The Commute
I always start my morning at 7 a.m. with a fifteen-minute drive to campus. On the way, I stop and get a cup of coffee to help me get through my very busy day which often includes classes, my on-campus jobs, and some much-needed downtime with friends. I usually get to campus around 7:30 a.m., which leaves me with thirty minutes to spare to relax and drink my coffee before my first class starts. I just sit in my car and scroll through emails, or review my notes before 7:50 a.m. when I need to start walking to class.
Classes
My classes this year aren’t too hard, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t challenging. I’m currently a third-year student and am taking five classes pertaining to my majors. Double majoring is engaging and I highly recommend doing it. This is my second year double majoring in both English and Political Science; I absolutely love it as it challenges me to do my best. I’m a very busy student, so double-majoring has been a challenge, but I make it work because it helps me schedule out my day better. Having many commitments, and opportunities on campus helps me schedule my life a lot more, which keeps me on track.
Classes at Whittier usually last from 50 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes depending on the frequency of the class. Most of my classes are an hour and 20 minutes and they are mainly discussion-based (not all classes are like this). For example, my Writing Short Fiction class is all about critiquing my peer’s short stories and helping them improve their writing. I like these classes better because it helps me improve my work, and I’m able to hear different perspectives on a variety of topics, not just writing. This happens in a lot of Political Science classes on campus as well.
My Job and Extracurriculars
Whittier’s Handshake app offers a variety of on-campus jobs for students. A majority of my day is spent working as an Opinions Editor with the Quaker Campus, the school's newspaper; I overlook articles that come in, pitch out ideas for new articles, and make sure all these articles either go into print or on the Quaker Campus (QC) website. My favorite part of my job, however, is writing articles and I wish I could write so much more. Students who would like to work for the QC can start off as a copywriter (writes articles), copyeditor (edits all the articles); or both.
The other part of my day is dedicated to my executive board, or e-board, position in Whittier’s club, Womxn's Leadership Association (WLA). I am the Vice President of the club and help the President come up with ideas for each meeting. Mainly in this club when we have meetings we discuss different topics that affect women on campus, such as how we are being treated in class, or women’s health. These are only a few of the topics that we discuss, but mainly all the topics surround gender equity and inclusion. Many of the people in this club are interns for the new Gender and Equity center on campus; this helps solve a lot of gender equity problems on campus because the interns are able to report back to the center on what is going on.
End of my Day
My school day usually ends around 5 p.m. every day, and by then I’m extremely exhausted, but my work doesn’t stop at 5. I tend to stay on campus till 6 or 7 p.m. every day in order to get work done. Around this time I’m doing homework which mainly consists of readings, writing short stories, or essays. The time it generally takes me to finish all of this or part of it is about 2 to 3 hours, but I leave campus at 7 p.m. because I don’t want to leave when it is super late. When I get home I eat dinner and finish up any work I didn’t finish then get ready for bed.
