Whenever Marco Chan ’11 writes a humanities paper, he usually ends up arguing the same concept: a common ground. “Part of it is my own inclination for bringing ideas and bringing people together,” he explains. As co-chair of the Queer Students and Allies and tour manager for the Harvard Glee Club, Chan is characterized by his ability to connect with students across campus.
Born in Hong Kong, Chan has also lived in Macau, Montreal, and Vancouver, and he speaks six languages. He says that his diverse background has proven to be a strength: “I’m always different in some way wherever I am, but that makes me that much more aware of the consistencies from place to place,” he says.
Chan is perhaps best known for his heavy involvement with QSA. After offering his contributions to the group before he was a freshman, he was named co-chair his sophomore year. But his peers see him as a leader beyond this role. “Marco is really good at responding to people who have problems,” says close friend Alex E. H. McNaughton ’11. “He’s very in touch with different parts of the queer community.”
Throughout his tenure with QSA, Chan has made internal unification a priority. “People in LGBT are in many different communities and people from many different communities are in LGBT,” he says. “We are trying to capture all the different interests that people have that make up this community.”
His ability to empathize with others also extends to promoting tolerance throughout the greater Harvard community. “You’re always someone else’s ‘weird.’ And everyone has their own story,” he explains. “The best thing we can do is to step into someone else’s shoes and start walking on common ground, because that is where we are most likely to move forward.”
“It’s very rare to cross paths with a person who is as genuinely passionate about making the world a better place as Marco,” writes Alice Y. Mai, a friend of Chan’s from high school, in an e-mail to The Crimson. “Marco is the most inspirational person I’ve ever known.”
