Meet the 2024 High School Summer Program Teaching Fellows

From June 27 until July 12, 2024, six Harvard College students will join the CHS High School Summer Program (HSSP) as teaching fellows (TFs). HSSP is organized by CHS Greece in cooperation with Harvard’s Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, and with the support of Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University, and Harvard's Department of the Classics. The TFs along with the HSSP faculty members plan, coordinate, and teach the college-level seminars. Their teaching internship has 2 phases:

• spring preparation in Cambridge, MA,
• and then the summer seminar in Nafplio.

Program faculty members and managers, along with the TFs and 24 senior high school students from Greece participate in daily sessions, which are taking place at the Center’s premises (morning sessions). The teaching fellows were selected from a list of the University's student applicants to the Teaching Internship Program.

Michael Pontius

Originally from Seattle, Washington, Michael danced professionally with the Estonian National Ballet, performing internationally in Italy, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and the United States. Michael has performed soloist roles and received the Semi-Presidential Scholarship in the Arts. Currently a Junior at Harvard College majoring in Social Studies, he researches the roles artists play as emblems of the state during warring periods. He enjoys open-water swimming and building a cabin with his siblings and parents in the pacific northwest.

Adelaide Parker

Adelaide is a rising third-year student studying Social Studies and Philosophy. She's especially interested in comparative politics and ethics, and hopes to write a thesis about the effects of regime transition on societies' moral values. Adelaide is also interested in ancient Egypt—she's minoring in archeology and wants to become one of the first Harvard undergraduates to earn a language citation in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Adelaide grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and loves hiking and skiing in the Rocky Mountains near her hometown. Outside of class, she enjoys visiting museums and exploring the outdoors.

Maren Wong

Maren is a rising third-year student at Harvard College, concentrating in Social Studies. In her reading and writing, she has multiple focus areas, including: the intellectual history of theories of guilt; the entwined cultural histories of consumerism and "the consumption" (tuberculosis); and sites of globalization from world fairs to the internet, with a particular interest in understanding how internet technologies have reshaped understandings of identity, community, and the self. Maren serves as president of the nation's oldest collegiate literary magazine, The Harvard Advocate. She loves hiking, playing Ultimate Frisbee, crocheting, and reading with her cats.

Maya Rosen

Maya is a fourth-year student studying Social Studies and History of Science. Maya is particularly interested in the political questions surrounding science and technology. She is writing her senior thesis about the tensions between liberalism, democracy, and expertise in the context of public health. Maya hails from Miami, Florida, where she attended bilingual schools. Growing up in the American hub for Latin America and the Caribbean, Maya also developed secondary interests in foreign policy, especially as it relates to pandemics and climate change. Maya previously lived in Athens where she worked at the Prolepsis Institute, a public health research and advocacy organization. She is excited to be back learning and living in Greece. Maya enjoys spending her free time around nature and ideas, whether that be hiking in the mountains or visiting local art and history museums.

Olivia Pasquerella

Olivia is a rising junior from Ossining, NY, studying Social Studies and Philosophy with a language citation in Spanish. They are interested in the philosophy of violence and history in Marxist thought, as well as exchanges between popular resistance movements within the last century. Outside of the classroom, Olivia directs the Cambridge After School Program and is involved in the Harvard Undergraduate Workers Union, the poetry board of the Harvard Advocate, and the Harvard Review of Philosophy. In their spare time, Olivia enjoys writing, biking, and growing plants.

Joseph Foo

Joseph is a rising junior from Singapore studying Folklore & Mythology and Classics, with a secondary in Art, Film and Visual Studies. His interest lies in how stories have shaped the identities of communities in the past and how they are being used to construct the values of society today. Recently, he has been fascinated by noodles and has embarked on a journey as a noodle researcher. Outside of school, he works at the Harvard Art Museums, animates stick figures and searches for the perfect temperature to brew green tea.