How has your HES journey changed or shaped you?
Before finding my way to Harvard, I worked as an English language arts teacher in Taipei for more than 10 years, a beautiful period in my life. My students’ unremitting vivacity and curiosity brought me daily joy.
As much as I loved teaching, however, I became increasingly anxious about my own limitations.
As a teacher, it can be humbling to accept gaps in one’s knowledge. Sometimes it was difficult to admit to myself — and to my students — that there were things that I simply did not know.
I feared that I wasn’t giving my students adequate guidance. Guilt soon began gnawing at my conscience. I realized that I had to seek out additional resources and professional development.
The question was where.
What started out as a need for professional development turned into a full-fledged opportunity to pursue a research degree.
I remembered hearing from an old student of mine who had gone to study at MIT. He told me about Harvard Extension School and its excellence. And he said the program might be a good fit for me because I’d be able to continue working while pursuing rigorous studies.
I was grateful for his suggestion. Inside my head, though, I was telling myself, “Hmm … Harvard, eh?”
I hesitated for a long time and was slowly nudged into taking action only after learning more about HES.
The turning point came in the summer of 2017. After meeting the initial requirements for the English master’s degree, I was given the opportunity to “earn my way in” and ultimately become a Harvard student.
What started out as a need for professional development turned into a full-fledged opportunity to pursue a research degree.
Course by course, I proved my worth inside this great institution.
At the same time, my professors urged me to dig deeper with my research and inspired me with their examples and guidance. They demanded the most rigorous standard while giving me complete freedom to pursue my interest, which soon became a passion.
The university has rooted for the underdog with passion and sincerity and helped us achieve excellence.
Even in the most trying times, my devotion to my research work remained steadfast. While the pandemic physically forced me away from the campus, HES never stopped rooting for me from afar.
Our digital infrastructure that underpins distance and independent learning has enabled me to undertake an otherwise unimaginable task. My days were nights, and nights were days; yet, I never felt alone.
Now, years later, when I rest my hands on the lectern after finishing a lesson about a novel or a short story, I glance at my students and see smiles and looks of concentration.
I know that some of them might one day find their own way to Harvard as I did, where, to quote President Charles William Eliot’s words on the Dexter Gate, they may “grow in wisdom.”
What was the thesis experience like for you?
The process was tormenting as I had to grapple with complex ideas and come up with ways to best put them to pen. The work represents the culmination of years of academic study and research.
More importantly, the process has taught me the virtues of patience and tenacity.
Now, seeing my work in DASH, there is a surge of rewarding feeling beyond description. I am now motivated to take my work to the doctorate level because of this.
What’s something unexpected that you learned about Harvard?
Harvard is just so predictable! Having the smartest yet nicest people, fantastic lectures, outstanding teachers supporting and guiding our learning, and our mighty library system. The list goes on.
What is unexpected, though, is how the university has rooted for the underdog with passion and sincerity and helped us achieve excellence.
What are you going to miss the most about HES?
I will miss everything — except the days prior to the term papers’ deadlines. What I will miss the most is my access to Hollis online library catalog.
Describe your HES experience in one word.
Awesome!
