Since its inception 3 years ago, the Harvard Program for Research In Science and Engineering (PRISE) has not only been affording students the opportunity to do research in the summer months, but also building a thriving community of individuals with a wide variety of interests. This year, at least one of those interests was green.
Every summer, PRISE selects over 100 undergraduates to be named PRISE Fellows. These Fellows receive free room and board, as well as partial funding to pursue research during the summer. In addition, PRISE encourages its Fellows to learn from each other, challenging them to organize creative events, both scientific and social, and then providing them funding. On any given week, one Fellow might lead a hiking trip during the day, while another will give lessons on ballroom dancing at night. Perhaps a third Fellow will spend an evening teaching their peers about the cooling properties of liquid nitrogen, and then use the nitrogen to make ice cream for a study break.
This year, Kirkland Rep Meera Atreya was named a PRISE Fellow, and she brought her Resource Efficiency Program (REP) skills to the PRISE 2008 community. In addition to sending out weekly environmental tips, Meera also wrote REP trivia questions, challenging her peers to think about Harvard’s, and their own, environmental impact. The questions were distributed during dinner, facilitating discussion among the fellows before they had to submit their answers. Meera would judge the questions and reward the closest and most thoughtful answers with Organic Chocolate bars.
Finally, Meera organized a REP study break for the PRISE Fellows, providing them with Veggie Planet pizza and screening highlights from Al Gore’s recent speech about Clean Energy (to see the powerful speech, check out WeCanSolveIt.org). Afterwards, Meera led students in a discussion of the implications of the speech and how Harvard can move towards the overall goal of sustainability.
After an intense last week of students presenting their research and a final dinner held at the Boston Museum of Science, PRISE wrapped up its summer on August 23rd. Plans are already underway for PRISE 2009, which promises to be the biggest yet for this growing program (and if REP continues to provide Fellows to the program, perhaps its greenest yet too).
Plans are already underway for PRISE 2009, which promises to be the biggest yet for this growing program.