Student Post: A Day in the Life

This post is part of our “A Day in the Life” series, sharing what a typical day looks like in the lives of our students. Marvin Slaughter, MPP class of 2021, shares what a typical day at Harris looked like for him during Winter Quarter 2020.

6–7 a.m. - Wake up and prepare for my commute. It’s typically a 30-40 minute drive from my home in the South Suburbs to the Keller Center.

7–7:45 a.m. – Actually enjoy my commute (thanks to Maze Jackson). It can be challenging to keep up with local news while muscling through problem sets for the Core, which is why I actually appreciate my commute! I’m able to catch up on political news from my favorite local radio commentator, Maze Jackson.

7:50–8:20 a.m. - Prayer room. The first thing I do when I get to Harris is head to the prayer room – a hidden, nondenominational nook for quiet contemplation – to orient my thoughts and remind myself about my reasons for choosing to come to Harris.

8:30–9:30 a.m. - Study time. After my prayer time I look over my notes for my day’s classes..., while enjoying a delicious breakfast sandwich from the Harris Café called “Bringing Home the Bacon.”

9:30–10:50 a.m. - Analytical Politics II. Learn about government formation and electoral accountability from the amazing professor Peter Buisseret, whose work focuses on political economy and how political institutions affect collective decision-making in societies.

11 a.m. –4 p.m. - Working is hardly working… when you’re having fun! I have the pleasure of being a Graduate Assistant for the Student Recruitment and Global Outreach team, where I conduct  outreach to prospective and admitted students.

4–5 p.m. - The commute home. My commute home helps me decompress from a long day, usually by listening to John Legend :)

5–7 p.m. -  Live dangerously by doing homework in pen. I take a preliminary stab at problem sets before convening with my problem set group. However, I tend to do all of my work in pen...which often proves problematic when encountering profit-maximization problems in Economics.

7–8:30 p.m. - Church/Democratic Organization/ Young Invincibles. Depending on the day, I generally have an event with one of the aforementioned groups. Between my activity in my church’s Men’s Fellowship meetings and events, involvement in the Bremen Township Democratic Organization, and involvement in the national organization Young Invincibles, I find myself fairly busy most nights.

9–10 p.m. - Falling asleep to Netflix. (My Netflix viewing history is a long list of movies I’ve fallen asleep to.

Want to learn more about your future classmates? Read another Day in the Life post by Nora McConnell Johnson, MPP Class of 2021.