Khaya Dryden-Peterson is a first-year in Canaday planning on concentrating in Social Studies. Khaya grew up in Boston but spent many childhood years living in Gaborone, Botswana with her family. Before Harvard, Khaya attended Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in the country, and spent a semester at Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, where she studied ecology through place-based, discussion-driven learning in a residential community. Khaya is passionate about connections among individuals as ways to create spaces to learn and work on important issues collaboratively. One of the issues Khaya is committed to is housing. She works at Women’s Lunch Place, a day shelter for homeless women on Newbury Street in Boston, and focused her Capstone Thesis Project on female homelessness and safety in Boston. She also interned at the Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing where she did data analysis with the Supportive Housing Division using the Homeless Information Management System (HMIS) database with the goal of securing housing for more people. Through this and other work, Khaya has realized how much she loves being part of engaged, rigorous, and contentious environments, where interactions with others strengthen her own and the collective work. On campus, Khaya is excited to be a part of the Intellectual Vitality Board, the IOP Conferences Committee, the First-Year Religious, Spiritual, and Ethical Life Fellowship, and the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter to which she hopes to bring her passions for close observation of the world, her commitment to connections across ideas to address challenges, and her love of working with others to do meaningful work. She also loves canoeing, sewing, crafting, baking, and spending time outdoors with friends and family.