By Marianna Sofman, James Pelletier, Pedro Perez, and Steve Levine,

If you have ever wanted to become more involved in the SP community, now is your chance!  SP Officer applications are now open! Become and officer and you can:

• Gain leadership experience
• Get guaranteed SP housing in 2014-15
• Get priority on room selection

If that wasn’t enough to convince you, read what some current officers have to say about their experiences in the SP student government:

Marianna Sofman, 1st Floor Hall Councilor

As I neared the end of my first year at MIT, living at SP, like everyone else, I needed to decide the fate of my living situation for the next year. Luckily, this was not a tough decision. My first year at MIT was not only defined by my research experience, classes, and the amazing people in my department, but this was all enhanced by the welcoming community at SP. I loved having a sense of home and family each and every day at SP with my friends and roommate, and I have enjoyed participating and volunteering at all the events that were organized. I knew that one way or another, I not only wanted to stay at SP, but I also wanted to become more involved by contributing more to the vibrant community here. Becoming a hall councilor was a swift and easy decision because frankly, I did not want to move, but I also enjoyed the prospect of the great flexibility that being a hall councilor offered. I felt that in addition to serving as a friend, confidante, and source of advice to incoming residents, I could organize fun events for my residents, further fostering a sense of community. I also like organizing joint hall events so my floor can meet and mingle with other floors- who doesn’t love making friends? More importantly, being a hall councilor allows me to connect with other officers on a regular basis at our dinners, officer meetings, and SP volunteer events. I love my SP family, and I’m looking forward to engaging with them in the future.

James Pelletier, Social Chair

I have very much enjoyed the social co-chair experience. As social co-chair, I dressed up as Guy Fieri and guests threw playing cards into watermelon halves; learned some salsa from the MIT Ballroom Dance Team; dressed up as a nucleus, with a big transparent garbage bag full of red and blue balloons; will purchase several hundred pounds of corn starch to make a small pool full of a liquid on which people can dance. Wow – I now realize several of the social events we organized gave me a chance to wear absurd costumes! But the point is, as a member of the SP House Government, you will have many opportunities and a budget to do what you enjoy and share it with the MIT community! I had not before planned, publicized, or registered large events; interacted with MIT EHS, MIT Police, City of Cambridge, and various other groups; submitted reimbursements; or ordered food for hundreds of people – all these were great learning experiences. Above all, I feel thankful for the enthusiasm and generosity of the SP Helpers and SP Community.

Pedro Perez, Aquarium Chair

Generally speaking, people become residential officers for three perks: 1) interacting more closely with fellow students, 2) improving their living environment, and 3) integrating better within the larger MIT community. Well not this guy right here:

In fact, my initial motivation to become the Aquarium Chair was to secure housing. Well that, and being able to work with fish, which I have a long-standing passion for. Unfortunately, I had to partake in the aforementioned “perks”. It was truly awful, I had to plan and attend free-of-charge trips for Whale Watching and the New England Aquarium. To make matters worse, I had to take a group of people with me and socialize with them. I even became friends with some of them, the horror. In addition, thanks to SP-sponsored officer events, I met some dudes, formed a band, and have been playing all over campus in different music showcases for the past year. We even had an event with over 200 people, what a snore. Finally, thanks to being an officer, I get constantly invited to community events by other officers. Just the past few weeks, I’ve had to drink free beer from a brewery, go salsa dancing, and play in an intramural basketball team that made it to the playoffs. So unless you’re willing to put up with having an interactive social life, attending unique events all over the city, and learning about neat hobbies from your fellow colleagues I highly advise you against becoming a Sidney Pacific Officer. It is truly not worth it 😉

