aragonable.com/harvard

2020 to 2024 at harvard, by the numbers

$ 0 K
cumulative total of public service fellowship funding I was offered to help support my public service work at places like a federal judicial chambers in SDNY and the U.S. Senate
scroll down for more info
0 %
percentage of cost of attendance paid by a merit-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation scholarship towards my undergrad; I'm graduating debt-free!
3 exhibitions curated
that I developed on-campus (2 conceptual; 1 in-person) as part of my interests in art history, provenance, and presentation​
6 HLS courses/profs
who taught me in lecture and/or seminar during my four years here (scroll down for more info)
scroll down for more info
0 + miles travelled
to-from Harvard and the Pacific Islands in service to writing my senior thesis in History
1 thesis in History
on the intellectual history of the Antipodean "Question," with support from the Harvard University Asia Center

Speeches

Finalist, Undergraduate English Address

Papers Graded (Law + History)

"What's In a Name? On the Politics of Nomenclature and Remembrance." FAS Dept. of History w/ Jasanoff. 🇬🇧
"Power and Ethics." Harvard Law School w/ Feldman. ⚖️
"The Constitution in American History." Harvard Law School w/ Lepore and Mack. 📜
"The Judicial Philosophy of Sherman Minton, 1949-1950." FAS Dept. of History w/ Blair. 🧑‍⚖️
"“Helen Hunt Jackson, Standing Bear v. Crook, and American-Indian Reform, 1879-1881”" FAS Dept. of History w/ Deloria. 🪓
"1920-1933: More Than Just Bar Trivia. (Recent Developments In The Historiography of Prohibition) " FAS Dept. of History w/ Blair. 🍺
" 'A Digital Dollar? Issued By My American Central Bank?' (It's More Likely Than You Think.)" FAS Dept of Econ. 💵

Talks Attended (Law)

"Constitutional Conservatives and Natural Rights; Libertarians and Natural Law" by Professor Randy Barnett at GULC. Hosted by HLS Federalist Society.
"Causes and Consequences" by Professor Penslar and Professor Feldman at HLS.
"Trial by Jury: Does the American Jury System Bring About Justice?" Hosted by D. Mass.
"The Rule of Law: A Conversation w/ Justice Breyer." at Harvard IOP.
"The Original Scalia" by Professor Vermuele through the Herbert W. Vaughan Academic Program. I sat behind Professor Breyer, who was in the audience.)
"Moral Readings versus Originalisms in Obergefell and Dobbs" by Professor Fleming, at HLS Law and Philosophy.
"Inequality, Present and Past | A Roundtable Discussion of the Dawn of Everything: A New History of Inequality." w/ David Wengrow at Mahindra Humanities Center.
"Debate between Professor Stephen Sachs and Professor Noah Feldman." at HLS Federalist Society.
"Central Bank Perspectives on Central Bank Digital Currencies" by Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Rosengren at Harvard Law School, Program on International Financial Systems.

Exhibitions

"(Re)Envisioning Eliot's Entryways." Eliot House, Harvard College. In-person. 2024-25.
"Concept Exhibit for Harvard Art Museums; The Object in the Art Museum." FAS Dept. of History of Art. Conceptual. Spring 2023.
"Pacific Migration, Existence, and Paradox: A Deep History. " FAS Dept. of History. Conceptual. Fall 2022.

Columns In The Harvard Crimson

TBD
[TBD]
February 2022
January 2022

Admissions Offers

Harvard College - AB Degree, Undergraduate
Applied Oct. 2019; Admitted Dec. 2019 as one of only 4 Indiana EA admits. Only college I applied to.
Interview took place with HLS alum who works in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana (S.D. Ind.)

Harvard Housing

Winthrop House (Fall 2020)
**moved-in during COVID-19**

Matthews Hall (Spring 2021)
**on the grounds of the former Indian College**

Leverett House (Summer 2021)

Adams House (Summer 2022)

Eliot House (Years 21-22, 22-23, 23-24)

Center for Jewish Studies

Spring 2024
Barry Shrage Travel and Research Fund for Jewish Studies
In support of a research paper I wrote on Aliza Nisenbaum, an ascendant Jewish-American contemporary arist.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Foundation

Summer 2021
Roosevelt Scholarship
Offered every year to a handful of rising sophomores.

Public Service (Internships)

@ The United States Senate
As a Harvard undergrad, I worked in the office of the senior U.S. Senator from Indiana (I had been the 2020 senior Indiana delegate to the U.S. Senate Youth Program.)
@ City of Boston Election Department
As a Harvard undergrad, I served as the sole Spanish-speaking translator for the City of Boston's Election Department. Calls from precincts were sent to my ad-hoc office in City Hall.
@ Commonwealth of Massachusetts Attorney General's Office
As a Harvard undergrad, I helped return $10K to defrauded Commonwealth consumer. See the attached internal memo from the Mass. Attorney General's office.

Public Service (On-Campus)

Public Service (Funding)

Class of 2024 Distinctions: I was an on-campus finalist for the national Truman Scholarship ($30K; top ten students for public service at Harvard). I was nominated by a General Counsel official in the City of Boston; a Harvard History professor; and the Roosevelt Scholars Program director.

I also received the following public service fellowship offers below:
The Harvard Institute of Politics [$18,000 offered]
Director's stipend, Years 1, 2, and 3 (declined Years 1 and 2). Year 3 was applied towards an internship at the U.S. Senate.
Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship $12,750 offered]
Chan-Zuckerberg '06, stipend, Years 1 and 2. Year 1 was applied to a summer at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Year 2 was applied to a summer at the Southern District of New York.

Mindrich '88 stipend, Year 1 and 2 (declined both years)

Fong '77 stipend, Year 1
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation at Harvard University [$2,000 offered]
Roosevelt Scholars Program, supplemental stipend offered (declined Year 1)

**I accepted the Roosevelt Scholar distinction and still participated in the program even as I turned down the stipend portion of the award.**
[total offered since 2020: $32.75k]

total accepted since 2020: $18.75k]
Wrapping up my summer as an undergraduate judicial intern back in my hometown of New York City, where I was born and raised. (2022)
Shaking hands with Professor of Philosophy Sean Kelly moments after taking up his challenge to recite Kierkegaard's Part 1A of "From Sickness Until Death" entirely from memory (2022)
Overlooking Harvard Yard on the last day of my freshman year, outside the room formerly occupied by Du Bois, Class of 1898, as one of four Indiana early action admits to the Class of 2024. (2021)

Special Thanks

My undergraduate education is funded on last-dollar external merit-based scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
(cost of attendance at Harvard: around $80,000/yr.)​
(my cost: $0. thank you, Bill!)