, Harvard drastically shifted its Covid-19 policies over the course of the academic year.

In September, masks were required in all indoor spaces, gatherings were limited, and students who tested positive had to pack their belongings and relocate to the Harvard Square Hotel isolation housing.

Now, students are maskless in most campus spaces, can gather without limits,

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and isolate in place if they test positive — though testing is no longer required.

ported a 4.0 had a combined family income of more than $250,000.

Just 5 percent of respondents said they were graduating with Advanced Standing, a program that allows students to use high school credits to graduate in just three years or with a Master’s degree but will be eliminated after this year.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY Two years of remote classes raised concerns about academic integrity as students completed homework, essays, and even exams from all over the world.

While some instructors switched to open-book exams or trusted students to self-enforce the College’s Honor Code, others employed tracking technology to combat mid-exam internet searches.

Still, more Class of 2022 seniors reported cheating in an academic context over the course of their undergraduate education at Harvard compared to previous years. Twenty-eight percent of respondents this year reported having cheated, compared to 22 percent of respondents in 2021.

Among this year’s respondents who said they cheated, 19 percent reported having cheated on an exam, 36 percent on a take-home exam or project, and 79 percent on a problem set or regular homework assignment.

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Ten percent of respondents who reported having a 4.0 said they had cheated in an academic context while at Harvard.

EXTRACURRICULARS AND SPORTS Extracurricular and athletic activities resumed in-person in September — many returning from a 18-month-long hiatus since the pandemic began. The Ivy League canceled varsity sports seasons in fall 2020, winter 2020 and spring 2021.

Respondents reported spending an average of 16 hours a week on extracurricular activities, nine hours on paid employment, and seven hours on athletics during their undergraduate years. The two former figures decreased from previous

years, with respondents reporting spending 17 hours on extracurricular activities and 10 hours on paid employment in 2021.

Sixteen percent of respondents said they participated in a varsity sport during their time at Harvard, sixty-five percent of whom were recruited athletes. A majority of athlete respondents — 80 percent — played all four years.

HOUSE AND SOCIAL LIFE Lowell House held the highest satisfaction rate among the Houses this year, with 94.4 percent of Lowell respondents reporting that they were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with their living arrangements at Harvard.

Closely following Lowell were two

other River Houses — Eliot House and Dunster House at 93.8 percent and 92.7 percent satisfaction, respectively. Pforzheimer House, which held the highest satisfaction rate last year, fell to fifth place.

Kirkland House, meanwhile, held the lowest satisfaction rate with only 45 percent of respondents reporting that they were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied.” More than a third of Kirkland respondents — 35.7 percent — indicated that they were “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with their living arrangements.

In their first year back in person on campus, 77 percent of respondents reported the pandemic made social life more important to them, compared to

roughly half last year. On average, respondents said they averaged 19 hours a week on their social life, a slight increase from an average of 18 hours a week on social life among last year’s surveyed seniors.

Thirty percent of respondents reported being part of a final club, sorority or fraternity, or a co-ed social group this year, up from 25 percent in 2021. The College lifted sanctions on single-gender social organizations last year.

Higher income students were more likely to be members of social organizations — while 35.3 percent of respondents whose family made a combined income of over $500,000 said they were members of an organization, just 11.2 percent of those whose families made under $40,000 belonged to such a club.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

Class of 2022 At a Glance

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

Covid-19

By ELLEN M. BURSTEIN and MICHELLE G. KURILLA

T

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

he Class of 2022 spent nearly a third of their college experience displaced by the coronavirus pandemic, taking Zoom classes from childhood bedrooms, shared apartments, and an empty Harvard campus.

Nearly every member of the graduating class has been fully vaccinated and boosted — which Harvard required to live on campus — but two-thirds have nonetheless contracted the coronavirus at least once.

The coronavirus also altered many seniors’ academic careers and post-graduate plans. Half of the respondents said the pandemic forced them to change their thesis topic or affected their research capabilities, and 59 percent said it informed what they plan to do after graduation.

