Category Archives: Officer Profile

SP Officer Profile: 5 North Hall Councilor

This month, the SPeaker interviewed former 5 North Hall Councilor and current chair of the Halls Mariana Matus about herself and her time as a hall councilor. 

Mariana Matus.

Mariana Matus.

Mariana is a second year PhD student in Computational and Systems Biology.  It is also her second year at Sidney-Pacific.  Her research explores how one could monitor the health status of a city by monitoring its waste waters, using Boston as a case study.  Mariana and her advisor wish to use this monitoring capability to follow disease dynamics in the context of a city.

Mariana has led a fascinating life.  She is from Mexico, born in Mexico city, but moved a number of times. Mariana has lived in a number of different cities and countries, including Israel, the Netherlands, the UK, and now the US, and she enjoys to travel.  Mariana speaks Spanish and English fluently, but also picked up some dutch and french from her time overseas.   While in college, she adopted a baby squirrel back in college, and raised her as a pet. The squirrel is still living with her mother and is almost six years old now!

Outside of her research and volunteering for SP, Mariana spends her down time watching some TV shows and movies.  Her favorite TV shows are Sherlock, The Good Wife and Betas, and her favorite movie is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  Mariana also enjoys learning new things outside of her field, especially things relating to programming, electronics, and machine learning.  She also enjoys visiting museums, oil painting and is currently learning how to swim.

 Mariana became a hall councilor to contribute back to the community because she really enjoyed her first year in SP. She was also extremely curious to learn how to organize events, become a better cook, gain leadership skills, and expand her network of MIT friends.  As a hall councilor, Mariana enjoyed coming up with fun events and making new friends.  These fun events included “Water War I”, a water fight and barbeque she organized with fellow hall councilor Francisco Unda, and “A feast of thrones” in which Mariana and hall councilor Helena Zhang cooked food from the “Game of thrones official cookbook”.  Mariana also organized the Mexican Coffee hour, which included a taco bar, her critically acclaimed* flan, and Mexican bingo.

Mariana enjoyed her experience as a hall councilor so much that she joined SPEC as the chair of the halls.  As chair of the halls, she will lead the SP hall councilors for 2014-2015.

* Fellow hall councilor Marianna Sofman claims it was the best flan she ever had. 

SP Officer Profile: Environment Chair

Sidney-Pacific Environment Chair Cherry Gao.

Sidney-Pacific Environment Chair Cherry Gao.

This month, the SPeaker interviewed the environment chair Cherry Gao about herself and the work she’s done as an officer.

Cherry is a first year PhD in Biological Engineering (Course 20) from Vancouver, Canada.  From her time in Canada and 10 years in Japan, Cherry knows how to speak English, French,  and Japanese!  When she is not in the lab or volunteering at SP, Cherry enjoys singing in choirs, working on her garden, and being outdoors.

Cherry has lived in SP since September 2013 and became an officer soon after arriving.  When asked why she decided to become the environment chair, Cherry replied “Sid Pac is your home, and my home.  I want our home to be an Earth-friendly space.”  Her favorite parts of being an officer are the friendships and stimulating conversations with other officers and residents.

On the topic of her accomplishments as an officer, Cherry said “Sid Pac is one of the leaders on campus in composting and I am excited to keep working on this initiative!”  So far, Cherry has worked hard to make composting more accessible to residents by introducing a new collection system and collaborating with the housekeeping staff.

Finally, Cherry offered some advice to residents on how to make SP a greener place to live:

1. Use reusable bags instead of plastic bags when you go shopping.

Plastic bags often end up in the ocean and threaten marine life. Say no to plastic bags and bring a reusable bag to carry your groceries instead.

2. Use a drying rack instead of the dryer.

Dryers suck up energy and ruin our clothes. Sid Pac has drying racks for rent – why not be gentle to our planet and to your clothes?

3. Separate your compost, recyclables, and garbage into appropriate bins.

We can significantly reduce garbage destined for the landfill by composting and recycling. But don’t contaminate! Putting the wrong stuff in the compost or the recycling bin can deem the whole batch to be  uncompostable or unrecyclable.

4. Turn off the lights when you leave your apartment or a common space.

Why waste the energy when you don’t need to?

5. Bring your plates, utensils, and cups to brunches and coffee hours.

It’s so easy: use real stuff! (Sid Pac uses compostable plates and utensils, but they still take up resources like corn to be manufactured, not to mention that they take a long time to degrade in the compost.)

