Rachael Stein ’17

Tell us some basics! Hometown, year, house, concentration?

Hometown: Detroit, Michigan. Year: 2017. House: Eliot. Concentration: Sociology and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

What are you involved with on campus? 

I play on the Varsity Women’s Rugby team. I also serve as Director of Business for Harvard Model United Nation and Diversity & Inclusion Co-Chair for Eliot HoCo. I also do tons of on and off campus LGBTQ activism work. Beyond that, I am working at 2 startups right now – InsightSquared, which does sales/marketing analytics, and Dattch, which is a dating and community app for queer women. In my free time I do lots of outdoorsy stuff and ride my motorcycle around. I’m basically a professional gay.

What kinds of LGBTQ activism work do you do on campus?

I am currently working on a project to improve healthcare coverage options for transgender students. Also, I am running a collaborative creative expression workshop series for LGBTQ youth in the Boston area, and in the spring I will be doing college counseling workshops for LGBTQ high school students. I am a member of a lot of the LGBTQ groups on campus, and go to most of the queer social events. 

What has been the hardest thing you’ve done since coming to Harvard?

The hardest thing I have done was learning how to play rugby! I played ice hockey for 14 years before coming here, so it was a huge change. Also getting tackled isn’t super fun the first few times.

What is your favorite part about Harvard? 

I love the people I spend time with everyday. The rugby team is such an incredible and diverse group of women, and the LGBTQ community here has been amazingly fun to be a part of.

If you could change one thing about Harvard, what would it be? 

More attendance at women’s athletics events! Also, increased funding for open and inclusive social events so that we can slowly crush the patriarchy.