When D’Asaro first announced her crawling project to her family, no one took her seriously.

“None of us would believe her because it seemed so completely odd,” Matthew said. “But that’s usually the case with Laura: When she sets her mind on doing something, she does it.”

This was certainly not the only time that D’Asaro had proposed—and actualized—a philanthropic vision.

In 2006, she raised over $13,500 selling lemonade and cookies to build a new playground for a local park. A year later, she mobilized classmates to record and distribute 150 books-on-tape to help disadvantaged children in her community learn to read. And earlier this year, she e-mailed over 100,000 elementary school teachers across the nation, asking their classes to participate in a card-making campaign for nursing home residents. This last effort resulted in her family’s e-mail service being temporarily shut down because she was suspected of running a spam operation.

Matthew, an engineering student at the University of Washington, helped her create Web sites for these projects, but all of D’Asaro’s initiatives have been self-directed. Her father, an oceanographer, and her mother, a former computer technician, have played mostly supporting roles.

But, D’Asaro said that they have been consistently dedicated to helping her succeed. “I mean sometimes they roll their eyes, but they’re always there,” she said.

Matthew said D’Asaro has more “happy energy” than anyone else in the family, adding that this “excess of enthusiasm” is a response to “living with three other people discussing technical matters” all the time.

“I’m happy about 98 percent of the time,” D’Asaro said. “I just don’t see a reason not to smile.”

A CONTAGIOUS SPIRIT

Now that she is at Harvard, D’Asaro hopes to spread her interest in breaking world records to raise money for charitable causes. Her ultimate goal is to form a permanent philanthrophy-focused club on campus.

So far, D’Asaro has started planning a Student Initiated Program through the Freshman Dean’s Office that will tackle some of the easier group world records first, such as recruiting the most people to balance books on their heads simultaneously or staging the largest game of “Duck, Duck, Goose.” Although the SIP is still in its early stages, she has already announced the intention to break these two records, along with 36 others, to Guinness World Records officials.

D’Asaro is also seeking businesses to sponsor her proposed attempt to break the record for the world’s longest handshake. Her friend Christopher D. Frugé ’13 has agreed to be her partner in this endeavor.

D’Asaro’s motivation for these projects comes from innovative humanitarian enterprises that she reads about online. This summer, she started collecting these ideas in a journal. Inside the front cover, she has inscribed her guiding mantra: “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”

Finding creative solutions to world problems, D’Asaro said, is her greatest dream.

“I want my life to mean something,” D’Asaro said. “When I die, I want [the world] to be a better place because I was in it. Each day is an opportunity to do that.”