SP Officer Profile: Photofile Chairs

This year, the SPeaker will be printing a series of articles profiling the officers that work for the Sidney-Pacific house government and the work that they do.  This month, we find out about the photofile Chairs, Tamas Kolos-Lakatos and Chi Feng.

Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

Tamas is a third year PhD student in the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Course 16).  He is from Dunakeszi, Hungary, a town 15 minutes north of Budapest on the river Danube.  Tamas speaks Hungarian and English, as well as some French and German.

When he is not taking pictures at S-P events, Tamas can be found at airports around the world, taking pictures of airplanes.  In addition to being an avid photographer, Tamas is a pilot.  He started flying gliders at age 16 and few his first solo flight before he learned to drive a car!

Coutesy of Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

Courtesy of Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

This is Tamas’ third year living in S-P and his second year as an officer.  Like many officers, he volunteered for the opportunity to get to know more S-P residents and be a part of the community.  As one of the photofile chairs, Tamas enjoys attending the large variety of events at S-P.

Chi Feng

Chi Feng

Chi Feng

Our second photographer, Chi, is a second year student in the Computation for Design and Optimization (CDO) program.  He hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan and speaks both English and Mandarin.

Aside from photography, Chi enjoys playing piano, website design and watching “Sherlock”.  In 2006, his many talents got him named Time magazine’s Person of the year (in fairness, he shares the title with a number of other people).

Chi has lived in S-P for nearly a year now.  He volunteered to apply his hobbies, specifically photography, towards improving the S-P community.  During his time in the S-P government, Chi has enjoyed meeting new people and being in-the-know about the government and its many activities.

Check out some of Chi’s photography in this month’s photo essay, entitled “Winter Wonderland at MIT”.

Chi and Tamas have a few plans for next semester.  Firstly, they plan to continue the photography discussion/tutorial group they started last term.  Additionally, look out for the upcoming photography contest for S-P residents.

SP Officer Profile: the Brunch Chairs, Jenny and Sherrie

This year, the SPeaker will be printing a series of articles profiling the officers that work for the Sidney-Pacific house government and the work that they do.  This month, we find out about the Brunch Chairs, Jenny Wang and Sherrie Hall. 

Jenny Wang

Jenny Wang

Jenny Wang

Our first brunch co-chair, Jenny is  a third year graduate student in mechanical engineering (course 2).  She was born in China, but moved to the US when she was 8 and is now a naturalized US citizen.  She spent a little time in Buffalo, NY, but quickly moved to Wellesley, MA, a Boston suburb which is home to Wellesley College.

Jenny is beginning her third year living in SP and her second year as an officer.  Last year, she was the SPICE chair. She originally became an officer to meet more people in the SP community, and she enjoys being able to positively influence life for all residents at SP as an officer.

When she is not planning next month’s brunch or conducting molecular dynamics simulations of heat transfer in carbon chains, she watches Bones, Sherlock or Chinese dramas on TV, reads Wuxia novels in Chinese, and listens to classical music, especially the works of Rachmaninoff and her favorite piece, Brahm’s Hungarian Dance #5.

Sherrie Hall

Sherrie Hall

Sherrie Hall

Our second brunch co-chair, Sherrie Hall, has come a long way from almost burning down her kitchen as a child!  To prevent this from happening again she took cooking classes and now she has been put in charge of SP’s famous brunches along with Jenny.  Sherrie is from Athens, Georgia home of many well-known music groups including REM, Counting Crows, and Of Montreal*.  She is a second year student in Aeronautics and Astronautics (Course 16) and is advised by former Space Shuttle Astronaut Jeff Hoffman!

Sherrie has lived in SP for one year and has volunteered extensively in her time here.  She decided to become an officer to stay involved in the community and to continue spending time with the other officers.  When she is not volunteering or studying, Sherrie enjoys watching Dr. Who, as well as reading and rock climbing.

What to look forward to

Keep an eye out for Jenny and Sherrie’s helper emails, which tell the story of Alabastor Pale, the Bacon Fairy, and their arch-nemesis, the Empress of Academia.  Additionally, Jenny and Sherrie are improving the kitchen and will be preparing some new dishes and updating some of the staples of SP brunch using the new tools and skills they have acquired.