Student Profile: Salvatore Macchione, MPP Class of 2026

“I got a lot of hometown pride that I kind of wear on my sleeve,” said Chicago native Salvatore Macchione, MPP Class of 2026, “and the University of Chicago has always been a part of that. In fact, when I first got my driver's license, I would just drive down to campus in early spring and sit on the Midway Plaisance, using my phone's hotspot to do work. I was a 17-year-old on my lawn chair doing college apps under the trees while people were kicking the soccer ball around.

His process of completing college applications on the Midway Plaisance led Macchione to Kenyon College in Ohio, where he earned his BA in American Studies. “I explored a breadth of subjects at Kenyon, and one of my favorite classes was campaigns and elections.” That course, he added, inspired his senior thesis. “I analyzed polling and public opinion data to explore the idea of Midwestern racism. However, I didn’t use R—or any kind of Harris-esque analysis: my data analysis process was fairly improvised. Still, my thesis yielded my first semi-statistical policy analysis, which included sentiment thermometers on race relations.”

However, Macchione’s eventual research interest—education policy—took shape when he returned home after college and taught for a year at a small Catholic school on the south side of Chicago.

“To be clear, there were facets of teaching I enjoyed immensely. But the education field is…rather tumultuous. For example, out of the 45 kids I taught, about fifteen had a service plan where they were either on the spectrum or simply needed more help—and the school was underfunded and ill equipped, through no real fault of their own. As a result, individualizing and differentiating material for students at varying levels of comprehension fell to the teachers. Without having the academic background of a master’s in teaching, that was an extremely difficult lift for me: I felt helpless.”

Macchione continued. “I began to wonder: What might this indicate about parents’ perceptions of CPS if sending a child with special needs to an under-resourced Catholic school seems a better option? Then I started thinking about education more broadly—school choice funding, etc. And it hit me: this is not sustainable—at all—if for no other reason than you'll constantly have teachers coming in utterly unprepared to deal with the pressure.”

Macchione said he spent time mulling how such systemic issues could be addressed. “Eventually, my girlfriend and my parents encouraged me to apply for graduate programs. Their mindset was, just go for it.”

Applying to the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy’s Master of Public Policy (MPP) program, Macchione said, was a clear choice. “The academics, of course, are incomparable. Plus, and it may sound corny, Chicago is part of me—the food, the lifestyle, the neighbors, the accent. It has the energy of New York boiled down with midwestern flair. There’s no other place that feels that way to me.”

As for where Macchione hopes to make an impact, he said he’s looking to explore all career options connected to education—“whether that’s on the national level with the Department of Education or more localized for CPS.”

For prospective students, Macchione offered this advice: “Don’t hesitate. I was worried about the quantitative nature of the program because I thought I might struggle—and God forbid you struggle, right? I’m glad I didn’t let my hesitance prevent me from exploring what has already been a life-changing opportunity.”