STUDENT LIFE AND COVID-19 Despite Harvard’s efforts to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus — including teaching classes remotely for a year and a half and mandating tri-weekly Covid-19 tests — a majority of respondents report-

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ed having contracted Covid-19.

Two-thirds of the graduating class have contracted Covid-19 at least once, and, of those, nearly three in five said they believe they contracted the coronavirus on campus.

The graduating class’s vaccination rate is on par with the College’s overall vaccination rate of 98 percent. Ninety-six percent of respondents have been vaccinated and received at least one booster, while 3 percent of respondents have been fully vaccinated but not yet received the booster. Only 1 percent of respondents have not been vaccinated.

Sixty-seven percent of respondents have had Covid-19 at least once, and 13 percent of those students have had it twice. Fifty-nine percent of respondents who contracted Covid-19 reported that they believe they contracted it while on campus.

Nearly three-quarters — 74 percent — of those who contracted Covid-19 at least once tested positive during spring 2022, followed by fall 2021, when 20 percent tested positive.

Before the College invited all undergraduates back to live in residence in fall 2021, Harvard’s campus operated at a reduced capacity; select classes and quali-

fying students with extenuating circumstances were allowed to reside on campus but had to comply with strict social distancing requirements.

A majority of respondents — 66 percent — did not live in Harvard’s dorms at any point when classes were taught remotely. Five percent of respondents lived in residence during spring 2020 after Harvard sent most students home in

March 2020. Two percent lived on campus in summer 2020. Four percent lived on campus during fall 2020. Twenty-nine percent of respondents lived in dorms during spring 2021, when Harvard invited the Class of 2021 and Class of 2022 to reside on campus.

Nine percent of respondents lived off-campus at some point after classes resumed in person and all students re-

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turned to Cambridge in fall 2021.

Seniors with higher family incomes opted to live off-campus at a higher rate.

Just 3 percent of respondents with a family income of less than $40,000 opted to live off campus once classes resumed in person, while 13 percent of those whose parents make more than $500,000 lived in off-campus housing.

Harvard lifted most of its Covid-19 restrictions — including masking, capacity requirements, and testing — in spring 2022. More than two-thirds of respondents — 68 percent — said they approved of those decisions, while 19 percent disapproved.

ACADEMICS AND FUTURE PLANS Covid-19 has upended student’s lives as well as informed their academic and postgraduate plans.

As University policies shut down labs, restricted domestic and international travel and travel funding, as well as canceled study abroad programs, seniors re-

ported that the pandemic impacted their choice of thesis project and their ability to conduct research.

As classes moved online during the pandemic, more than a third of respondents said their coursework became easier. Four percent said their coursework was “much less difficult” while remote, and 37 percent said their coursework became “less difficult.” Thirty-four percent reported that the difficulty of their academic work remained the same throughout the pandemic. Twenty percent said their classes were “more difficult,” and 5 percent said they became “much more difficult.”

In their first year back in person on campus, around three-quarters of respondents said the pandemic made social life more important to them, compared to roughly half of respondents to last year’s survey.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said their career plans were “somewhat informed” or “greatly informed” by the pandemic.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

After Harvard

By DECLAN J. KNIERIEM

A

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

fter more than two years of living through the pandemic, the graduating Class of 2022 will set off to face a tumultuous job market and uncertain world.

Despite their abnormal college experience and the pandemic’s deep effects on industry, this batch of Harvard College seniors still closely resembles previous classes when it comes to planning for the future.

Trends of moving to the coasts, taking jobs in finance or technology, and earning hefty post-grad salaries continue into this year.

Similar to past years, the most popular career choices among seniors are in the consulting, finance, and technology sectors, and nearly half of survey respondents indicated they will be residing in Massachusetts or New York.

Sixty-seven percent of seniors plan to

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join the workforce in their first year out of college, up from 61 percent in the Class of 2021.

Not everyone, however, is following this path. Fifteen percent said they plan to enroll in a graduate or professional school, with roughly 7 percent preparing to participate in some kind of fellowship.

