A Day in the Life: Luisa Locatelli ’25
We followed second-year MBA student Luisa Locatelli as she went to class, worked out, and planned events for the SOM community. Photos by Tony Rinaldo.
7:00 a.m.
I’m a morning person. I usually start the day by going to the gym at Evans Hall, Fit for Thought, with my roommate, Delia Reyes ’25. Working out helps me maintain my health and get some energy for the day—especially in the months leading up to Commencement, when life can feel chaotic.
9:40 a.m.
I live in East Rock, about 10 minutes away from campus. After showering and getting ready at home, I took the shuttle back to Evans Hall. On my way, I ran into Mugi Batsaikhan ’25, one of my friends from the SOM United soccer team. Once I got there, I met up with Delia at McNay Café. We drink a lot of coffee! The barista, Olee, has been my friend since the very beginning of SOM. She’s always there with a huge smile and just brightens up my day.
10:10 a.m.
My first class that day was How to Design and Run Business Experiments. It focuses on things like creating surveys and designing A/B testing. I was a product manager before SOM, and I want to have a similar role in the future, so these skills are super important for me. I got to class early and chatted with Dylan Arturo ’25 and Melanie Berman ’26; we worked together on our final project, a real survey that we designed and performed with 400 people.
11:30 a.m.
I’m a member of SOM’s Council on Anti-Racism and Equity (CARE), representing the student perspective on a committee that also includes faculty and staff. That day, we had a lunch meeting to wrap up the year and finalize some details for the annual Ogilvie Colloquium. After that, I stopped by a Pride Week lunch organized by the Out of Office club for queer students and allies to share stories and spend time together.
1:00 p.m.
I’m also the second-year community and inclusion lead on the SOM student government. In the afternoon, I met up with my friend Jai Singh ’25, the health and wellness chair. We wanted to host an informal lunch for students to grab some food and share any end-of-year stresses they might be dealing with. It’s an emotional time, and we want people to remember that they have a community to support them.
2:00 p.m.
After my meetings, I stopped by the library to do some homework and assignments. It’s a great space to spend time between classes during the day. Then I went back to McNay to get another coffee!
2:40 p.m.
I’m a TA for the class Product Management. Because of my product management background, I’ve wanted to do this since I first started at SOM. I help students during class, track attendance, grade assignments, and help the professor, Alex Burnap, with logistics. You learn so much being a TA, and my personal experience helped me answer students’ questions during class.
4:00 p.m.
After class, I met up with Alexis Fuller ’25, who is also a member of CARE. We were planning a mixer between several clubs we’re part of: the Black Business Alliance, the Africa Business and Society Club, the Association of Hispanic and Latin American Students, and the American-Latine Business Association.
Next was a class called Understanding and Reducing Bias in Organizations. When I came to SOM, I wanted to focus on my leadership skills, especially understanding bias and working strategically to overcome it. The professor, Jayanti Owens, is amazing. I worked with diversity teams in my pre-SOM job, and this class helped me understand what I could have done differently to get more buy-in and influence a larger group of people.
5:40 p.m.
I met up with Cecil Ehirindu ’27, the student government first-year community and inclusion chair, as well as Sivagami Lakshmanan ’26 and Kanika Jakhar ’26, who are part of the community and inclusion committee. This year, we revived the tradition of Affinity Week—a week-long celebration of different identities led by student government and clubs—which had gone on hiatus during the pandemic. Next year, there are going to be new leaders on this committee, so I wanted to share the logistical planning information and the lessons we learned from planning the event.
After a day of many meetings, I wound down with a Pride Week movie screening of I Saw the TV Glow. This is a pretty regular day for me. I’m a leader in several clubs and I spend a lot of time in meetings and organizing things. But that’s what I wanted from my time at SOM: not just to come here and learn, but to make a positive and long-lasting impact on the community.
