Mission Statement

(revised Spring 2006)
The Harvard University Graduate School of Education (HGSE) Alumni Council represents the alumni body in supporting institutional excellence at HGSE. The Council promotes excellence by providing leadership and contributing to fundraising efforts for the school, assisting with recruitment of a diverse student body, communications between the School and alumni, and the development and implementation of outreach activities that will support HGSE students.

The Alumni Council also commits to support HGSE's goals and objectives, with particular focus on the following:

• Promoting an ongoing connection between HGSE and PRE K-16 educational settings across the nation. It is our goal to support scholarship, teaching and administration that will improve the policies and practices that affect students throughout PRE K-16 education.

• Supporting efforts to improve the link between research and practice. The Alumni Council will work to encourage HGSE to provide support for practitioners and researchers to share best practices and ongoing scholarship, while providing a forum for divergent platforms on current issues in education.

• Embracing diversity and multiculturalism via representation on the Alumni Council and participation in alumni and student organized activities addressing and responding to matters of diversity and multiculturalism in an authentic and empowering manner.

• Providing information to alumni to encourage support, financial and otherwise, of all efforts related to HGSE's future relocation to the Allston campus site. We will ensure that alumni remain informed about and have opportunities to participate in development activities specifically related to the Allston plan.

• Assisting when appropriate and participating, when called upon, in faculty recruitment efforts initiated by the Dean's office. In this role, the Alumni Council will inform and advocate on the behalf of a diverse pool of candidates and an equitable recruitment process that will be aligned with the mission of the school and the needs of respective departments.

• Encouraging new partnerships while strengthening existing ones across the Harvard schools. As we encourage interdisciplinary relationships across the HGSE curriculum, faculty and student body, the Alumni Council will also foster similar initiatives among alumni.

• Supporting the efforts of HGSE to provide learning communities and educative experiences for teachers in training that will prepare them to meet and exceed the standards of teaching and learning and develop a skillset that will respond appropriately to the needs of their students.

• Remaining committed, in our respective locations, to represent and promote education for the public good.