2022 Award Winners

Sze-Wen’s record of alumni volunteer engagement has been exemplary. She has served with distinction in the following roles: AMITA (Association of MIT Alumnae) president, Club Council co-chair, Leadership Talent Pipeline Committee, Alumni Association Board of Directors, Class of 1973 president and vice president, K–12 STEM Education Network, 24-Hour Challenge ambassador, Class Reunion Committee co-chair, Class Reunion Gift Committee member, Community Catalyst Leadership Program coach, and educational counselor. Sze-Wen has also been a reviewer for the IDEAS competition and is a founding member of the Friends of the PKG (Priscilla King Gray) Public Service Center group.

Jim Shields is a recipient of the Henry Kane ’24 and Lobdell awards. His past efforts include serving on the then MIT Annual Fund Board, the MIT Alumni Association Board of Directors, as a VP of the MITAA BOD, on the MIT Corporate Development Committee, on the MIT Visiting Committee for Student Life, and on every Class of 1971 Reunion Committee since the 25th (and co-chairing every Reunion Gift Committee since his 30th).  He served as chapter advisor for MIT’s Beta Nu Chapter of Delta Tau Delta for 25 years and recently co-chaired a fundraising campaign, in coordination with the Independent Residence Development Fund (IRDF), to pay for a $10M renovation of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house.

Douglas Spreng ’65 has more than 30 years of volunteer service for MIT, spanning virtually all facets of MIT: the Corporation, Alumni Association, Class of 1965, and the Club of Northern California. Douglas’s deep passion in the energy and environment area sparked a long and profound engagement, beginning in 2010, with the MIT Club of Northern California, of which he was president for 2 ½ years and is currently on the board of directors. As a class leader for over 25 years, primarily with the reunion giving efforts, Douglas served graciously on the Class of 1965 Reunion Gift Committee for over five reunions and went on to co-chair the Reunion Gift Committee for the 50th reunion. Douglas also served on the Corporation Development Committee for a decade, from 2008 to 2017. He currently is an honorary member of the CDC and is a past recipient of the Kane, Lobdell, and Great Dome Leadership awards.

Before joining the MITAA Board of Directors as president-select, Annalisa served with distinction in several important roles, including chair of the Annual Giving Board (formerly Annual Fund Board), member-at-large and young alumni representative on the MITAA Board of Directors, president of the Class of 1994, co-chair of her Fund Reunion Gift Committee, member of the Alumni Association Selection Committee, and member of the MIT faculty. For her outstanding service to MIT, Annalisa has been given the Henry B. Kane Award and the Harold E. Lobdell Distinguished Service Award.

Scott has been an active, engaged, and dedicated alumni volunteer for many years. Most recently, he served as president of the Class of 1986. Under Scott’s leadership, the class hosted a first-of-its-kind 32.5-year virtual reunion, for which the class received a Great Dome Award. Scott also co-chaired the 30thand 35th reunion committees. He has been an active member of the Class of 1986 for years, serving on many reunion committees and gift committees. He has also been active with the MIT clubs of Baltimore and Washington, DC. Scott has served as an educational counselor for two decades, becoming vice chair for the Baltimore region, and regional chair as of last year. He actively attends alumni events, including the Alumni Leadership Conference.

Gerardo first began volunteering for the MIT Tech Club of the Philippines upon graduating in 1983 and returning to his home country. He assumed the role of club president in 1989 and has since been a driving force in the MIT community, not only in the Philippines but across Asia, having been appointed to the Sloan Asia Executive Board in 2017.  At the regional level, he has been an ambassador of MIT’s mission and vision, with an endless ability to plan, fund, and implement activities to engage students, alumni, family members, and donors. In 2021, after 32 years, Gerardo stepped down as club president but continues to be actively involved in its activities. Gerardo has also been an active Educational Council member since 1983 and has been a regional chair for the Philippines for the past decade.

Kelly Chan provided extraordinarily long service to the MIT Club of Hong Kong with dedication until his retirement from the officer role this year. Kelly began as director of interschool engagement in 2005. He later served as treasurer from 2007 to 2017. He was promoted to vice president in 2017, and served until his retirement. He has continued to serve as an advisor to the club since his retirement.

Kelly started to volunteer for the club as director of interschool engagement, responsible for coordinating with other alumni groups in Hong Kong. One of the keynote events of the club is the MIT Invitational Sports Day, where the MIT Club of Hong Kong invites the alumni clubs of the Ivy schools and Oxbridge for a family day out with sports and fun events.

Subsequently, he served as treasurer, responsible for managing all the club’s financial matters. Kelly also oversaw all the administrative matters with the bank, including the change of signatories that comes along with the change of key officers. The MIT Club of Hong Kong is one of the very few international clubs that support the use of iModules, despite various operational challenges. Kelly was later promoted to vice president. In that role, he provided data-driven insights to the leadership on attendance patterns and changes in membership demographics. 