The proportion of seniors planning to travel after graduation increased slightly from last year to 2 percent. Those who are undecided on their post-graduate plans fell 4 percentage points from 2021 to 10 percent of respondents. This is the second year in a row to see such a drop.

MOVIN’ OUT A majority of graduating seniors will find themselves on one of America’s coasts, continuing a yearslong trend. The most popular domestic locations among respondents also roughly match up with previous years: 27 percent to New York, 12 percent to California, 4 percent to Wash-

ington D.C., and 21 percent staying in Massachusetts.

Among the 13 percent of seniors who will be living outside of the U.S., the most popular destinations are Europe and Asia, with 59 percent and 16 percent of those seniors, respectively.

Sixty-seven percent of seniors pursuing careers in government or politics are heading to the nation’s capital. Seniors working in finance are also geographically concentrated, with 65 percent planning to call New York home for at least the next year. Eight percent of seniors are still unsure of where they will be living next year, a drop of 6 percentage points from the Class of 2021.

IT JUST MAKES CENTS For seniors joining the workforce, jobs in consulting, finance, and technology continue to dominate. Similar to last year’s graduating class, 23 percent of respondents will begin consulting jobs, 18

percent finance jobs, and 17 percent technology jobs.

Last year, 21 percent of respondents went into finance, 19 percent into consulting, and 17 percent into technology.

Beyond the big three sectors, 9 percent will pursue academia or research, 6 percent engineering, 6 percent health, 4 percent arts and entertainment, 4 percent public service, and 3 percent government or politics.

There are gender disparities in some industries. Of the seniors who reported a post-graduate job in finance, 63 percent identified as male. Nearly two-thirds of respondents who reported a post-grad job in engineering are male. By contrast, 51 percent of those who reported going into technology are female.

MO’ MONEY, MO’ PROBLEMS The majority of respondents reported they will exceed the national average salary for recent graduates, in line with trends from past graduating classes.

Nearly seven in 10 seniors will be making more than $70,000 in their first year out of college, the highest proportion in the past four years.

In addition, roughly 30 percent of graduates will make more than $110,000, up from 25 percent last year. This puts most students’ salaries above $55,000, the national average salary for recent graduates. Seven percent of respondents reported an expected salary of less than $30,000, while 1 percent indicated they were taking an unpaid position.

Despite mostly high salaries, the gender disparity among graduating classes persists. Of those respondents who reported they will make more than $110,000, only 35 percent identified as female. For those making less than $30,000, that number is 55 percent.

In the highest income bracket, finance (45 percent) and technology (37 percent) positions are the most prevalent. Meanwhile, consulting dominates among respondents expecting to make $70,000 to $110,000.

First-generation college students were more likely to report having starting salaries under $30,000 or unpaid positions.

Despite making up only 15 percent of respondents, first generation graduates in

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the Class of 2022 constitute 30 percent of seniors who will be in the lowest salary bracket after graduation.

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS Fifty-six percent of respondents said they anticipate receiving some level of financial support from their parents, with 15 percent expecting a “substantial” level of support, such as rent and other living expenses. This is down slightly from last year’s graduating class, which had 60 percent overall receiving support and 17 percent receiving “substantial” support.

Family considerations also played a large role in determining some seniors’ plans for the future. Seventy-one percent of respondents said their family’s socioeconomic status informed their post-graduate career choices, with 21 percent indicating this factor “greatly” influenced them.

Some seniors are also dealing with the impact of student loans. Fourteen percent of respondents indicated they will graduate with some kind of debt. Among these students, 32 percent said student loans are impacting their post-graduate plans.

The share of students graduating with loans increased slightly this year, but the proportion who said their future plans

Post-Graduate Destinations

New York 27%

Massachusetts 21%

Outside of U.S. 13.4%

California 11.9%

Don’t Know 7.6%

Washington D.C. 4.1%

Methodology

T

he Crimson distributed the survey by email to 1,269 members of the Class of 2022 through emails sourced in May 2022 from Harvard directory information. Participants accessed the survey form via anonymous, individ-

ualized links from May 3 until May 15, 2022, when the survey closed. During that period, The Crimson collected 493 completed surveys, representing a response rate of 39 percent.