Steve Levine, Publicity Chair

I was at first extremely hesitant about becoming an SP officer. Would I have the time? I don’t know the other officers well, would I fit in? Would it actually be fun? But now, I can say with certainty that it’s easily been one of the best decisions I’ve made since living here. It’s gotten me so much more involved, and made SP feel like so much more than just four walls and a bed. Since becoming an officer, I started meeting many of the awesome people living right here in this same building.  I started volunteering at a lot more events, such as brunches, CoSI lectures, and coffee hours (a lot of fun by the way!). It’s that sense of involvement – of making SP partly your own through service – that I find the most gratifying about being an officer. And to me at least, it really matters. In grad school especially, I find it’s way too easy to ignore a crucial aspect of living life – branching out and meeting people. Becoming an officer and being generally active around SP has allowed me to do that fantastically. Plus, I do something I enjoy as a publicity chair – computer graphic design (I help make many of the elevator posters. And sometimes I make giant displays for the lobby, or even slides for the infinite corridor projectors). So, if there’s one takeaway about my experience so far, it’s yes – becoming an officer certainly has been rewarding, and has made SP feel much more like a home to me.

Apply online at http://s-p.mit.edu/apply! The application for committee chair positions are open until April 11th and the application for hall councilor positions is open until April 15th!

President: Boris Braverman

Hello!

I remember that during my hectic first week at SP, an SP-helpers email inviting me to come out and help with the Orientation Brunch caught my eye. I will never know why exactly I decided to go down to help, but I remember it being a really fun time in the company of Pierre, our master bacon chef.  What really sealed the deal was the orientation BBQ a few days later. Flipping hundreds of burgers with dozens of other enthusiastic volunteers showed me how vibrant the SP community was. Whatever notions I had of MIT students being unable to have fun and relax were dashed in an instant. A year of volunteering at Brunches and Coffee Hours only made this conviction stronger, and helped me meet many of SP’s interesting and diverse residents.

When the next year rolled around, the question was not whether I wanted to become more involved with the community, but how. Rising up the kitchen ranks to Brunch Chair was a natural (and delicious) choice. As it turns out, being Canadian at the same time as being a Brunch Chair is a serious risk factor for becoming the President of SP (despite the title of “President” being entirely absent from the real government of Canada). It is an honor to serve as SP’s president for this year, and I hope to make your lives more enjoyable, productive, and interesting. If you ever have a suggestion, question, or concern, feel free to get in touch with any of us at SPEC.

“Dive In” is SPEC’s vision for the year. We believe that the strength of our community lies in the enthusiasm and commitment of our leaders, and in the active participation of many of our residents in our activities and initiatives. We want to encourage every resident of the building to dive into our community and to experience all the amazing things that SP life has to offer, from enlightening COSI lectures and discussions, to fun House Cup competitions, and to delicious brunches and dessert nights. SP is much more than a place to live – it’s a community of some of the most interesting people in the world, and I would like to invite all of you to “Dive In” SP and make it your home!

 Vice President of Resources: Bernhard Zimmermann

I am a third (fourth in the fall) year PhD student in EECS, focusing on medical imaging. I grew up and did my undergrad in Zürich, Switzerland. Back at home we didn’t really have a residential campus, so I’m catching up now here at MIT. It’s been a blast.

Right after coming to SP I started volunteering at some of the larger events, and also joined a SPICE group, where I made my first friends here. For the next two years I was Hall Councilor on the 7th floor. This gave me the opportunity to connect with my fellow neighbors, get to know many awesome people, and generally be more involved in the house government. Normally officers retire after two years of service, or become Trustees, but I decided that I’d like to crown my experience here with a year in SPEC. As VP of Resources, I’m responsible for helping and managing ten officers, who in turn take care of the artwork, aquarium, audio & video equipment, bikes, computer room, front desk inventory, music room, and plants in the dorm. Another big task I tackle together with the Controller is to manage SP’s budget and to make sure all officers get reimbursed for their expenses.

I hope you take advantage of SP’s many resources to the fullest extent, and at the same time meet many of your fellow residents. We always appreciate feedback, so if you see something that doesn’t work, or if you have a positive experience, let us know!

Vice President of Residential Life: Fabián Kozynski

I was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay, which is a small country between Argentina and Brazil that exports beef and soccer players. I did my undergrad there, majoring in Electrical Engineering (actually, Telecommunications Engineering) and came here right after graduation. I had lived all my life in the same place and coming here was a great change, as well as a great opportunity.

