Harvard Alum Names Fake Award After Himself and Gets Bitch-Slapped by the Internets
So you think you're pretty awesome. You are, like, the greatest thing that's ever happened to Harvard. You effected lasting change during your time there, and you want to make sure, at the tender age of 23, that your legacy will be remembered. So what do you do? Why, you create an "award" in honor of your greatness and name it after yourself!
Aaron Chadbourne, Harvard '06 and now a first-year at Harvard Law School, felt that his myriad accomplishments as an undergraduate were being overlooked. I mean, Aaron Chadbourne changed Harvard! Aaron Chadbourne is a legend! So Aaron Chadbourne decided to create the Aaron Chadbourne Student Advocacy Award to honor Harvard undergrads most similar to Aaron Chadbourne. Chadbourne sent out an email detailing his latest accomplishment - the Aaron Chadbourne Award - to the Harvard UC list:
Nominate a Student Representative for the 2008 Aaron D. Chadbourne Student Advocacy Award:
Aaron Chadbourne has established an annual award to recognize a student who has made a positive and lasting impact on Harvard, for the benefit of the student body, by forging and leveraging relationships with Harvard administrators and faculty members.This award shall be given annually to a junior or a senior at Harvard College who has served as an Undergraduate Council-appointed representative to one of Harvard's administrative or student-faculty committees or in a similar capacity on a board or committee at Harvard that works closely with faculty and administrators.
An honorary award may also be given to a faculty member or administrator who promotes student representation and participation in decision-making at the College and University and who serves as an advocate for student interests at Harvard.
Many originally thought the Chadbourne Award was an April Fool's joke. The Crimson has a pretty good take:
Originally questioned as an April Fool's joke over the UC general e-mail list, the self-titled award was announced under a blurry panorama centered on Lowell House, where Chadbourne lived as an undergraduate, and was accompanied by a paragraph detailing Chadbourne's involvement in student government. While at Harvard, Chadbourne was a UC representative for three terms and served as chair of the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) in 2005."
After the jump: the Aaron Chadbourne Award proves D.O.A.
Chadbourne's peers roundly mocked him, but as the creator of the Aaron Chadbourne Award, he asked himself: would a guy as courageous as Aaron Chadbourne give up? Aaron Chadbourne was pretty sure that Aaron Chadbourne would stick up for what was right.
That is, until the Harvard Administration bitch-slapped him. The Crimson, as always, with the scoop:
An administrator called to inform Chadbourne of a University policy regulating the establishment of awards that would jeopardize his position as a proctor if he created an award himself. "Had I been fully aware of this policy, I wouldn't have even gone down this road."
Chadbourne, bowing to public pressure (Harvard alums emailing each other about his antics now account for 50% of the internets!) has taken down both the award and his website. That's right, folks: aaronchadbourne.com - and the Aaron Chadbourne Award - are now dead.
Chadbourne may no longer be accepting applications for his award, but IvyGate is. Fill out Chadborne's form and email it to back to tips@ivygateblog.com. We'll announce the winner of the IvyGate Memorial Award for the Aaron Chadbourne Award (as well as choice snippets from the best applications) later this week.
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April 12th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Another award circulated on the lowell house email list:
The A. Ece Manisali Award for Calling People On Their Bullshit
The A. Ece Manisali Award for Calling People On Their Bullshit seeks to recognize a student who has made a positive and lasting impact on the Harvard community by consistently calling people out when everyone knows they are full of it.
Do YOU know a student who tolerates no bullshit? Nominate them today! Just send in a short paragraph describing their past achievements and how they have improved the Harvard community.
In the case of students who have similarly stellar records of calling people out, the committee will determine the winner based on seniority, hilariousness and good looks.
-The A. Ece Manisali Award Committee
April 12th, 2008 at 2:17 am
aaron is jd/mba, fyi
perhpas tha explians the douchiness?
April 12th, 2008 at 3:42 am
at that application, and the first name that came to mind was aleky vayner. i think i am going to fill it out and hope you fuckers pick him.