Twenty-six percent of respondents

matriculated earlier than 2018, meaning they took leaves of absence and later reclassed as members of Class of 2022.

To check for potential response bias, The Crimson compared respondent demographics with publicly available in-

formation on student demographics provided by the University — information regarding gender and race and ethnicity. Overall, the respondents to the survey were in line with the demographics of the broader student body.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

Wedding Bells CARTER A. HARTMANN ’22 and CHARLOTTE HARTMANN

By MATTEO N. WONG

C

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

harlotte A. Hartmann (neé Nelson) and Carter A. Hartmann ’22 describe themselves as a “Covid miracle couple.” Both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they became good friends while taking Russian language lessons for their respective missions: his to Ukraine and hers to Kazakhstan.

When they returned, Carter messaged Charlotte on Facebook over winter break of 2020. He then subsequently visited Provo, Utah, where she attended Brigham Young University; their first date was at an In-N-Out. “I was telling all my friends I was going out with this awesome girl,” he says.

And so when Covid-19 forced Harvard undergraduates away from campus, “I went straight back to Utah.”

Their engagement came later that year on Christmas Eve, when Charlotte was visiting Carter’s family. They had discussed getting engaged, and she suspected the proposal might happen during that trip. But as the days passed, she began to wonder if he was “just trying to throw me off.” So when the couple left to buy an ingredient at the store and returned to find rose petals and candles around the Christmas tree, she was completely surprised.

“I had wrapped the ring under the tree. So she unwrapped it, and I got on

PHOTO COURTESY CHARLOTTE AND CARTER HARTMANN

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one knee and proposed,” Carter recalls — “and I said yes,” Charlotte adds.

Five months later, on May 14, 2021, they were married at the Manti Utah Temple, where Charlotte’s grandparents also had their wedding.

The flowers were especially important to Charlotte — her father grew up working at a nursery and she worked at a flower shop in high school. She wanted more blooms than greens, and her bouquet ended up including roses, peonies, and lisianthus.

After graduating from BYU in December 2021, Charlotte moved to Cambridge.

She got a job at Hemenway Gymnasium so that she and Carter could play basketball together, which they love to do, among numerous other sports.

Carter is part of a group of friends — including Alejandro E. Jimenez ’22, Ryan E. Ixtlahuac ’22, and Noah M. Jones ’22 — who lived together in Utah during the pandemic and are all married.

“Almost every weekend we go on a double date, or have a game night with them, or have them over for dinner,” Carter says.

The couple will move to New York City this summer, where Carter will work in consulting and Charlotte will be a mutual fund accountant.

As they walked away after our interview concluded, the couple hurried back and decided to share one more piece of news: “We’re expecting!” The baby is due in November.

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ALEJANDRO E. JIMENEZ ’22 and DENISE JIMENEZ

PHOTO COURTESY ALEJANDRO AND DENISE JIMENEZ

By MATTEO N. WONG

I

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

n late 2019, when Denise Jimenez’s (neé Han) sister and brother-in-law asked what qualities she was looking for in a partner, she said she wanted someone “full of goodness.”

They immediately thought of Alejandro E. Jimenez ’22, whom they had met on a church mission in Los Angeles. Alejandro was visiting Utah in November, where Denise was studying at Brigham Young University, and her sister set them up on a date.

They made dumplings. “Denise’s family is from China,” Alejandro said. “And they love to make dumplings together. I thought it was a great way for me to be exposed to [her] family culture.”

On their second date — many months later, when Alejandro moved to Utah in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic — he showed Denise how to make enchiladas, a food important to his Mexican American heritage. Both foods involve combining two components, wrapper and filling, to make a whole, full of goodness.

But it would take a little longer for their relationship to blossom.

“He actually friendzoned me,” Denise recalls. They stopped talking for a while, but reconnected over debating Russian

authors — she thinks Tolstoy is superior, while he prefers Dostoevsky — and started dating in May 2020.