As president of the MIT Club of South Florida, Gary Chin has shown visionary leadership, which led to the club being awarded the MITAA Great Dome Award in 2013 for its programs focused on local high school students. One of those programs, the MIT Book Award, has had a significant impact on the increased acceptance of South Florida applicants to MIT by raising the quality of students applying for admission. As a result of this club activity, the number of local applicants from South Florida accepted to MIT each year has increased significantly since the MIT Book Award program was instituted. Another entrepreneurship activity he championed for the MIT Club of South Florida involved working with the local Florida International University College of Business to recruit MIT mentors for startup companies in FIU’s entrepreneurship incubator program.  As a result of the collaboration between the club and FIU, MIT alumni mentors have been recruited for three to four companies in each of the last three years. This has been beneficial for MIT alumni goodwill, since FIU is a major local employer of MIT alums and has been a good locus for MIT alumni activities in South Florida.

Under Jay’s leadership, the MIT Club of New York significantly increased club engagement. Moving away from using membership as the main metric for success, Jay took the approach of targeting events to the diverse population of alumni in the New York region, especially those who were previously unengaged with the club. Through events ranging from the arts and culture to casual and social, and including everything in between, his approach increased the overall engagement of regional alumni. Additionally, while serving as president, Jay aligned the club’s Cambridge Speaker Series to the priorities of MIT’s Campaign for a Better World. Prior to his role as president, Jay was involved with the club for over a decade and was instrumental in the successful accomplishment of 15–20 events held each year. Since then, Jay has served as the chair of the Nominating Committee, where he has helped build a strong succession pipeline for the board. Beyond direct club roles, Jay has been involved with his class reunions, served as an ICAN mentor for a decade, and has served on planning and fund committees.

Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tomas now lives in Lufkin, TX, in the middle of the Piney Woods of East Texas. Tomas serves as a board member of the MIT Club of South Texas and served as president of the club 2019–2020. Locally, Tomas is passionate about energy and sustainability projects in both his day job and in programming energy-related activities with the MIT Club of South Texas and MITEI. The flagship event each year is the gathering of Nerds (MIT alums) at the CERAWeek energy conference’s Innovation Agora forum. Tomas also has been active with LAMIT, helping lead the outreach efforts of fellow Latino/a alumni of MIT to newly admitted Latinx students. The program was started three years ago and has the support of fellow alums from across the United States. He serves as an educational counselor, and he is a past president of the Club of Puerto Rico. He regularly takes part in alumni events, including ALC. In addition, he is the proud parent of a Class of 2020 MIT alum and has worked with parent members of the Club of South Texas.

Elizabeth has served the MIT Alumni Association and the MIT Alumni community in senior leadership roles for many years. At the Alumni Association level, Elizabeth will serve as an MIT Alumni Association term director 2022–2025.  Prior to her term directorship, Elizabeth was a highly active MITAA Board member-at-large during the term of John Chisholm ’75 SM ’76 as MITAA president, 2015–2016, and served on the Finance Committee.  Elizabeth is highly dedicated to the MIT Club of Northern California (MITCNC) as a board member and volunteer. She also helped to start the Life Sciences Forum in 2005 and served as MITCNC president from 2011 to 2013, laying the foundation for success for future club presidents. In 2021, Elizabeth was nominated by the MITCNC board to become its chairperson, and she enthusiastically embraced the nomination.

Natalia’s service to MIT as an alum volunteer started in 2005, three years after graduation, sparked by her interest to stay connected to MIT long-term. Focusing originally on communications work, Natalia started as editor of the MIT Club of Boston’s newsletter in the summer of 2005 after meeting several club volunteers at the Summer BBQ, which she now organizes annually for the club.

The next summer, she transitioned to VP of communications. Natalia boasts the unique honor of having held the position of VP of communications for the Club of Boston the largest number of consecutive years (seven, from 2006 to 2013). Also in the summer of 2006, she joined the board of LAMIT, a newly formed affinity group for Hispano-American alums, as their VP of communications.

In 2015, she stepped up to support the MIT Club of Southeastern Massachusetts as their VP of communications. After completing a year as clerk and president-elect of the MIT Club of Boston in 2013–2014, and then as president in 2014–2015, Natalia continued to serve the club as assistant VP for finance and clerk, taking on the primary finance role as treasurer in 2017, the role in which she still serves. She can now also boast of having served as clerk for the Club of Boston the largest number of consecutive years (eight, 2013–2014 and 2015–2022).

Natalia is currently an educational counselor, having started her service as an EC in 2017. She also volunteers each year as a 24-Hour Challenge ambassador and encourages others in her network to volunteer in that capacity as well. Natalia currently serves on the Graduate Alumni Council and has mentored fellow alumnae through GW@MIT since 2013.

