Spotlight: Harvard Homegroup ft. Josie

Building at Harvard University with the inscription, “What is man that thou are mindful of him.”

People often ask me: “So, what’s it like to be a student at Harvard? Was it everything you had expected it to be?” Well, tbh… I spent the entirety of freshman year not knowing how to answer this FAQ because, well, COVID  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Like any other teenager on the brink of leaving home to start college, though, I had hoped for total and utter freedom. 

Expectation: Finally getting to choose classes based on interests and, what I like to call, my “sleeping in schedule.” Also getting my own room and space not subject to sibling interruptions. 

Reality: Zoom School from my bedroom with lectures at 7:30 AM because I was perpetually three hours behind in Pacific Time. Falling asleep in said lectures (with my camera off, of course) and p-setting for hours on end alongside virtual classmates who I only got to see from the shoulders up. Not exactly a fun time, but I’m thankful for the few bright spots such as meeting wonderful professors through online office hours and making friends from the best pre-orientation program on campus, FYRE.

When I finally got to live on campus during my sophomore year, I found out that I am a highly unreliable judge of people’s heights and that maintaining your faith in college is tough. Having a Christian community, I knew, would be critical. 

Harvard Homegroup marking their first year by remembering all that happened and making small mementos together [Spring 2022]

I first made a decision to become Christian when I was in middle school. I had come from a non-religious background where working hard in school was the highest value and virtue. But, after hearing about the gospel from mentors who poured a lot of love into my life and finding sound answers to intellectual and philosophical questions such as, “Does God exist?” “Is there evidence for the resurrection of Jesus?” and “What is my life purpose?” I was convinced. And as I’ve grown up, so has my understanding of the gospel. 

However, entering college, I felt very frazzled in all regards-- including spiritually. I knew that the gospel was true, but held a lot of unconscious reservations when it came to actually living it out. While it made sense in my head that as my Lord and Savior, Jesus has authority over all aspects of my life-- from how I spend my time on a daily basis to my core motivations and mission, I continued to carry out a life lived for myself and practicalities. In other words, Christian life was worked into my schedule around immovable academic and career obligations. 

Josie with her mentors and other Harvard students eating hot pot at one of the mentors' homes.

Thankfully, when I arrived on campus that fall, I had the homegroup at Harvard to push me to grow in my faith and heart for my friends. Through the powerful examples of my mentors, most of whom made cross-country moves to minister to often unwelcoming college campuses in Boston, I was challenged to relearn my understanding of lordship as more than just giving up things, but surrendering my whole self to God. More than that, I’ve been able to grow in confidence that God not only has a right to assume this authority over my life, but He is so, so good and delights to give me what is good. 

Josie with three of her mentors after moving her into her Harvard dorm.

The night before Harvard move-ins, all of the Harvard Homegroup mentors help Josie pack up and move into her new dorm

One core memory that encapsulates my year with the Harvard Homegroup is the night that my entire team of mentors moved me into my dorm. I was not actually scheduled to move in until the next day, so I didn’t actually have a key. But, because there was a really bad storm that was predicted to hit Boston the next day, at 11 o’clock the night before, all six of the Harvard Homegroup mentors helped me move everything I owned into my dorm. And, because I lived on the third floor of my building on the side opposite to the elevators, which only went to the fourth floor, they helped me carry all my stuff up over three flights of stairs and then some. Not to mention, we were in the middle of a heat wave. I look back at that night, surrounded by people who were simply trying to live out the gospel by loving on this scatter-brained college student, as a shining example of the “home” in homegroup. 

Hanging out at one of Boston’s best ice cream stops, Toscanini’s.

Josie and Fan, another one of the mentors at the Harvard homegroup.

Josie and two of her friends from Boston University who go to our Comm Ave homegroup (for BU students).

I know of no other type of group on campus where you can experience both relationships with peers seeking to grow and older mentors who want to support you. So, if you’re a college student looking to grow in your faith, learn more about this radical thing Christians call the gospel, or just a warm place with good people, I would most definitely recommend joining a homegroup :)

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