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Carlisle Harvard

by Emily Vernon T'05

Born and raised in Columbia, SC and having lived in Decatur, GA and Durham, NC, Carlisle Harvard has a Southern drawl that is hard to miss. And while she may call the South home, she has an insatiable desire to travel and, as head of the International House at Duke, works with students and professors from all over the world.

Her globetrotting started after spending a summer in Denmark with the American Field Service exchange program in 1958. It was then she realized "it wasn't that big of a deal to go across the ocean."

She then followed Joe Harvard, her high school sweetheart-turned-husband, to Basel, Switzerland, where he was studying. She learned firsthand the difficulties of living in a foreign country. "We lived on $250 a month - it was hard just paying for utilities, food, furniture." Despite the hardships, she was able to gain knowledge of German, Russian and French languages, and enjoyed living among the other American students.

After they returned from Switzerland, Harvard received a degree from Yale and lived in Louisville, Kentucky, Tallahassee, Florida and Atlanta, GA before settling in Decatur, GA. They lived there for several years until her husband received a ministry offer from the First Presbyterian Church in Durham. "I have to admit, at first I didn't want to go. But my husband is a big basketball enthusiast and really wanted to work here." She laughs remembering her response. "I put my hands on my hips and said, 'well, I didn't know the Holy Spirit worked through the ACC!'"

While living in Durham, Harvard took her first trip to the then-Soviet Union with a church group. Having grown up during the Cold War, Harvard admits to "demonizing" the Soviet Union, but nonetheless yearned to understand the soviet people. The trip had a profound impact on her and she wishes she could have "bottled up the spirit" she found in the country and its people. She would go back once a year for almost 15 years with the same group. "A lot of my heart is with the former Soviet Union," Harvard says, placing her hand on her heart.

Different lenses, different viewpoints
As director of the International House since 1986, Harvard oversees about 1,500 undergraduate and graduate international students plus 300 visiting scholars and professors and is deeply invested in all of them. After the horrific events of September 11, 2001, Harvard and her staff sent e-mails out to all the international students lending their support and assistance. And while some Muslim and Arab students were harassed or refused to leave their houses, Harvard encouraged them to reach out to the Duke community and educate others on the Muslim culture. More recently, Harvard attributes the 20 percent decline in foreign student matriculation to U.S. graduate schools "the unfriendly atmosphere after September 11th." Yet Harvard is optimistic the numbers will rise again. "Students have taught me that you see things through the lens of what has been normal for you, and if you have a different lens, you see things very differently, and you problem-solve differently and you look at life differently."

At the International House's fortieth anniversary on September, 2004, students and professors each brought food from their native country. Harvard shakes her head remembering: "As they brought their dishes... They had worked so hard and they were so proud to be coming to share something of their home. It was..." She puts her hand to her mouth. "I just felt so privileged to work with them and then have that kind of response. It was very moving." She laughs. "I have the best job at Duke!"

Born and Raised: Columbia, SC

Last vacation: Ireland in the Spring 2004, South Carolina coast in July 2004.

Last book read for pleasure: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Last movie seen : "Either Fahrenheit 9/11 or Control Room....Not sure which one was in town first."

Listening lately to: "I love beach music at a party. But at home while I'm relaxing or working, my favorite is Bach's Violin Concerto in A Minor."

Emily Vernon is a Trinity College senior from Falls Church, VA. She is an English major with a minor in journalism and public policy.