April 12th, 2008 at 6:14 am
He’s Harvard AB ‘08, Harvard JD ‘12, and Harvard MBA ‘12? Talk about running the gamut…
April 12th, 2008 at 8:46 am
three cheers for ivygate this past week or so. We have seen some solid writing/reporting of late.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
kudos to ivygate for revealing this fucktard’s idiocy! Aaron Chadbourne, you are definitely in the running for douchebag of the year.
April 12th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Petri dish procreating pinnochio plutocratic fascist naziesque orwellian roveianlly infanticidal caligulesque mengelesque smiley faced sadistic self medicating suicidally inclined sociopathic infantile lemming paramecium shit with grandiose desires of beastiality. Who’s your daddy ?
The rothschilds fathered one adolf hitler, whom the rockefellers bush’s morgan’s and other yanks helped underwrite the rape of the world for your banker buddies.
911 was a false flag operation, gulf of tonkin, lucitania, pearl harbor was only a surprise to the dumbed down electorate because everyone else knew it was bait, too few troops on the bound was bait. The design was for hell on Earth, a typical american strategy used for 232 years and counting, added in is the fake Christians who demand the right to murder masses of people when you’re in the mood, to demand your right to torture, to steal as much as possible, and to lie about it all. A massive redistricting of the electorate by bombing the fuck out of it and initiating a civil war like factional confrontation on the ground: Ka Ching u.s. dollars at work.
Shouldn’t our olympic outrage be directed at america and not China. I mean, what the fuck, are y’all brain dead evil or what ?
Before your own government gets openly busted in the mainstream media breaking the law, this administration with the coordination of the intelligence community and outside subcontractors threatens anyone including americans and their families and others with murder and institutionalization if they blow the whistle.
Y’all have no idea how patheitc your america really is.
The whole world laughed in gallows humor at the United Nations when President Hugo Chavez called you satan.
Deep down inside the rothschildian and rockefellerian cult of programming has you enjoying the role of anti-Christ.
Apophis, Apophis, Apophis. Your just rewards.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Is it just me, or does the guys smile remind you of South Park’s Hardly Boys?
http://images.southparkstudios.com/media/images/1009/1009_hardly_boys_investigate.jpg
April 13th, 2008 at 11:45 am
What a narcissistic and pompous ass.
Hilarious.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
The real question is whether he would have let people self-nominate…
April 14th, 2008 at 4:49 am
You people are bastards. First of all, Aaron is an incredibly genuine and nice guy. Second of all, it’s very common for alumni to endow awards in their name in the form of cash grants to people who share their characteristics. He has done nothing wrong, or even remotely deserving of attention.
April 14th, 2008 at 8:14 am
“He has done nothing wrong, or even remotely deserving of attention.”
That is quite correct. He appears to have done nothing deserving of attention. He could have donated the money anonymously, or named an award for a person who contributed to his successful Harvard experience (perhaps a family member or faculty adviser). Yet he named the award after himself. Its quite reprehensible and it indicates a pretty disturbing arrogance.
Is this guy so disturbed that he needs to scream for attention from his peers by giving them money? Wow. He seems like a real classy dude.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Are you running for vice-douche this year?
Yeah, pretty sure he could have endowed an award in his name if he wishes. But wtf is this honorary award bullshit? This guy is like Trump just trying to slap his name onto anything. Trump without the money, or the name recognition, or the popular TV show, or anything else we might care about besides his grand self-promotionalism.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Perhaps because that is standard practice:
http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students/fellowships/FellowshipRecipients05-06.htm
how many fellowships do you see named after the person who endowed them? also, this isn’t even close to a comprehensive list. there are a huge number of small awards named after the people who endowed them, mainly given out through houses or academic departments. some are even endowed by recent graduates or their families. again, all he did wrong was neglect to go through normal channels. grow a life, you pathetic gawkers.
April 14th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
whether it was right that he named an award after himself or not, what makes this most offensive is that Chadbourne’s award is premised on the fact that he himself made some sort of significant contribution to student life during his tenure as an undergrad. as I recall, much of what he (and the UC) accomplished during those years was simply a perpetuation of what made student life a nearly intolerable farce of self-congratualtory, ego-driven douchebaggery.
