Khaya Dryden-Peterson ’29

Khaya Dryden-Peterson is a Sophomore in Pforzheimer House concentrating in Social Studies. Khaya grew up in Boston but spent many childhood years living in Gaborone, Botswana with her family. She is passionate about community and finding ways to create spaces to learn and work on important issues collaboratively. This past summer, Khaya was a Legislative Intern for the Office of Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander in Washington, DC, where she engaged with constituents and worked on legislative priorities such as healthcare, education, housing, and budget. Previously, Khaya served as an Intern for the Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing where she worked with the Supportive Housing Division to match individuals with homes. Khaya has also worked for Women’s Lunch Place, a day-shelter for homeless women in downtown Boston, and wrote her Capstone Thesis Project on female homelessness and shelter safety in Boston. Through this work, Khaya has realized how much she loves being part of engaged, rigorous, and contentious environments, where interactions with others strengthen her own and larger collective work. On campus, Khaya spends her time with the Intellectual Vitality Student Advisory Board, the Harvard Outing Club (HOC), First-Year Outdoor Program (FOP), the IOP Conferences Committee, and the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, to which she brings her commitment to connections across ideas to address challenges and her love of collaborating with others to do meaningful work.