Meet The (New) Bloggers!

Meet The (New) Bloggers! A few weeks ago I posted the Blogger Application 2012. We received over 50 applications for four spots. Over the last week and a half the blogger committee composed of communications staff and some senior bloggers reviewed all of these applications. We laughed. We cried. We got into fistfights in Matts office. Yet decide we must, and decide we did, and nowwe have new bloggers. Introducing: Anastassia B. from Miami, Florida. Anastassia, like Abe Lincoln, was born in a log cabin; unlike Abe, she does not (yet) have a beard. An aspiringBiologicallyMathematicalWizard, she bakes jigsaw-themed cupcakes, and after she was admitted, she sent the admissions office a handmade card, cut carefully from a starmap, in the anatomically correct shape of a heart. We 3 her too. Natasha B. hails from McMinnville, Oregon, near the ancestral lands of Snively. A prospective literature major, she eats blueberries, makes pottery, and wants to learn to climb things. She sometimes eats three breakfasts a day and knows a lot about moths. Michael C., from Los Angeles, California, is an accomplished photoblogger(and regular blogger). Michael has a finely tuned sense of expressing his emotions through carefully crafted strings of nonsense. Part of his application was to write fanfiction about me and m_quinn, but we hired him anyway, mostly because of his excellent use of Oxford commas. Rachel D. from St. James, New York. When shes not tumbling and tweeting, Rachel is fighting fires, both in the trenches (as a volunteer firefighter) and in the lab, where she was an Intel finalist for her work on flame retardent polymers. Shell keep blogging about materials, science, materials science, and (probably) dying her hair here at MIT. These folks wont begin blogging right away, as we have to get them to campus and set up in our system.When that time comes, theyll be able to tell you more about their own personal stories, which I assure you are more interesting, compelling, and better written than anything I provided here. Theyre all terrific and Im psyched to have them. Once again, thanks to all those who applied, and join me in welcoming the new crew! #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } Meet the (New) Bloggers! In July we posted the blogger application. 88 students began an application, and 69 completed it. A few days ago, Lydia, Kris, Michael, Ceri, Anastassia, Natasha, and I met and we picked five of them to be new bloggers. Here they are were super excited to have them on the team! Say hello! Anelise N. 19 Dorm: MacGregor Course: 6 About: Hey guys! Ive lived in exactly two places my entire life: my familys house in Los Angeles (one week and 18 years) and Cambridge, Massachusetts (one week and counting). I love making things from scratch, from food to clothes to what youre reading right now. My guiding culinary principle is Keep calm and add butter. I design and sew my own clothes, including my winter coat, a 7-pound monstrosity masterpiece lined in electric-blue turquoise fur. And I love the creative process of writing, which has been part of my life for over 7 years, ever since I started writing my own fantasy books and blogging about my projects. I never thought MIT would be the school for me. Then, while visiting I saw how students were meshing their scientific potential with creative vision to build a campus that was extraordinary and vibrant, and to make technological inroads that would change the world. Thats my goal for the next four years and beyond. In lots of ways, MIT is my adventure. I hope to share it with you :) Ben O. 19 Dorm: Burton Conner Course: 20 About: HEY GUYS!!!!!!! Lol Why the caps, to be honest, I am not really sure. I was just feeling it. In all honesty that is how most all of my writing goes. When it comes to writing I like to believe that it is reflective of how my mind works. My writing can turn out to be very curious, very random, but nevertheless always trying to find some sort of point, answer, or solution in a way that may not come off as conventional. Nevertheless, it is who I am and I have come to enjoy the curiosity and randomness that comes with being Benjamin Oberlton. I cannot say exactly where I am from considering the fact that I do not really like choosing one home over the other, but I like to consider myself a IllGeoTexMaryGeorgian (In order of my homes born in Illinois, moved to Georgia, Texas, Maryland and finally back to Georgia). I am more or less a small little melting pot of different state cultures that has helped me realize just how different the world can be. Whether its realizing that Texas has their own state pledge you say every