what i’m doing this fall by Ankita D. '23

I’m excited about the fall! Since sophomores aren’t on campus, I won’t be running from activity to activity anymore, but I do have a few things that will be keeping me busy.

Mocha Moves Treasurer

Managing finances? Me?? It’s more likely than you’d think…

I’m the treasurer of my hip hop dance team, Mocha Moves. Things are weird since, well, we don’t have the chance to dance together anymore, but we still have a few things in mind for this semester. We’ve been having exec meetings through summer to prepare!

Coming in, I had absolutely no idea how weird managing finances is. There are a lot of contrived processes for things, so it’s kind of a pain, but…what can you do? Thankfully, MIT Engage⁠01 Information platform for organizations and programs in the <em>MIT</em> community is really supportive; I’ve already had two trainings for different things like applying for funding and filling out reimbursement forms.

Last semester was a bit rough on our team since we didn’t get the revenue we thought we would, so I have to be careful this year to ensure that we don’t lose too much funding. I applied for the MindHandHeart Innovation Fund, which gives grants of up to 10K for projects that foster community, for the team’s first initiative and am looking forward to seeing if we receive any support.

Committee on Student Life

If it hasn’t been clear enough from my many posts about student life and my living community, cultural preservation is extremely important to me. Given that my dorm is now closing down for the next two years and that the subcommunities within it are working hard to stay together, I thought I’d have a unique perspective as a member of this committee, and decided to apply. I’m really excited to help implement changes that will benefit the greater student body. Since I didn’t care at all about student government or anything of the sort as a high schooler, it’s kind of crazy to be fiercely passionate about something.

Here’s the CSL Committee description I received when I was confirmed as a member:

The Committee on Student Life (CSL) shall be concerned with the quality of the learning and living environment of the MIT community. The duties and responsibilities of the CSL shall include (a) effecting Institute-wide support services to students by maintaining formal and informal relationships among students, the Institute, and the Faculty; (b) modifying policies pertinent to student life and making recommendations to the Faculty and the Dean for Student Life; (c) encouraging innovation in programs, including the coordination and review of initiatives; (d) interacting with other Faculty Committees and student governing organizations and communicating with the MIT community; and (e) serving as the standing Faculty advisory body to the Dean for Student Life. 

Global Languages Freshman Learning Community

Since I’m a Chinese minor (just declared!!) and I TA’d for a Global Languages freshman exploratory class last semester, I was invited by a former professor to be the Undergraduate Assistant for a Global Languages FLC! 38 students from all over the world⁠02 including China and Zimbabwe, wow are participating, which is hype. The FLC is structured to provide experiences that are more suited to an online platform, so it’s a great means of bringing students together to learn virtually. I’m super excited about a lot of the activities/lectures we have planned and know that I’m going to learn a lot through it!

Work

I’m continuing with my UROP and potentially even my other summer job, depending on how busy things get. At this point, I have no idea, but my completely stacked Google Calendar seems to indicate that I’ll have much less time than I’d thought…

That’s…it? Let’s see how things pan out.