Workshops and Studios
The Second Semester Core Planning Studio engages with real world planning problems. Since spring 2013 the studio has focused on working on a real world problem in a diverse community working in local gateway cities and older neighborhoods including Malden, Chelsea, Revere, Quincy, East Boston, and Lowell.
Option studios and theses also frequently do practical work.
The Loeb Fellowship program is a terrific resource for students, bringing mid-career professionals, many of them in planning and related areas, to the GSD for a year. Each year, the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, collaborating with the American Planning Association and Harvard, convenes planning directors from the 30 largest cities in the U.S. to discuss emerging issues. Urban planning students interact with the directors informally and in a classroom setting.
Fellowships and Summer Opportunities
The Community Service Fellowship Program provides opportunities for students to extend their design education through direct involvement with projects that address public needs and community concerns at the local level.
The Joint Center for Housing Studies Fellowships provide students an opportunity to study housing related topics with practical applications.
Studio, thesis, and class projects link students to communities in the Boston area and beyond. The school’s Community Service Fellowship Program (CSFP) provides both summer internships in the U.S. and small overseas travel grants. Various Harvard units provide summer and winter opportunities relevant to urban planning students, including the Rappaport Public Policy Summer Fellowship, Edward M. Gramlich Fellowship in Community and Economic Development, and Presidential Public Service Fellowships. There is also funding for research travel (e.g., thesis data collection) or independent internships in Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and elsewhere.
The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute offers funding for students to conduct research, perform fieldwork, participate in internships, and pursue study of South Asian languages. Similar opportunities are available through the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the Harvard University Center for African Studies.
Other internships are available in Boston and beyond though programs across the Harvard campus and advertised through the GSD’s Office of Career Services.
Student Organizations
The Harvard Urban Planning Organization (HUPO) is dedicated to supporting Masters in Urban Planning (MUP) students and other students at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) who want to deepen their appreciation and understanding of planning and design issues. HUPO helps GSD students prepare for urban planning careers by supplementing formal coursework with lectures and discussions, workshops with practitioners, and other technical skills training. HUPO provides access to educational and professional opportunities to students at Harvard University to enrich the discourse about planning within Harvard, Cambridge, and area communities, and beyond. HUPO also works to build a community by increasing social ties for students interested in planning – both within the MUP program itself, and between the GSD programs and other Harvard University and area schools – through a variety of social events. HUPO is dedicated to increasing interdisciplinary discussions at the GSD and across Harvard University to foster cross-sector collaboration around planning issues. Our actions and events are guided by our desire to create more livable, equitable, and inclusive cities. As future planners, administrators, and designers, we seek to shape the ongoing discussions about the role of planning in communities and elevate the role of planning.