morning or arguing over whether Maryland is in the south or not, I have become a Frankensteins monster (yes Frankensteins monster. Not Frankenstein. Big difference. Just saying.) composed of the various states I now call home. However, my interest for blogging and writing stem from the MIT Class of 2019 Facebook page oddly enough. It was there that I found I enjoyed sharing my stories and making others life with various pictures, posts and video blogs. So I cannot stress it enough.. It can be in the most seemingly insignificant places that you will find something that you will love. Lastly, why am I here at MIT you ask??? That answer is quite simple. I have the tremendous goal of wanting to find a cure to cancer. No not one of them, not some of them, not a way to slow down cancer, but a cure to cancer period. (-please ignore the fact that I said period then wrote it. Trust me it works. If I was talking to you face to face you would be like Dang, I like his use of the word period.) Though it is seemingly impossible, improbable, and insane, the fact that I could one day make it as an MIT student, and even more so an MIT blogger, once met these same criteria. So I always like to think, go big and if someone says you cant, go even bigger. Now actually lastly, I am looking forward to writing blogs, videoing vlogs, and simply sharing with you what it means to be a student here at MIT. It was here on these admissions blogs that I truly fell in love with the school, so it is here that I hope to one day inspire someone somewhere that MIT truly is one of the most amazing places on this oh so amazing planet. Kevin S. 19 Dorm: Burton Conner Course: 15 About: Sup? Im Kevin, and I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the sun shines for most of the year, it never snows, rain isnt really a thing. Basically, were chill all day every day. Since I was 6, Ive spent the majority of my life in frigid ice rinks. Im a figure skater on Team USA, which means Im often out and about traveling to destinations across the globe for training and competitions. Throughout my travels, Ive gotten accustomed to living out of a suitcase on months on end. Stuffing my suitcases so full but barely topping out the weight limit has become second nature. Aside from being a nomadic rink rat, I also love good food, books, movies, music, and photography. My life wouldnt be complete without late night food runs, Netflix marathons, or impossibly-long Snapchat stories. And in case you were wondering, I have no clue what I want to study yet. Possibly a combination of Course 6-3 and 15. But, hey, thats what the next 4 years are four, right? tl;dr: MIT HERE I COME. Sabrina M. 19 Dorm: Senior Haus Course: 1 Profile: Heyo! My names Sabrina and I love to love stuff. Some of this stuff includes all kinds of drawing, slam poetry, amateur vintage photography, and watching cooking videos. Ive spent most of my recent years trying to really figure myself out, and I hope that while I do, you can, too. Id like to say Im from three places all at once, just because all three shaped me, with or without the title of being my hometown. Im from the concrete jungles of New York, the modern suburbia of Westchester and the sandy beaches of the Dominican Republic, all of them equally cool but entirely different. Each one also taught me something different, like being able to convert Pesos to Dollars in my head. My parents, both immigrants, always raised me to do what I love, so I grew up wanting to be an artist, then a writer, then a whole bunch of other unremarkable and unoriginal career paths, but finally ended up here. Instead of my childhood dreams of going to art schools in Manhattan, my parents decided moving out of the city was the best bet and that dream got filled with pipes (is that how it goes?). So, I studied architecture in a magnet high school and thought, Hey, this is pretty neat, but I wish there was more math. A lot more math. Funny how life works like that. I may be on a different track but my art lives on and my writing is out there in the world, so I guess you could say things havent really changed much since I was a kid. Dreams really do come true. Phoebe C. 18 Dorm: East Campus Course: 18 14 Profile: I am the type of person who has a five-year plan, and I am currently trying to fit Iceland into it. I come from a preppy suburb of Philadelphia, where I spent the first sixteen years of my life people-watching and dreaming about other places and growing fond of travel, painting, yoga, self-help books, and hip-hop. My parents are from China. I have an older brother who also goes to MIT. I did a lot of math as a kid because math is mind-boggling and satisfying. I