Aaron is hardly the only person in my class that was guilty of such an attitude, but that fact that he sought to aggrandize his imagined accomplishments through this ridiculous award is truly a new level of madness. as a good friend put it upon hearing of the award:
“I think the lesson here is that there is no summit to the mountain of douchebaggery, only a succession of peaks that reach up and up, past even the bounds of the imagination.”
April 14th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
all kidding aside, Aaron Chadbourne has a serious dandruff problem. he should learn to never wear black without the blue! Selsun Blue that is…
April 14th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
this is fantastic. everyone in the class of 2006 already knew (knows) what a total douche aaron chadbourne is; this is just further confirmation. his ridiculously inflated sense of self-importance makes me sick…
April 14th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
“how many fellowships do you see named after the person who endowed them?”
those awards are usually named in honor of people who have passed away, not the people who endowed them.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
no! could ‘fish’ be another prize-winning douche of the class of 2006, as in J.M. Fisher? no, it couldn’t be. god is not that kind.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Creating this award was really stupid. The article says enough. Do you really think that each of you needs to pile on and kick this guys while he’s clearly already down. The point has already been proven. Nothing you say is going to make him now realize: “Oh yeah, I screwed up!” I’m willing to bet that he gets it. It’s bad enough for someone to live out such a ridiculous decision publicly, that all of this piling on is a little lame. It’s nearly impossible to recover from his position here. On the other hand, any coward can attack a wounded man while hiding behind a computer.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
You are missing the point … ENDOWED. This has nothing to do with normal channels or whatever other bullshit you are mumbling about. He didn’t ENDOW anything. He just made it up out of thin air. Is that Chadman DOuchington or whatever his name is award going to pay anyone’s tuition or fund their research?
April 21st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Fish, you total fool. Those awards are given in honor of the recently deceased. While awards/scholarships are commonly given at Harvard, none are given to someone that has just merely graduated or didn’t triumph through some sort of adversity.
That said, it’s true, he could have done something more malevolent with the cash. He did spend it to recognize someone that actually HAS made impact in the campus. There’s something wrong with the fact that he ostensibly was trying to buy some weird sort of recognition with the donation. But we shouldn’t forget that this was just a donation.
But the gist on this comment board was that this guy is a tool. That’s mostly accurate.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:41 am
I found this article by accident and I have to say it is fabulous to see that someone I have known for years to be the biggest douche in history is finally getting the public recognition he deserves. I’m only surprised that the smarmy bastard made such an obvious mistake, but I suppose sheer arrogance must cloud one’s judgement over time. So how can we help nominate him for douchebag of the year again?
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:50 am
Next headline: Aaron Chadbourne will not get laid for the rest of eternity.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:53 am
Next headline: Aaron Chadbourne will not get laid for the rest of eternity.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I personally know the chadbourne family and they are all self loathing pompous asses. Aaron’s mom is the worst human being I have ever met. That family is all about the all mighty dollar. They look down on people if you are not ivy league educated or make six figures for a salary. They routinely talk bad about people behind close doors and then kiss asses when they are in public. the chadbourne family is nothing more than a bunch of disfunctional snobs from Gorham Maine
November 19th, 2008 at 3:10 am
You judgemental people. I hope you realize life is not all about finding what is wrong with people. I’m sure you know what is wrong with yourselves, but do not take it out on poor AC. He’s da’ man!
February 14th, 2009 at 7:34 am
i was an undergrad at harvard around the time of aaron. i worked in dorm crew, which is, in a nutshell, the student-run and staffed janitorial service for the harvard dorms. i actually knew this guy from section, and so was personally acquainted with his reputation as a scumbag/douchebag. since i was assigned to clean dorms in his house, i once ran across him while cleaning his room. i took great pleasure in running his toothbrush and shaver across his toilet bowl, and rinsed them out with lysol.
i didn’t see the guy for the week after that.