Kai V. '25

Hi! I’m Kai, a fourth-year student in physics and math (Course 8 and 18) at MIT. I’m from Los Angeles, and I miss the murals and beaches there, but experiencing all four seasons here in New England is cool too. I’ve spent three years flopping around between interests like Chinese literature, nuclear policy, atomic physics, power electronics, and computer vision. I plan to continue flopping around this year (MIT is a great place for it!) and sharing my experiences with you all.

Some things that I’m glad exist in the world include:

• My tortoise Tortellini who is very strong and also is bean-shaped due to an unfortunate accident in his youth

• pika, my co-op, where people play music and cook amazing vegan food and hold the house together with the power of friendship and consensus-based governance

• MIT's awesome student-run visual and performing arts groups, which got me into musical theater and allowed me to keep making digital art with other cool artsy people after high school

• Large bodies of water, especially ones you can jump into and swim in - bonus points if you can also kayak, surf, or sail

• The ocean sunfish, who grows from a spiky 2.5mm-long baby to a somewhat grotesque 1.8m-long adult, and whose mouth is open its entire life