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.