The GSD Speaks Your Language
Students and alumni collaborated to translate the fall 2025 public programs poster into the 34 primary languages spoken by members of the student body.
Students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design come from more than 60 countries and speak at least 56 languages, with 34 of them being students’ first or preferred languages, according to a survey of current and incoming students in July 2025. The visual identity of our fall 2025 public programs is translated into those 34 languages, celebrating the internationality of the GSD community.
The project was possible only with the assistance of student and alumni volunteers who translated and reviewed the posters. Among them is Adria Meira (MDes ’26), a Brazilian student who translated the Portuguese version of the poster. “Ensuring that the poster appeared in Portuguese was important to me as a representation of my culture, language, and country,” says Meira.
Valentine Geze (MDE ’26), worked on the French version. “I wanted to support this project because I see translation as a way to both welcome and celebrate the diversity of the GSD,” says Geze. “Supporting immigrants and honoring the languages spoken here feels especially important now; making space for many voices expands the perspectives that shape our academic and personal experiences.”
In past years, the GSD has collaborated with designers to create unique visual identities and promotional materials for the public programs. This year, the GSD’s own art director Chad Kloepfer, and Willis Kingery, graphic design consultant, designed the posters to represent the linguistic diversity of the GSD.
This multilingual project highlights the GSD’s commitment to welcoming students from around the world. “The GSD is one of the most international schools at Harvard,” said Dean Sarah Whiting in spring 2025. “Our international makeup goes back to the founding of the GSD. It is part of our DNA—our student body, our faculty, our staff, and the discipline and practice of design all thrive on this internationalism. The extraordinary breadth of experience and perspectives that the international members of our community provide is essential to who we are.”
Meira is part of the international community that Dean Whiting described. For her, participation in the poster project is “a way to highlight the contributions of the Brazilian community, which has 12 members at the school.” The student organization Brazil GSD, of which Meira is a part, “enriches the life of the school for everyone and provides much needed support to those of us studying far from home at such a challenging time.”
| Language | Translators |
|---|---|
| Amharic | Anonymous |
| Arabic | Sara Abduljawad (MLA ’27) |
| Armenian | Shant Armenian (MArch ’28) |
| Bangla | Anonymous |
| Burmese | Htet H Hlaing (MArch ’26) |
| Chinese (Simplified & Traditional) | Anson Leung (MLA ’26) |
| Dutch | Emma van Zuthem (MDes ’27) |
| Farsi | Soroush Yeganeh (MArch ’26) |
| Filipino | Maita S. Hagad (MLA ’28) |
| French | Valentine Geze (MDE ’26) |
| German | Robin Albrecht (MArch ’26) |
| Greek | Styliani Rossikopoulou Pappa (MDes ’19) & Alkiviadis Pyliotis (MArch ’20) |
| Gujarati | Aum Gohil (MAUD ’27) |
| Hebrew | Anonymous |
| Hindi | Malvika Dwivedi (MDes ’27) |
| Japanese | Anonymous |
| Korean | Jeongjoon Lee (MArch ’27) |
| Kurdish | Leyla Uysal (MDes ’24, MLA ’27) |
| Malay | Joshua Teo (MDes ’26) |
| Marathi | Riddhi Kasar (MDE ’26) |
| Portuguese | Adria Meira (MDes ’26) |
| Punjabi | Anonymous |
| Spanish | Dana Barale Burdman (MDes ’26) |
| Swahili | Martha Oloo (MLA ’27) |
| Swedish | Hannah Ahlblad (PhD ’30) |
| Thai | Sirinda (Kaew) Limsong (MDE ’26) |
| Tsonga | Xiluva Mbungela (MDes ’26) |
| Turkish | Defne Ergun (MArch ’28) |
| Urdu | Omer Yousuf MUP ’26 |
| Vietnamese | Tuân Cao (MAUD ’27) |
Translation of Albanian and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian) was provided by We Are Very.