also wrote a lot of angsty poetry. These are the facts. Im joining the blogger community as a sophomore intending to double-major in Courses 18 and 14. I mostly care about efficiency and the collisions between peoples lives. Im not positive what I want to do in the future, but right now Im thinking it would be cool to go to law school and work on judicial reform. Well see, though. The five-year plan is shaky. Ive been called low-key. Ive been called fabulous. Ive been called sassy. You can call me Phoebe. Meet The (New) Bloggers! A few weeks ago I posted the Blogger Application 2011. We received over 50 applications for just a few available spots. The vast majority were from incoming freshman, but there were about a dozen from upperclassmen as well. Over the last week and a half the blogger committee comprised of the communications team and our Class of 2012 senior bloggers reviewed all of these applications, and tried to sort them out among us. The seniors got a little glimpse into life as an admissions officer: as Rachel emailed me, i cannot imagine how difficult comparing 17000 applicants must bethere are actually like, too many good applicants. i weep prematurely for them. Yep. However, as with our undergraduate applications, the cruel difficulty of the decisions is no excuse for not making them. Decide we must, and decide we did. So, without further ado, let me introduce to you our new bloggers! Class of 2015: Connie H. hails from Richmond, CA. When shes not tutoring math or making infographics, shes working on Mixest, a hipster indie radio station that allows you to select play, pause, or more obscure. Connie promotes her own personal IndieRoulette by leaving custom business cards in local stores, and shed like to study Marketing here at MIT, as well as cross-register for art classes at MassArt should she come across a Time-Turner in her dorm. I hate hipsters but Connies cool!! Natnael G. was born in Ethiopia but spent his childhood building robots for FIRST Team 1710 in Olathe, KS. While majoring in Course 6-2 he intends to spend a lot of time combining his interest in technology and the arts by creeping through the Media Lab. Fellow residents of East Campus, do not steal his stuff, as Natnael is an experienced archer and no, Im not talking about the FX series. Kirsten L. of Duluth, GA showed (rather than told) when she made her application entirely out of second grade arts and crafts supplies. Kirsten plans to major in 2 and 20 to make robots that can gently heal you before becoming sentient and dominating the skies with innumerable ghastly horrors. Shed like to be a MedLink in Maseeh too, which will one day be hallowed as the Bethlehem where the doctor robot revolution began. Look forward to her pictures, her crafts, and her love/hate relationship with Peep Research. Ana V. of Burbank, IL loves creating cool things. While she hasnt yet chosen between Aerospace Engineering and Materials Science, she did help make a biodiesel reactor in high school, and she can change streetlights with her mind. Burton-Conner residents, take notice. Ana, who attended MITES at MIT, has also spent the last few years working as a blogger for an organization that helps inspire young Latinos to go to college and create telepathic biorockets just like her. Class of 2014: Tom R. comes from Colorado and now lives in BC, where he makes very bad state-themed jokes (Where is a good place to watch Wimbledon? Tennessee!). A major in course 24-2 (Linguistics and Philosophy), Tom enjoys writing, the oboe, and poutine. Despite his loathsome liking for cheese-curd fries, were happy to have him aboard. Lydia K. made the transition from Pennsylvania to Random Hall with the aid of her adorable flying science cows: She can move her ears independently of the other and she cares deeply about frogs. After reading more of her wonderful writing, I hope you will too. Class of 2012 Qiaochu Y. is a frat boy (Theta Xi) mathlete (Course 18) who has made an appearance in our blogs before when he was interviewed by his friend and fellow blogger Rachel. He once auditioned for American Idol, where the girl in front of him sang the song he was going to sing (he didnt make it). As a senior, he looks forward to write about math and Kids These Days. These folks wont begin blogging right away, as we have to get them to campus and into our system first.When that time comes, theyll be able to tell you more about their own personal stories, which I assure you are more interesting, compelling, and better written than anything I provided here. Theyre all terrific and Im psyched to have them. Once again, thanks to all those who applied, and everyone say hi to the new crew!