Denise knew she wanted a serious commitment early on: She was going to attend law school, “and I’m not going to defer law school if we’re not super committed.”

In summer 2021, Alejandro gave Denise a two-month range of when he was going to propose. But he wanted to surprise her, so “for about a month,” he says, “I put on surprises to make her think, ‘perhaps this is the time he’s going to propose.’”

On a Friday in July, he suggested a picnic. “I had her in the driver’s seat in a sense, choosing where we would want to go for this picnic,” Alejandro says. “But in the background, I had the exact location picked out in the mountains in Utah,” where he had family lay out a blanket and charcuterie board.

“The entire time was like, ‘I guess this is all my ideas,’” Denise recalls. When they reached the picnic spot, she realized “he was proposing, and so I just started crying.”

The wedding was on December 21, in San Diego. Their airline offered them $3,000 each to delay their flights, but they were unable to reschedule a marriage license appointment. “We decided in that moment between our marriage and the

$6,000,” Alejandro says — they chose their marriage.

After Alejandro graduates, they will move to New Haven.

“The number one thing about a long term relationship and marriage,” Alejan-

dro says, “is you’re making compromises for each other.”

Denise took a year off as he finished his undergraduate degree, and now he is following her to Yale, where she will start law school in the fall.

PHOTO COURTESY ALEJANDRO AND DENISE JIMENEZ

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

RAJ KARAN S. GAMBHIR ’22 and SAHEJ K. CHAWLA

By OLIVIA G. OLDHAM

B

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

efore Raj Karan S. Gambhir ’22 and Sahej K. Chawla ever met, their parents knew each other.

“My mom actually recently found a photo of Sahej’s parents at my dad’s 50th birthday party,” Raj says, “which was over a decade ago.”

Raj and Sahej are members of the Sikh community in Orange County, Calif. and were introduced by their parents last summer. In their first encounter over two light Vietnamese coffees — they immediately realized they liked the same milk alternatives — they dove into conversation.

Their shared backgrounds allowed them “to skip the formalities” and move onto deeper subjects. Nearly a year later, they still “talk every day” while Raj finishes his last year of college and Sahej begins studying pharmaceutical science at the University of California-Irvine.

Family remained a significant part of their relationship as it progressed, but not “just because our families have known each other,” Raj says.

In their community, marriage “is not just a union between two people, it’s really a union between two families,” he says.

In March 2022, the couple were engaged at Sahej’s family home at their Roka, a ceremony and celebration of their engagement. During the course of the ceremony, the two families remained separate.

But once Raj and Sahej went outside to take engagement photographs, they could hear sounds coming “from outside. We were like, ‘We don’t know what’s happening.’”

PHOTO COURTESY RAJ KARAN GAMBHIR AND SAHEJ CHAWLA

Once the couple returned, they found that “an impromptu dance party started, after the ceremony,” Raj says. “There were no divisions in the room, everyone was dancing around and mixing around.”

As each embarks on their professional life — Sahej at UCI, Raj in D.C. and later law school — their relationship will be

maintained at a distance and the wedding may not take place for several years.

Yet both feel that the relationship is “nice and secure” and their relationship endures because “our families are so integrated,” Raj says. Just a week ago, Sahej celebrated Mother’s Day with Raj’s mother while he was in Cambridge; he called

Sahej’s mom the same day.

“I think that we’re already part of each other’s lives,” Raj says. “To the extent that we can see each other in person, we will do that.” But the scope of their relationship, he says, is larger than a few miles of distance — “we have a longer vision than just the next few years.”

RYAN E. IXTLAHUAC ’22 and INAÊ IXTLAHUAC

By OLIVIA G. OLDHAM

R

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

yan E. Ixtlahuac ’22 and Inaê Ixtlahuac first met speaking Portuguese, while on mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Portugal. They began dating in December of 2019.

Now, their conversations ebb in and out of Portuguese, Spanish, and English.

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“Sometimes we don’t even know which language we’re talking in,” Ryan says.

“We never finish a sentence in one language,” Inaê adds.

