Grace C Huang

What is the significance of the object you brought with you to the photo shoot?
I brought a photo of my adult skating team at the 2024 National Theatre on Ice competition, where we took home the bronze medal. This photo represents three concepts that are relevant to my work at Harvard. The first is courage. I took up ice skating eleven years ago, despite repeatedly telling myself (and being told) that I wasn't capable of anything athletic. Now, I spend most days gliding across hard ice on razor blades, risking limb and brain, and it is so worth it. I love how skating tests my assumptions about my limits and forces me to be artistic, dramatic, goofy, and accepting of my mediocre skills-attributes I don't always get to lean into every day.

The second is patience. What a kid skater can master in a few months can take me years to just get to the point where my jump or spin is passable. Similarly, there is so much I want to accomplish at work, but I have to be willing to wait, to be willing to fall, to pick myself up again, and to keep trying despite being constantly humbled and bruised.

The last is teamwork. This is a loving, inclusive group of people ranging in ages from 20s to 70s, with a spectrum of backgrounds and occupations (some even connected to Harvard!). Yet we are united in our passion for adult skating. the sacrifice it requires, and the harmony it brings. The Office for Faculty Affairs is similarly deeply committed to the academic mission of the school, its faculty and trainees, and to each other, and it's a joy to be part of the of a family.