A Day in the Life: Lizzie Heywood ’26
We followed Lizzie Heywood, a student in the Asset Management program, as she went to class, hung out with friends, and prepared for her first American Halloween. Photos by Tony Rinaldo.
9:00 a.m.
I didn’t have class this morning, so I had breakfast and went to Payne Whitney Gymnasium. It’s such a cool old building—on the outside, it doesn’t even look like a gym—and it’s not too crowded in the morning. There are lots of different weights and machines, but I stuck with the Stairmaster and the treadmill.
9:45 a.m.
On my way home from the gym, I stopped at the Yale bookstore. Two of my friends had birthdays this week, and I also wanted a new book—I’m usually reading some kind of novel. I picked up Jabari Asim’s Yonder for myself and cards for my friends.
11:00 a.m.
After getting ready at home, I headed to Evans Hall and ran into some friends from the Asset Management program, Lina Kalai and Rubens Baiocchi, outside. They both did their undergrad in the UK, like me. We all met after getting into SOM at a dinner in London hosted by Maria Derlipanska, the program director.
11:15 a.m.
I had to submit some application materials for a job, so I went to a study space on the fourth floor. If the library’s full or it’s sunny outside, I like to get some work done here.
There can be a lot to juggle because I’m applying for a range of jobs, and the interviews can be quite varied. But I also make things difficult for myself by hanging out with my friends a lot.
12:00 p.m.
For lunch, I met up with some friends at Olmo, a bagel place near Evans Hall. One of them is my flatmate Valentine Van Keerberghen, who’s an economics master’s student. When I got into SOM I was finishing my undergrad exams and I didn’t have a lot of time to figure out my housing, so I signed up for Yale graduate housing. They send you lots of profiles of different people you might be compatible with, and Valentine and I had a phone call and became flatmates and good friends.
I got a classic bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. We sat outside and caught up about our fall break trips. Valentine and I went to Puerto Rico with a big group of people. We were also organizing a weekend trip to western Massachusetts to see the foliage. I’ve never been to the countryside in the U.S., so I was excited.
1:00 p.m.
I walked to the Yale Science Building where I audit a Yale College course, Introduction to Microeconomics. My academic background is in philosophy and theology, so when I arrived at SOM I wanted to brush up on my economics basics.
2:15 p.m.
I headed back to SOM for my class Sustainable Investing. I’m quite interested in international development and social investing, so it’s good to understand from an academic lens how social pressures and priorities affect investing. The professor, Edward Watts, has a lot of industry experience, and there’s only 20 of us, so you have to be ready to answer questions. I also like that we’re assessed by case studies and a final pitch at the end of the semester—it really teaches practical skills.
4:00 p.m.
When class ended, I met up with Lina and our other friend, Gabriel Hawwa, to walk to a café called Koffee. I got a mint tea and we made our plans for Halloween weekend. In the UK, I would normally go to one Halloween party, but in America there’s a whole week of events and people put a lot of effort into their costumes. I ended up dressing as a shooting star for the first party, one of the Incredibles for the second, and Harley Quinn for the third.
5:30 p.m.
After our coffee, I went to the library in Evans Hall to work on my Sustainable Investing homework. The assignment involved analyzing a case study on Harvard’s divestment from fossil fuels. I stayed at the library for a few hours before going home to make dinner and keep studying. I knew I had a busy weekend ahead of me, so I used the rare free evening to keep up with my assignments.