When I came to SP almost two years ago (time flies), I wasn’t expecting to find a home away from home. My original idea was to live here for a year and then move off campus to a “cheaper” place. After some time living here and having met the friendly people that lived in SP, my plans began to disintegrate when I realized what I’d be missing if I left; I realized that SP is as nice as its residents make it and there’s a lot of value aggregated by the community that cannot be quantified. In my opinion, one of the best phrases that describe the community as well as involvement at SP is “come for the food, stay for the friends”: my first time volunteering was at a BBQ (to be able to skip the line and combat the boredom) but after a couple times hacking through pineapples together with other volunteers, I found a great group of friends.

After volunteering for a year, I decided to become Coffee Hour chair, even though I never drink coffee. I saw it was a great place to entice tired grad students out of their rooms into procuring some free food while engaging in conversation with their neighbors (the main goal). After a year of mindlessly cutting oranges and debating with Dan what is the best way to transform overworked residents into happy ones, I decided to take one step further and become part of the Executive Council.

As VP of Residential life, it is my job to make sure that residents have a fun and interesting life during their time at MIT, be it through outings, the gym, or just simply by cooking and eating together. To help do this (they actually do most of the work), I have a cadre of amazing officers whose job is to engage the residents into going out of their rooms and enjoy the numerous activities that SP has to offer. Sidney Pacific has been in constant evolution for the last eleven years and that is thanks to the numerous officers and volunteers that have lived here (and some that haven’t) and have contributed to make this place a home.

Vice President of Information: Steven (Shiou-chi) Chang

Hi neighbors! My name is Steven and I am a 3^rd year (going to 4^th) PhD student in Biological Engineering. I have been living in SP since I came to MIT and it has been a wonderful experience. Not only does SP provide so many resources to the residents, but there are also so many enthusiastic volunteers helping out at events to make what seems impossible become possible. I started as the newsletter chair in my second year and continued as the publicity chair in my third year. Even though these positions involved work that was behind the scenes, I did not feel that my effort went unnoticed. Throughout the past two years, I would receive generous encouragement from the Housemasters and even from the residents that I did not know, saying they really enjoyed the newsletters or the posters that I made. It made me realize that every one of us can contribute to our community uniquely and no matter how small the contribution may be, people will recognize it. This motivated me to step up to become the VP of Information this year.

The Office of Information is the communication bridge between the residents and the SP house government.  Even though our mission is simple, our operations are crucial to the success of the SP community. Without the website, we wouldn’t be able to browse through the SP inventory conveniently; without the posters made by the publicity chairs, we wouldn’t know the various events at SP and without the photos, videos and newsletter articles, we wouldn’t be able to record our history. This year, there will be several improvements on the SP website and the newsletter content so keep an eye on these changes. We would also love to hear your feedback and suggestion on what can be done better. If you have a great idea, please let us know and we will make it happen!

During the time that I am not doing research and SPEC work, I try to go to SP gym regularly. I also enjoy playing various board games with friends, watching sports and occasionally playing some video games. Outside of SP, I like to explore various places around Boston, for example, I bike on the Minuteman bikeway, I explore the Boston harbor islands, etc. I would also love to meet more people at SP so tell me about yourself when you see me at future SP events or even better, when you are volunteering at the events!

 Chair of the Halls: Rachael Harding

Hello Neighbors!

I’m Rachael Harding, an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science PhD student entering my third year at MIT and Sidney-Pacific. When I’m not running around SP, I’m usually running simulations of next-generation multicore computers or running around the Charles river.

I never fully appreciated what SP had to offer until someone persuaded me to run for hall councilor in a special late election last year. I had borrowed DVDs and drying racks from the inventory, used equipment in the gym, and attended a handful of BBQs and coffee hours, even volunteering at a few. When I became more involved in life at SP, I realized that what SP truly has to offer is a community. As a hall councilor, I organized a lot of events for my neighbors. (My favorite: dessert nights!) I also started volunteering at more SP events, where I made new friends with the other volunteers. The welcoming individuals on my hall and at events made SP a supportive environment for me.

As Chair of the Halls, I’ll be leading this year’s awesome hall councilor team. The hall councilors are fun, friendly volunteers who try to foster community within each hall and act as the hall’s liaison to the SP government. If there is one person you should get to know at SP, it’s your hall councilor. Not only do they know a lot of useful information about SP, MIT, and the surrounding area, but they’re always trying to offer you free food!

