Matthew Pereira '22 - Men's Cross Country and Track & Field
Returning to GoCrimson.com for an eighth season, "Around The Yard: Life As A Harvard Student-Athlete" explores life away from the playing fields for select Harvard student-athletes through Q&A style entries.
Can you briefly introduce yourself?
I am a senior in Dunster House. I'm a member of the cross-country and track teams and entered with the class of 2021 but took a leave of absence last year.
What is your concentration and how did you decide on choosing it?
I study math and computer science. I've always really loved both fields since before I came here, and when I came to Harvard, I tried to explore courses in other areas like statistics, linguistics, economics, and philosophy. It was great to get a look at all of these subjects, but the decision on what concentration to choose ended up really being about the fact that I was most excited to take many of the course offerings in the math department and the computer science department.
What's one of the best classes you've taken so far relating to your concentration?
It's a tough question to answer, since I've really enjoyed a lot of the courses in the computer science department! Most of the classes I've taken on the theory side were in topics I knew I was already interested in, so outside that realm I'd have to say CS61 (Systems Programming and Machine Organization), a core intro class. I was a bit afraid of systems before I took the class and really didn't expect to like it, but the class was so well-taught and focused on conceptual understandings that I ended up being surprised at how fun it was.
Do you know career-wise what you want to do following graduation?
I plan to be a software engineer after I graduate. I've spent some summers doing software engineering and spent my time off from school last year exploring research, and ended up deciding that for now working in industry seems like the better option for me.
What's an experience at Harvard you don't think you could've gotten anywhere else?
It might sound like the obvious answer, but I'd say the classes. It's been a really amazing experience to get to check out courses across many different areas, taught by people who are oftentimes big figures in those fields. There have been several times when I've been reading articles that end up interviewing academic experts, and the first one to be interviewed happens to be a professor whose class I took. I've also always loved shopping week as a way to get to build a well-balanced schedule and figure out what classes seem the most interesting at the time, and I've luckily never had an issue enrolling in a class where I wasn't a concentrator or due to capacity limits, since restrictions like those seem relatively uncommon at Harvard.
How has being a member of the cross country/track & field team impacted your Harvard experience or personal development?
Running competitively at Harvard has been an incredible way to pursue excellence in a focused area while also balancing out my life outside of running. I'm really fortunate to have had an experience where I've gotten to work hard on both school and running without feeling like I'm sacrificing either. They both build on each other by giving me a chance to reset and step away from one while I put my energy into the other on a daily basis.
