Sidney Pacific Newsletter

Crowd-sourced content from our graduate student community
This is the first SP newsletter of the academic year! We crowdsource content from residents to bring you bi-monthly news about our graduate community. If you'd like to contribute content for our next newsletter, please email Cherry at sp-newsletter-chair@mit.edu! 
Sidney Pacific Orientation Week (8/31 - 9/9)
Orientation Week was already a month ago, but the good memories are still intact! See the SP Orientation Photo Essay >>
From the SPEC:
Welcome to your new home!
As SPEC, we work to create and support the community feel and culture of Sidney Pacific. We’re all graduate students at MIT who love participating in SP’s diverse and active community. The SPEC, from left: Olivia, Karthik, Sami, Zack, AJ 
Story Time:
You may have noticed the pineapple imagery around the building and wondered why Sidney Pacific has embraced the pineapple as our community logo. As it turns out, pineapple imagery in America has a rich history dating back centuries. The pineapple was initially a rare fruit due to its fragility, and rarity is why possession of a pineapple signified that a host or hostess had spared no expense in organizing a gathering. Pineapples were also displayed by ship captains when they returned from a voyage, serving as “an invitation for [a captain’s friends] to visit, share his food and drink, and listen to tales of his voyage,” (Southern Living). Accordingly, we chose the pineapple as our logo because SP represents a home where we warmly welcome everyone and enjoy spending time in each other’s’ company.
–contributed by Zachary Schiffer
Event Report: 
The MIT SP Graduate Student Dinner Seminar Series (8/28/2018)
The lightning pitches and networking sessions at the event provided a platform for graduate and undergraduate students communities to come together, share their research, and find new mentors as well as collaborators. This largest event was organized with the MIT UROP office, sponsored by the Office of the Graduate Education (OGE), and attended by over 100 undergraduate students.
–contributed by Neil Gaikwad
 
Event Report: 
The first Cook for CASPAR event (9/15/2018)
CASPAR shelter, just down the road from SP and across the street from Ashdown, hosts up to 107 of our homeless neighbors every night. Volunteers from the September CASPAR event cooked bulgogi beef, tofu, eggplant, rice, and veggies. Upcoming dates in the Cook for CASPAR series are 10/13 and 11/17.
–contributed by Kindle Williams
Featured SP Alumnus: 
Yufei Zhao
"I lived in Sid Pac for the entire 4 years of my PhD in mathematics at MIT. The thing that I miss the most about SP is the deep conversations that I shared with other residents during CoSI dinner discussions (this is also the reason why I was a CoSI Chair for one year). I am now an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics"
–see Yufei's website here

Do you have feedback on the newsletter? Do you want to contribute content to the next newsletter? Feel free to reach out at sp-newsletter-chair@mit.edu!
Contact the SP Newsletter Chair:
sp-newsletter-chair@mit.edu