Harvard’s Most Overworked
It is hard to conclusively identify the most harried people in what might be the world capital of self-induced burdens. For example, we know already that we missed the guy who took 56 classes in four years and the guy who carried around a sleeping mat because he was too busy to go home to his bed most nights. Even for Harvard students, though, the five individual profiled below exhibit an unusual combination of dilligence, ambition and insanity. Read on to be shocked and amazed.
Each weekday, Julian O. Breece ’03 rolls out of bed at 6 a.m. so that he can get a run in before classes start. “I guess I’ve learned how to operate on less sleep than some people,” says Breece, who is taking six classes, including two tutorials, and is organizing the Harvard Black Film Festival, which he founded last year.
The festival shows independent films before they get distributed to theaters and allows actors and directors to meet with students. “It’s really an examination of the intellectual discourse surrounding black film,” Breece says. “It’s great getting to see new films and getting to meet directors and actors.”
This project has helped Breece to realize that some day he would like to be a screenwriter. To that end, he is taking a writing seminar this semester with Jamaica Kincaid, who is visiting lecturer on Afro-American studies and on English and American literature and language, in addition to tutorials in history and literature and Afro-American studies, Spanish 27, a women’s studies class and a Core. “There were a lot of classes I wanted to take this semester, and now that I’m getting into thesis mode there is reading I need to do to complement my research,” Breece says. “It’s actually helped me organize my time better.”
When he’s not studying and working on the Film Festival, Breece works as secretary of the Signet, writes for Diversity & Distinction magazine, is co-producing Sweeney Todd on the Loeb Mainstage and is a coordinator for the Dubois Society Program, which is designed to provide Saturday classes introducing black high school scholars to theoretical and historical discussions surrounding afro-american studies. Breece is one of three undergraduate coordinators.
In person, Breece comes across as more mellow than one might expect from reading his list of activities. He says friends and the occasional leisure activity help him maintain this outlook. “I like to get out of Harvard Square and chill with my friends or read non-school-related things like a newspaper or book review,” he says.
George “Bud” Vana ’03, an advanced standing junior in Winthrop House, found his way from the rural Northeast Kingdom of Vermont to the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard. “I think Harvard’s library system was a major reason I decided to come here,” says Vana, who is particularly interested in Arabic, Persian and Armenian poetry. “I became fascinated with the mysticism of the Middle East and, eventually, the poetry that went along with it.”
Vana is taking six classes this semester, including Arabic, Persian, Classic Armenian, a sophomore tutorial, a junior tutorial and a Near Eastern studies class. Yet Vana thinks this semester will be pretty easy. “Language classes are great because you don’t have to worry about a curve or being in the top percentile. You either learn the language or you don’t.”
Vana doesn’t spend all his time reading poetry and practicing calligraphy. He spends his Sundays as an on-call volunteer for the Red Cross, works as a User Assistant, tutors in Arabic and organic chemistry, is an honorary member of the Society of Arab Students and plays the trumpet, drums and baritone horn in the band. He finds time to relax by watching movies and sleeping on the weekends, with the occasional party thrown in. “I try to make it a policy to get out of Harvard once a week,” he says. “Boston is so full of life.”
Still, there are things that Vana wants to do that he hasn’t gotten around to yet. “I promise myself that I will start writing poetry once I turn 20, but the time is getting near,” he says. “I have to get ready.”
As a linguistics concentrator who is working toward a master’s degree, Charles B. Chang ’03 has seven and a half classes this semester, including Intensive Beginning Italian, three linguistics classes and three Cores. “The masters program requires eight extra classes, which means I would have to replace all my electives with linguistics classes if I limited myself to 32 classes,” the amazingly calm Chang said. “I don’t want to miss out on anything.”
In his free time Chang works with six community service organizations, including MINHUET (Music In Hospitals and Nursing Homes Using Entertainment as Therapy), a program that allows him to combine his interest in service and his ability to play the clarinet.
In order to keep up with all of this service, schoolwork and clarinet-playing, Chang has to organize his time. “I try to pick and choose what’s important to do and what’s not. If I did all of the work it wouldn’t be possible,” he says. “I was getting about four hours of sleep a night last semester, but this semester I’m doing a lot better and getting about six hours a night.”
Chang says he even finds time for his friends. “I try to hang out with my roommates and friends as much as possible. It’s easy to become a bad friend when you’re really busy,” he says. Chang finds one good way to relax and be with his friends is to watch TV. “I’ve been watching ‘24’ a lot in the past two weeks,” he says, “and I am still upset about Michelle Kwan losing on Thursday night.”
During his first two years at Harvard, Leslie N. H. Tam ’03 enjoyed clubbing on Lansdowne Street. “I used to go to Axis and Avalon a lot, but I think I’m too old now,” Tam jokes. “Now I like to just chill, watch movies and play computer games.” Tam says people think he works a lot, but he really spends a lot of time doing nothing. “I like to work efficiently so that I have a lot of time to just chill,” he says.
Tam uses study groups and problem set groups to help him through his many math and science classes. An applied math concentrator, his six fall classes and five spring classes include several economics, physics and math classes. “I’m trying to make the most of my Harvard education,” Tam says. “My motto is ‘take more and learn more.’” He professes to be more interested in the overall quality of his education than in his grades. “I feel like I’m getting a better education by taking more classes, even if it means not doing as well,” he adds.
Tam brings the same approach to his extracurriculars. Born in Hong Kong and fluent in Cantonese, he is the director of the Chinatown Teen Program and a counselor for the Chinatown Computing Program. As co-president of the Chinese Students Association last year, Tam organized numerous banquets and parties. He says a highlight of this job was getting to do lots of karaoke.
When he’s not spending time in Chintatown, Tam plays table tennis—though he admits he isn’t as good as he thought he was. “When I came here, I thought I would beat everyone because I am from Hong Kong,” he says, “but my first year here I only made the B-team.”
Tam prides himself on his collection of music videos as well: “I probably have the largest collection of Asian pop videos at Harvard,” he says. “I don’t know why people think I’m so busy.”
Emerson G. Farrell ’03 would not describe himself as a highly motivated person. “I’m not one of those people that needs to be busy all the time,” Farrell says. “I like to go out to the bars and clubs and just hang out with my roommates.”
As a history and government joint concentrator, Farrell is taking six classes this semester, including one seminar, two regular tutorials and an “enhanced” tutorial (which meets twice a week and counts as two classes). “There were just a lot of classes I wanted to take this semester,” he says.
The six-foot-three, 180-pound Farrell works his body as hard as his mind as a rower for the varsity heavyweight crew team. He is also a semi-accomplished thespian. For the past two years, Farrell has acted in the Sunken Garden Children’s Theater, a student-written and student-run production geared toward children. Hee also writes for the Harvard Current, works on the Junior Parents’ Weekend Committee and is involved with both the Institute of Politics and the community service group BASIC. And he is co-chair of the Mather House Council.
Despite all of these activities, Farrell insists he gets eight hours of sleep a night. “Sleep is really a priority,” Farrell says. He also finds time for hobbies. He enjoys portrait sculpture—something he picked up while at summer art school in Florence, Italy. “I’ve always thought art and film were really interesting,” Farrell says. He also cultivates an interest in French lawn sports. “When the weather’s nice, I like to play petanque, which is a lawn game kind of like Bocci,” he says.