The couple shares more than just a hodge-podge of languages — they played strategy board games together and spent long hours in the Smith Campus Center where Inaê proofread Ryan’s papers.

The two dated throughout the pandemic. Inaê was in school at Brigham

Young University while Ryan attended classes remotely in Provo, Utah nearby. It didn’t take long to realize that they were “super committed to each other and wanted to get married,” Ryan says.

In December 2020, a year after they started dating, Ryan planned a circle of flowers on a mountain top overlooking Utah County — the place where their relationship began. Ryan proposed and Inaê, “happily,” said yes.

In August 2021, the two got married.

Inaê’s family flew to Utah from her hometown of São Paulo, Brazil; Ryan’s family came in from Monterey, California. After a day of celebration, the two went on a honeymoon, and soon after, took a fourday road trip back to Boston — Inaê’s first time visiting Harvard and her new home.

After graduation, the couple will return to Utah as Inaê finishes up her last year of college.

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PHOTO COURTESY RYAN IXTLAHUAC AND INAÊ IXTLAHUAC

PHOTO COURTESY RYAN IXTLAHUAC AND INAÊ IXTLAHUAC

ALEXANDRA P. GRAYSON ’22 and NICHOLAS G. KELLS

By OLIVIA G. OLDHAM

S

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

ustaining a long distance relationship during the early days of the pandemic was a difficult task. But it prepared Alexandra P. Grayson ’22 and Nicholas G. Kells for an even greater distance: from Cincinnati to a nuclear submarine, leagues under the sea, at an undisclosed location.

Nicholas will soon graduate from the United States Naval Academy, and after a year at the Nuclear Power School in Charleston, S.C., he will be deployed to work on nuclear submarines — a job with an unpredictable schedule, where he can be out for weeks or months at a time.

While Nicholas is studying nuclear power, Alex, a concentrator in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard, will be “studying how to save lives” in medical school at the University of Cincinnati.

To contact Nicholas at sea, she will have to number her emails chronologically, so that their order isn’t confused during the occasional bursts of emails he will receive.

The two met online in fall of 2019 while at home in Ohio and went on their first date in December at the Cincinnati Zoo to see its Festival of Lights. Then, the

pandemic struck.

In a sense, Nicholas said it had “a positive impact for us,” because both the Naval Academy and Harvard sent its students home, “so we got a solid five months, otherwise we wouldn’t have had.”

Even later, when Nicholas was overseas with the Naval Academy, Alex would create scavenger hunts for him in the mail, filling envelopes with different colored hints that he had to piece together.

“There was some sentimental value to each one of them,” Alex adds. “I’d have lyrics from different love songs that we like listening to. So you have to figure out what the categories were when he only got one sheet of paper a day.”

The virus even managed to weasel its way into the couple’s engagement. Once they met, Nicholas says, “I knew after our first date, but it just felt right.”

Exactly two years later, he planned to propose at the Cincinnati Zoo at the Festival of Lights. But the day before flying home to Cincinnati, Nicholas tested positive for Covid-19.

Though they planned on getting married, Alex had no idea when to expect the proposal, so when Nicholas called and frantically asked if she could “definitely” go to the Cincinnati Zoo a week later, she responded, bemused, “Yeah, we’re good.

We can do the date.”

Given each of their busy schedules, the wedding is “theoretically” scheduled for

November 2023. Until then, numbered emails and love song scavenger hunts will suffice.

PHOTO COURTESY ALEXANDRA GRAYSON AND NICHOLAS KELLS

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

CINDY GAO ’22 and TYLER E. HIGGS

By OLIVIA G. OLDHAM

W

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

hen Cindy Gao ’22 and Tyler E. Higgs first met, they went on a series of non-dates.

As participants in Boston Summer Mission in summer of 2021 — a program in Dorchester for Christian community service — they were technically forbidden to be romantically involved with one another.

So Cindy and Tyler, who had connected “from the start,” found time, early in the morning and late at night, to be with one another — in parks, a Vietnamese restaurant, on runs — to speak about the

“really hard years” they’d endured just before this summer and embark on the “vulnerability and healing” at the heart of their relationship.