I encourage you to dive in to what SP has to offer: SPICE, coffee hour, hall dinners, house cup, interest groups… The list goes on and on, but one of the best parts of SP is that there’s something for everyone. I would also like to invite you to volunteer at one or more of these events. It’s fun, rewarding, and you’ll meet some of the most fantastic people at MIT!

You, like many grad students, are probably thinking to yourself, “I sure do wish I had more work and less free time.” Well, I have the solution for you: become an SP officer! Actually, being an officer is a great opportunity to meet people and make this dorm a better place.

I’ve been the Coffee Hour co-chair for the better part of a year now and it truly has been a swell experience. Every week, I get the chance to put aside whatever work has been tormenting me and basically hang out with people for a few hours. I guess we make some food, too, but that almost seems secondary. I’ve been able to try new things (certainly having access to a deep fryer has helped with this) and enjoy the (mostly) positive feedback from other residents.

The best part about being an officer is that it gives you the opportunity to leave your mark on SP. I mean this in the way Picasso left his mark on the art world, not the way a dog leaves his mark on a fire hydrant. Each officer has a fair amount of freedom to work in his or her own style. If the brunch chairs want to make maple syrup coated bacon, they can. If the arts chair wants to show every Muppets movie ever made while constructing a life size Kermit out of Legos, they can. If the controller wants to sign receipts with little hearts, they can. At the end of the day, all of these officers working together add their own color to the eggshell halls of SidPac and turn it into an interesting and wonderful place to live. Why wouldn’t you want to be a part of that?

If any of this sounds like something you are interested in, come to the Officer Information Coffee Hour on April 3 (or, even better, come help out beforehand). There will be food.

By Dan Kolodrubetz (SP Coffee Hour co-chair)

President: Pierre-Olivier Lepage

Hi!

I’m a second year Master’s student in Transportation and Operations Research. At Sidney-Pacific, I’ve been involved as Brunch co-chair and volunteered to many events by cutting fruits, setting up tables or greeting people at the beginning of an event. Through these experiences I became a better leader and I met with many awesome people.

Getting involved at SP was a very good way to work on skills that my research would not allow me to improve upon directly. More specifically, I was able to improve my communication and planning skills.

Another advantage of getting involved is the interaction I got with other residents. As you have probably realized, MIT students are uniquely curious and motivated. I believe that interacting with students in different fields improves my MIT experience as I can learn from their different point-of-views.

I believe our responsibility as House Government is to give residents the opportunity to take a break from work, have social interactions with people with different backgrounds and, as a result, enjoy their time at the Institute even more.

This year, our vision for Sidney-Pacific is best described by this phrase: “Better together”. In fact, we want to focus on 2 aspects. First, we want to improve our community by reflecting on what makes us successful and how we can actually be more efficient at achieving our goal. I feel that it is very important, as an organization, to identify relevant measures of success, innovate and rethink the way we are acting with the community. Second, we believe that the only way to improve our community is to do it as a group. Since our goal is to serve residents and improve their MIT experience, the only way to ensure that our actions are meaningful is to make sure they are involved and interacting with each other.

Therefore, I would like to personally invite you to get involved and I hope we will have an opportunity to make SP better, together!

 Vice President of Resources: George Chen

My name is George and in my spare time, I am a second year (third year starting Fall 2012) grad student residing in cafes and lopsided MIT buildings taking as input coffee and producing as output papers or–far more frequently–chicken scratch and malfunctioning, unreadable computer code, which I hope becomes self-aware one day so that it can fix itself and maybe even make my job obsolete (robot grad students!). I also read fiction (only sometimes for research), hit cinemas, pick up metal objects with numbers scrawled on them, teach, and occasionally see the outdoors (usually on a bike). Back when I was still young and promising, I worked on short narrative film and lived in the rosier climates of California, where 50 degrees Fahrenheit is considered ridiculously cold and white powdery stuff isn’t typically associated with snow.

