Maggie L. '12
Jun 24 2012
Introducing…Stan!
Posted in: Miscellaneous
Well, it has certainly been fun to write as an admissions blogger. I remember when I was a prefrosh (in 2008...ouch), I dreamed of one day being able to write on this site, so when the GEL program asked if I wanted to write on their behalf, I jumped at the chance.
It’s been an interesting opportunity to be able to link some of the lessons I’ve had in engineering leadership to life at MIT. At first I thought, hey leadership is leadership, right? But I quickly learned that leading a high school club or two is very different from leading a team of engineers in a technical project. There are deadlines to meet, specifications to write, different scales of implementation to consider, not to mention all the ethics, advocacy, and communication that are undoubtedly involved.
Now that my brass rat faces the other direction (as in, now that I’m an alumna), it’s time for me to introduce GEL’s latest blogger, Stanley Gill! I’ve worked with Stanley at The Tech for the past two years and know... read the post »
Jun 8 2012
Take Only Memories
Posted in: Miscellaneous, Prepare for MIT, Life & Culture
I just came back to my dorm room from all the graduation hooplah. I have a diploma. I have about 100 pictures. I have a sunburn. It's a strange feeling (being graduated, not being sunburned. I'm plenty used to that by now.)
On MIT’s list of 101 things to do before graduation for the class of 2012, there has always been one elusive item that confused me:
#5: Understand the true meaning of IHTFP.
The five letters of IHTFP, which can mean a variety of things to a variety of people, have been passed down through MIT generations as a sort of rite of passage. To students, sometimes it’s “I Have Truly Found Paradise.” Sometimes, it’s “I Hate This F-ing Place.” As my last semester began, I started to wonder if I would know when I really knew the meaning of this saying. Thinking back on the past four years, I can finally say I do.
I can also cross off #2 (Pull an all-nighter--for fun). I actually had more all-nighters for fun than for schoolwork in the past four years. In... read the post »
Jun 5 2012
The story behind TIMtalks
Posted in: Miscellaneous, Life & Culture
This semester, a great thing was born. MIT hosted its first annual “TIMtalks”, in which MIT students who have invented, implemented, succeeded, or failed at a wide range of ventures or ideas told their stories. Inspired by the wildly popular TED talks, the “TIM” in TIMtalks stands for “Think. Inspire. Motivate.”
There has already been some coverage of the event through The Tech, the MIT News Office and the Alumni Association, but as one of the handful of inaugural TIMtalks speakers, I got a unique perspective on how this initiative developed and the people who helped make it happen. I included videos of the talks in this entry, and I highly encourage you to watch as many as you can because they show what MIT students are all about. Maybe all you need is a 10-15 minute story to get you motivated for the summer!
According to Anjali ‘12, the Director and Founder of TIMtalks, “TIMtalks was created as a forum to practice and learn to communicate as the change agents that we all will... read the post »
May 24 2012
Breadsticks and Business
Posted in: Miscellaneous
If you’ve ever seen Glee, you know that Breadsticks is the token restaurant hangout for the students at Lima High School. I am here to say that Bertuccis Brick Oven Pizzeria is the Breadsticks of Cambridge, MA. This is where advising groups often meet for dinner; it’s where we’ve had a few cross country team dinners; it’s where MIT students say they’d like to order pizza, but then ask for a bag of those famous pizza dough rolls to go. Those rolls are carbohydrate legends.
When some teammates from my junior year’s Engineering Leadership Lab (ELL) wanted to have a reunion dinner a few months ago, Bertucci’s was the obvious choice of venue.
It was fun catching up, especially since our table comprised of a graduated course 2A (a flexible degree in mechanical engineering) startup cofounder, a course 6 (electrical engineering and computer science) senior, and me, a course 10B (chemical-biological engineering) senior. We're all students in GEL program, and I love the opportunity to... read the post »
Apr 17 2012
Simulating Catastrophe
Posted in: Miscellaneous
I don’t know if your school does this, but MIT asks its students at the end of each semester to fill out course evaluations. Professors do make adjustments based on student evaluations, but sometimes I wonder if I’m giving feedback or just sending my opinions into a black box.
We did something similar in GEL last year: At the end of the fall semester, each of the GEL students evaluated one another based on leadership and performance within a group.
Now I understand how professors feel. I couldn’t believe how such a diverse group of students had one, clear piece of advice for me: speak up! At least half of the comments said something like “your ideas are valuable, but you tend to keep quiet during meetings.”
So before the spring semester started, I heard there was an opening for a section leader position in a weekly Engineering Leadership Lab (ELL). Section leaders are the three students in their second year of GEL ("GEL 2's") in charge of one of the three ELL sections. I kind... read the post »