"I'm really looking forward to working with Vin," Dawson says. "He's a good person to lead us, since he's such a vision-oriented, organization-oriented person, rather than being ego oriented.... everything he does, he doesn't show off about--he doesn't wait for applause."

High School

Those who knew Pan before Harvard say he has always been a hard-working, understated and effective leader.

Some things have changed for Pan, however. When he came to Harvard, his primary interest was rugby.

"I didn't know too much about public service," Pan says. "I jointed the Mission Hill after school program to--this sounds cheesy--to make a difference. Whenever I got injured in rugby. I would find myself in Mission Hill....the things I like in rugby, like the camaraderie, were also present there, but it was much more meaningful."

At Millburn High School, in Millburn, N.J., Pan was not a public service volunteer. In fact, he played football, according to his former guidance counselor, Ellen H. Brener.

"Millburn never had a very good team," she says. "Part of his charm was that he wanted to be a football player, and he practiced and practiced and practiced."

Brener and Millburn principal Keith Neigel say Pan was notable for his integrity and effectiveness at getting along with students from all backgrounds.

"He bridged everything," Brener says. "He was the jock and the brain, and he got everyone together. He had this presence about him. He was so democratic in the way he did things that no one ever second-guessed him.... He was extremely well-liked and self-effacing."

As junior class president, Neigel says, Pan fundraised and organized several school projects.

"A lot of kids get elected to these positions to put them on their transcript and don't do much," Neigel says. "He wasn't like that."

But senior year, Pan lost the election for president of his class.

"When it came time to run for class office, there were several people running who used all sorts of gimmicks and he just refused to use them," says Linda L. Lapin, who was Pan's class advisor in high school. "I almost regret that he hadn't, but he had just so much integrity.... we ended up with a president who just didn't follow through."

In his work with the Mission Hill program, Pan has displayed the same dedication he showed in high school, according to Beatrice Brown, a mother of four children in the Mission Hill program. The program serves children in the Mission Hill public housing project in Roxbury.

"There's nothing bad I can say," Brown says. "I would say for someone following in his footsteps, he's a good mentor. I hope [the program] continues on and on. It really is a great asset to any parent whose children are going."