After stumbling into Massachusetts for a one year stint as an untitled avid volunteer at Sidney-Pacific, I secured my previous occupation of organizing competitive dorm events such as but not limited to a photo scavenger hunt, a clothing drive/fashion show mash-up, and a dessert showdown. As for my current occupation, I am now the Vice President of Resources where I manage, by a startling coincidence, resources. These resources include money, money, and more money…and sometimes even the artwork, aquarium, audio & video equipment, bikes, computer room, front desk inventory, music room, and plants in the dorm. Of course, I don’t manage these alone as I have a wonderful crew of ten individuals who help ensure that the aforementioned resources stay alive and healthy. While we try hard to keep manure from hitting the fans, we don’t stop all the manure-fan collisions and we greatly appreciate resident (i.e., your) feedback! So please do let us know if we missed a spot that needs resuscitation or if there’s some secret sauce that our repository of resources should be augmented with. Thanks!

Vice President of Residential Life: Stephen Morgan

The history of how I landed in Sidney-Pacific is a very unique story. Although I am entering my fourth year as a PHD student, this will only be my second year in SP. My first year here at MIT I stayed in the warehouse. Although I really enjoyed living there, you typically move out of the warehouse after your first year. Since I grew up about an hour and a half away, and did my undergraduate at UNH which is also very close, I knew many people living in the Boston area and I figured living off campus would save me some money. So my second year I lived in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge with two undergraduate roommates who were now working in Cambridge.

I found that living off campus was a boring life-style. I really missed being involved and meeting new people on a regular basis, so I came back on campus not only to live in SP but also to be seriously involved! After being a social chair last year I can honestly say that Sidney-Pacific is an awesome place to be a part of. It is a great building and the people in it are what make it so fun.

As the VP of residential life it is my job to help and manage an amazing officer core that is involved with the events and groups which are organized in Sidney-Pacific such as the interest groups, SPICE, coffee hour, and brunch. More importantly, I feel that it is my responsibility to encourage the residents of Sidney-Pacific (YOU!) to get involved and engage yourself in the groups and events that best suit your interests. Sidney-Pacific is a community based on the strength of the relationship that we have with our fellow residents and the best way to meet people is to get involved. Come to the events (or even better come before the events), help out, meet the current officers and let them know what you like about SP and what you would like to see changed in future.

Vice President of Information: Stephanie (Ahhyun) Nam

I came to SP two years ago when I started my Masters’ program in Mechanical Engineering department at MIT. From then, I have meet countless awesome friends at SP who shared their enthusiasm for fun as well as inspiration for research. It is really all of them who encouraged me to take a step forward to be more engaged in the community. For example, one of the energetic SP residents I have met in Argentinian Tango class (yes it’s you Ahmed) talked me into being an officer. Another friend (and neighbor, Matt) who was in my SPICE group was Publicity Chair at the time. His work involved creating the very posters in the elevators that made SP’s first impression to me. After serving as a publicity chair for a year, I ended up in the position of VP of Information.

I think of Office of Information as what connects each resident to SP community. We tell you of all events and resources at SP, we preserve the lovely moments with photos and videos, and provide residents of all necessary information from weather to package delivery through the website. This year, we are introducing some exciting changes in SPTV, so keep an eye on our screens

Out of SP, my primary life is (or should be) in research – off campus at MGH. My project is developing an imaging system to visualize the micro vessels in skin without any chemical agent, which involves constructing a system with many optical components and calibrating them. I have constructed a whole system from scratch for the past two years. The fun part of collaborating with doctors is beginning this summer

In the free time, I try to stay active. Apart from enjoying the variety of events at SP, I go swimming in Z center, or workout in SP gym. This summer, I am planning to go sailing in the Charles. I also like cooking, mostly Korean food but I like trying out different cuisine. It is always a great pleasure to dine and hang out with good group of friends, so I often host small get-togethers too. Some other hobbies on the calmer side include watching documentary films (ocean-themed are all-time favorite), and reading.

So now you have heard my short story. I would love to hear yours when I meet you at future SP events!

 Chair of the Halls: Jennifer Jarvis

Hello!! I’m Jennifer (or Jen) Jarvis. I’m a third year PhD student in Nuclear Science and Engineering, and this is also my third year in Sidney-Pacific.