Gao took a long, hard-won path to arrive at the program in Dorchester that summer. For much of college, she pursued a path of finance, but after an internship that she “really disliked,” she felt that her former “measures of success” were “meaningless.”

She took a yearlong leave of absence from Harvard and embarked on a spiritual journey, which led her to convert to Christianity. Following this difficult year, she met Tyler at the mission — she thought he was “really cute.”

PHOTO COURTESY CINDY GAO AND TYLER HIGGS

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“We definitely met during probably one of the hardest seasons of my life,” she says. “I was not looking at all for a relationship.”

Tyler, a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying computer science, hadn’t expected their relationship to lead to marriage. He grew up in a small town in Illinois, with a population of “about 600 people,” where he says it is more common for couples to transition quickly from dating to marriage.

But he “pretty much didn’t expect Cindy to want to get married for a while.”

To his surprise, she brought it up. “We weren’t just going to do what was normal because our normals were so different,”

she says. “We haven’t known each other for that long, maybe, but you don’t have to know someone for a long time to really connect with someone.”

Tyler felt the same, and, in April of 2022, he proposed to Cindy at a park in Dorchester they frequently visited during the first summer of their relationship.

Their wedding will take place at the Boston Public Gardens on May 28, just days after each of them graduate from college. It will be the first wedding Cindy has ever attended. When asked about their plans for the future, career aspirations go unnamed. “We just signed a lease for an apartment near Alewife,” Cindy says. “And I’m getting a puppy.”

PHOTO COURTESY CINDY GAO AND TYLER HIGGS

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

PHOTO COURTESY ARIANN AND NOAH JONES

NOAH M. JONES ’22 and ARIANN JONES ’23

By MATTEO N. WONG

A

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

riann Jones ’23 (neé Sanford) realized he was going to propose when she spotted the box in his

pocket.

The couple was on a camping trip, and Noah M. Jones ’22 drove them down a dirt road to a lookout he claimed to be curious about. Ariann stepped out of the car and realized it was the same place they had had their first date a year earlier; when she saw the box, she knew.

Ariann had three criteria for the proposal: Noah had to give a “little spiel about why he wanted to marry me,” which he did; she wanted to be alone, which they were; and she could not be wearing glass-

es, which she was not.

“It was just the two of us in this beautiful mountain range,” Ariann says. “We didn’t even have service. And we used his lanyard to tie his phone into a tree and take timed photos” — Noah’s Visitas lanyard from April 2018, when they first met.

Back then, Noah was an admitted student planning to enroll in Harvard’s Air Force ROTC program and study mechanical engineering; Ariann was a freshman in Air Force ROTC who studied bioengineering. Both are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Everyone in ROTC and in his church told Noah he should meet Ariann, and they did, exchanging contact information. But then she went on a mission to Ecuador, so the two only stayed in touch via

occasional email.

When she returned at the end of 2019, they started messaging almost daily; the pandemic then helped them reconnect in-person.

After Harvard closed its campus to undergraduates in March of 2020, Noah moved to Utah, where he has extended family. At the time Ariann was taking a gap semester after her mission in Las Vegas, her hometown. Only a couple of hours apart by car, they went on multiple camping trips together with other friends.

On their first date they watched the sunset from that same lookout, finally able to talk about everything they messaged about for months. “We started having two hammocks, and then it got kind of cold,” Noah recalls. “We ended up shar-

ing.” They officially started dating in June 2020.

A few periods of separation — a trip he took for ROTC training, Ariann visiting family — made them realize “we really miss each other a lot, and this is definitely something we want to make last,” Noah says. They were married eight months after their engagement, on Jan. 8, 2022.

Next year, Noah will be completing his first assignment: to get a master’s degree in robotics at Boston University, allowing him to stay in the area as Ariann finishes her undergraduate degree.

After that, he will be deployed in the space force and she will be the unit commander of her Air Force detachment; they hope the military will assign them to the same place.

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