Student Spotlight: Nicole Yapp JD ’23

Nicole Yapp JD ’23 is a senior at Harvard Law School. She has served as a research assistant for the Legacy of Leadership project under the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative for three semesters. As an undergraduate at the University of Florida, Yapp was an African American studies major, so working on the Legacy of Leadership project was an opportunity to dive deeper into subject matter that was of interest to her.

Yapp compiled information on early Black graduates of Harvard and Radcliffe for the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery website. She particularly enjoyed researching the life and work of Alberta Virginia Scott, the first Black woman to graduate from Radcliffe College. Although Scott died when she was only 26, “she did so much with that short life she led,” says Yapp.

Yapp pointed out that some of the graduates featured on the website, such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Charles Hamilton Houston, are relatively well known, but others, like Scott, are not. One of the goals of the Legacy of Leadership project is to bring these lesser-known stories to light.

Sam Zuniga-Levy is the communications coordinator at Harvard Radcliffe Institute.