Graduating senior at Rice is budding humanitarian who loves adventure

CONTACT: Margot
Dimond
PHONE: (713) 348-6775
EMAIL: mdimond@rice.edu

GRADUATING SENIOR
AT RICE UNIVERSITY
IS BUDDING HUMANITARIAN WHO LOVES ADVENTURE

When Craig Harrison
graduates from Rice University on Saturday, his degree in economics and
mechanical engineering will tell only part of his educational experience.

The Cupertino,
California native has been involved in humanitarian causes since high school
when he became involved in a program called Amigos, where students travel to
other countries to learn about other cultures and work on local projects.

In college, he began
supervising other high school students’ trips to Honduras and Paraguay. He also
was a participant, then an organizer, of the Urban Plunge, where students spend
two days and nights with street people in Houston. And he spent this spring
Break on a Navajo Reservation, working on housing and learning about Navajo
culture.

Craig has other
interests as well. He spent a semester in Australia, had a summer internship
with NASA in California, performs in cultural dance programs, and is a skydiver.
He has been a Rice Ambassador, helping at official functions of the university,
for three years.

“Craig is an enormously
curious, adventuresome young man who, while keeping up with his studies, has
taken every opportunity to expand his horizons,” says Sue Hutchings, who
coordinates Rice Ambassador activities for the university.

Not one to sit
still, Craig has a full schedule for the next several months. After graduation,
he will spend five weeks traveling the United States, then three weeks working
in Los Angeles with a high school program for talented youth, and finally, two
months backpacking throughout Southeast Asia.

In November, he will
begin work for Accenture Consulting (formerly Anderson Consulting), and he is
already thinking about applying for outreach programs at work.

“Every experience I’ve
had abroad has been so amazing and eye-opening,” he says. “I really value that.
I’ve learned an incredible amount.”

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