DeLong says Solutions believes in getting volunteers to work alongside the homeless.

"We're trying to get people to understand the importance of working with the homeless instead of doing something for them," she says.

DeLong says she is trying to work out a system with the superintendents of Harvard's undergraduate houses to pick up any unwanted furniture left by departing students.

"We hope to staff a room in the houses where we can screen the furniture and take whatever is in good shape," she says.

However, DeLong says she does not think she will go back to working at Harvard.

"Once I walked out of the Ivory tower and saw what was going on. I realized what a breakdown there is in the community, she says. "Once you are homeless, it is always a part of you."

She says Harvard taught her how to "step into a vacuum" and take charge of an unstructured situation.

"At Harvard no one ever said to me, 'you're just a technician," she says. "Everyone treated me as a person who could do things with her hands and her mind.

DeLong says working at Harvard gave her an "intellectual support framework" which helped her to maintain her strength and assertiveness.

"I learned that if you stand in front of a door, it will open for you," she says.