To be honest, I didn’t really get involved in SP until the end of my first year. I’d occasionally attend coffee hour and brunch, and I attended my SPICE group, but that was about it.  That spring, my hall councilor was planning on stepping down and was looking for a replacement. I love to cook and bake, and it sounded like a fun way to test out new recipes and get to meet some of my neighbors. So that’s how I became the 9^th floor hall councilor for 2011-2012. Under the tutelage of the previous house cup winner, I launched a successful campaign in the house cup (a series of competitions between the different halls in SP). I was planning on quietly serving out a second term as the 9^th floor hall councilor- but then I was encouraged to run for Chair of the Hall.

So this year, I’ll be leading our fantastic team of hall councilors. We’re not the RA’s you may have had in undergrad- we’re a group of friendly volunteers who try to foster community within our own halls and act as our hall’s liaison to the SP government.  So even though you’re busy, do try and make an effort to meet your hall councilor- they are super knowledgeable and can help you find your way around all of the resources in SP. And of course, we’re always trying to offer you free dinners.

Living in S-P has been awesome, and it’s only gotten better the longer I’ve been here. I only regret not getting involved earlier.  So even if you’re a really shy person (like me)- I encourage you to step out and see what’s around- from coffee hour to SPICE groups, to outings, to brunch, and of course hall dinners. You really have nothing to lose except a few minutes of your time, and you’ll meet lots of awesome people and probably eat some tasty food too.  I also encourage you to at least once try volunteering at one of the events- we’re always grateful for the help and company. Perhaps I’m biased, but the volunteers here are some of the best people I’ve met at MIT.

Some people think that being an officer in an MIT dorm is nothing but a tedious, cumbersome burden that only kind hearted altruists sign up for to prolong their residence rights and to have some volunteer experience on their CV. Although some of that might be true, being an officer actually also brings extravagant living perks that help every coward boost her or his ego and might even help the one or the other nerd getting laid.

On a more serious note, what does it really bring? Looking back at my current experience as hall councilor, I would name 3 big categories in which we profit as officers: 1) Improvements of personal life in the dorm, 2) The opportunity to make LOTS of new friends and 3) The social impact on MIT graduate society.

For the first point, it is one of the biggest incentives for people to sign up at first. You can stay longer in your preferred dorm and acquire seniority points with which you might eventually even chose a nice comfy room. This point is pretty much self explanatory and is the only “hard coded fact” on officer perks, but keep in mind that at the same time it actually is the weakest benefit to being involved in the house council.

More importantly, this is one great opportunity for you to take part in MIT’s life and become part of our colorful, amiable graduate community. Thinking about my aforementioned 2nd point – the opportunity to make new friends – there are hundreds of smiling faces coming to my mind that I got to know over the extended house council network. Not only are we all connected by our common goal to improve graduate student life, but we all are also willing to expose ourselves and reach out to the community, giving us innumerable opportunities to get to know new people and make new friends. Whichever event I go to, there will always be active people I know now and it will never feel awkward or lonely to attend a campus party. Moreover there are also monthly special events held for officers only which help us socializing and relaxing from the everyday research stress. It is important to mention here that all the events or parties I am talking about here are mostly organized by other officers, which leads me to the previously mentioned 3rd point – the social impact of officers.

Basically we have the power to decide where resources are spent. Do we want to buy new equipment and beautify our dorm or would we rather hold another event? What kinds of events are being held? This choice brings forth lots of creativity and opportunities to experience exciting new things like trampoline jumping or beer brewing (just 2 of this year’s IAP’s events). We decide on resident activities and thus partly form how they perceive MIT, which will hopefully ultimately stay in their minds when they go out into the real world and think back about their time here.

This is what keeps me going and motivated in my work as officer, making me forget every bit of dullness that this position may sometimes bring (Does it actually?). I really cannot remember any second I regret taking my position as hall councilor, nor any second I felt bored doing this job. For me, this will always stay a wonderful memory to have had the honor to be part of and form the MIT graduate society to some extent.

By Yuan Wang, SP 4-North Hall Councilor