Summer Camp in Silicon Valley brings students, alumni together

During a summer internship at Yelp two years ago, computer science concentrator Tomas Reimers, A.B. ’17, was struck by how disconnected he felt, despite the fact that he was living and working in one of the world’s largest technology hubs. He knew that plenty of his fellow students from Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) were nearby, completing internships of their own, but he had no way to connect with them.

After returning to campus last fall, Reimers learned that many of his peers felt the same isolation during their West Coast internships. They put their heads together and crafted the vision for Harvard Summer Camp in Silicon Valley, an organization they launched this summer to arrange educational and social events throughout the San Francisco Bay area. The group brought more than 100 Harvard student interns together to network and learn from some of the tech world’s brightest stars.

The brainchild of Reimers, Gregory Foster, A.B. ’17, Karine Hsu, A.B. ’16, Nicholas Mahlangu, A.B. ’16, Julie Qin, A.B. ’18, Roger Zurawicki, A.B. ’16, Hannah Blumberg, A.B. ’16, and Aran Khanna, A.B. ’16, Summer Camp also builds on the work of Hack Harvard, a student club that aims to create a sense of community among computer science concentrators. Reimers and his colleagues wanted to foster that same community mindset on the West Coast, where SEAS students have traditionally migrated for summer internships. But until now there had been no effective means of bringing those students together.

“You lose a lot when you go to a new city for the summer and don’t really know all the cool things that are going on,” Khanna said. “San Francisco is just booming right now and there are so many opportunities. We wanted to open those opportunities up to people who otherwise might not be exposed to them.”

The students worked with internship mentors and tech company recruiters to host a series of events in collaboration with firms that have strong Harvard alumni connections. The goal was to show students how alumni have used their skills to launch and lead successful companies, Reimers said.

“We wanted to help students understand that what they learn within these gates and within these yards can go so far beyond that,” he said. “Our aim was to show students that Harvard alumni care about us and that the skills they developed here enable them to do incredible things.”

The events featured alumni presentations and panel discussions that showcased how ideas are translated into practical innovations. During Summer Camp’s culminating event, hosted at the Airbnb headquarters in San Francisco, co-founder and SEAS alumnus Nathan Blecharczyk, A.B. ’05, discussed how collaboration, persistence, and creativity enabled him and his co-founders to launch a successful startup with worldwide staying power. Established in 2008, Airbnb enables users to list, find, and rent lodging worldwide and now has more than 1.5 million listings in 190 countries.

The culminating event, which the students organized in partnership with the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) and the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development, was held in conjunction with the HAA Digital Harvard networking event in San Francisco. The gathering, which also brought together more than 100 alumni from around Silicon Valley, emphasized to Reimers the significance of what he and his fellow students had created.

“Last July’s packed Digital Harvard event in San Francisco reflects a larger, positive trend,” said Perry Hewitt, Harvard’s chief digital officer. “Today, students and alumni in the innovation community are finding ways to converge and connect in physical spaces, as well as virtual ones. We’re grateful to the student-led Summer Camp team for driving this convening, and to the HAA for building on this moment by engaging our substantial alumni presence in the Bay area to foster University-wide connections.”

Now that the Summer Camp board members are back on campus, they are developing plans to keep that momentum going. They hope to hold summer camp reunion events throughout the year, especially when coursework and exams become stressful. The students have their sights set on expanding the program to other cities in 2016—perhaps New York, Seattle, or Boston—and are also considering the possibility of involving other schools, like MIT and Stanford.

“The big question that is looming right now is, how do we make sure that this lasts beyond our time at Harvard, so that it is not a fluke from the summer, but a consistent event,” Reimers said.

While he doesn’t yet have an answer to that question, he is sure of one thing: the friends he made and the connections he forged in Silicon Valley will stay with him long after the summer sun has faded.

Click here to read a Q&A with Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk, A.B. ’05.