Events

From the time first-years step on campus, Harambee organizes events to help them get acclimated to the Wellesley lifestyle, become more familiar - and possibly involved with - the four organizations under the Harambee umbrella, become aware of the resources available to them including the upperclass students of the Harambee community, and bond with their fellow classmates. Events include an open house, retreats, and talks on stress & time management.

Harambee House hosts the Black Student, Faculty and Staff mixer to give students, faculty, and staff of African descent a space to come together and get to know each other in a more casual setting. The goal is to not only help foster those relationships, but to also strengthen the bond of the community through them. The mixer usually takes place at the beginning of the Fall semester in September.

Finals time can be a stressful and hectic time for Wellesley students, so Harambee House organizes a few study breaks for its students to attend where they can eat a delicious meal, enjoy the company of their Harambee House siblings, and sometimes participate in a relaxing activity like coloring, manicures, or massages. These usually take place each semester during reading period and/or finals week.

Every February, Harambee House produces a calendar of events put on by various groups in the Wellesley community, the greater community, and Harambee itself.  Events in the past have included movie screenings, Black Jeopardy, Taste of the Diaspora (a large lunch or dinner for the community featuring foods from different aspects of the African Diaspora), and a range of speakers like Black Girls Rock! founder Beverly Bond and social theorist and intellectual Patricia Hill Collins.

To commemorate the end of the academic year, Harambee House hosts a Sunday brunch where students come in their garden-party attire and Sunday/Derby hats and take class pictures. Harambee also acknowledges and awards those students with high academic achievement and those who have served as leaders in one of the four umbrella organizations.

Before each senior class leaves to begin their post-grad lives, Harambee holds a reception for all graduating students of African descent and their visiting family & friends. Those seniors who have purchased stoles are draped in them during the stole ceremony and a faculty & student speaker selected by the class give speeches.