Victor has been an outstanding volunteer for the Class of 1972. He has served repeatedly on the Reunion Planning Committee as well as the Reunion Gift Committee. He is currently heading up the subcommittee for the 50th reunion yearbook and is serving as the class agent. In addition to his extraordinary service for the Class of 1972, Victor has also volunteered in several other ways. He has served as a judge and reviewer for the IDEAS competition and is a founding member of the Friends of the PKG Public Service Center group. He has served as an educational counselor for 40 years and has served as a host for international students. Victor has hosted an MIT externship, mentored at MIT Beaver Works, served as guest lecturer and helped in the Digital Systems Lab 6.111, and served as advisor to the MIT Rotaract Club.  Lastly, Victor has taken the initiative to try to identify MIT alumni who are involved with Rotary.

Adina is an engaged volunteer for MIT Annual Giving and the Alumni Association at large. Adina has been on her Class Reunion Gift Committee since her 15th milestone and has chaired her 20th, 25th, 30th, 35th, and 40th RGCs! She is a true leader for her class, and she also volunteers loyally as an educational counselor, 24-Hour Challenge ambassador, and regional club volunteer for the Club of Northeast Ohio. She has also served in leadership roles on the Club Council, Annual Giving Board, and AA Board of Directors in the past. As 40th RGC co-chair, Adina was instrumental in helping to recruit fellow committee members during a difficult recruitment year, including one co-chair, one Leadership Gift chair, and one member. Her leadership enabled the 40th gift campaign to surpass its dollar and participation goals, with $15,882,354 raised from 34.81 percent of the class. 

Anand gives back to the Institute year after year and has given for a total of 23 years, supporting core priorities such as scholarships and the Unrestricted Fund. Anand’s work with the MIT Annual Giving team began as a member of his 10th Reunion Gift Committee. As a committed and successful first-time fundraising volunteer, Anand continued his involvement, serving as both class stewardship agent and class leadership giving agent for five years. Anand co-chaired his 15th and 20th Reunion Gift Committees. After an impressive performance as co-chair for his 20th Reunion Gift Campaign, Anand was invited to join the Annual Giving Board in 2016. Most recently, Anand, in conjunction with classmate Surekha Trivedi ’96, served as co-chair of his 25th Reunion Gift Committee.

Andy is a longstanding fundraising volunteer for his class and for the Institute. In support of class fundraising, Andy began his service as chair of the Reunion Gift Committee in 2001, in honor of his 10th reunion. Since then, he has served as a member of the Reunion Gift Committee for his 15th and 25th reunions, and most recently as chair of his 30th reunion in 2021. In his leadership role as chair, Andy helped to recruit a diverse and effective Reunion Gift Committee. The Class of ’91 Committee surpassed all its ambitious fundraising goals―dollars raised, participation, leadership donors, and loyalty donors―and set a new dollars-raised record of $7.6M for the 30th reunion milestone. Andy was asked to join the Annual Giving Board, where he served a three-year term. Andy has been a valued member of the Office of Gift Planning Advisory Council since its start in 2019, as well as a class agent, 2001–2006 and 2021–present.

Surekha gives back to the Institute year after year and has given for a total of 23 years, supporting core priorities such as the Unrestricted Fund. Surekha’s work with the MIT Annual Giving Team began as an undergraduate student as a regular volunteer in MIT phonathons. Upon graduation, she served as a member of the Young Alumni Campaign Committee. A dedicated volunteer and natural solicitor, Surekha continued raising support for MIT as a member of her 5th Reunion Gift Committee. She quickly established herself as a visionary leader and was invited to join the Annual Giving Board in 2008. After three years of service, she joined her 15th Reunion Gift Committee. While serving as co-chair of her 20th Reunion Gift Committee, Surekha was invited to serve as a guest on the Annual Giving Board and a member of the Committee for Annual Giving Goals for fiscal year 2016. Following this, Surekha continued fundraising for the Institute as an MIT Connection volunteer for two years until 2018. During fiscal year 2021, Surekha served as co-chair of her 25th Reunion Gift Committee, and, with her husband, Manan, served as microchallengers for the Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center (PKG Center) during MIT’s 24-Hour Challenge.

Ranu has served as president of the MIT South Asian Alumni Association (MITSAAA) since 2018. She is a visionary alumni leader, and a great partner, collaborator, and ally across activities that connect and engage MIT’s South Asian alumni globally.  Ranu envisioned and tirelessly spearheads the oral history project that charts MIT’s 139-year history of drawing students of South Asian heritage. She helped coordinate 50+ interviews between alumni and students; corralled alumni volunteers to help curate the research; sought campus partners to permanently display findings; and explored avenues for digital and in-person exhibitions. This project is of historical and contemporary significance to MIT’s South Asian community, the History Department, and the Institute as a whole―as well as the region. Alongside this flagship initiative, Ranu and her board (which she recently doubled in size) host social and topical webinars.

Shiladitya (“Shil”) is the founder and leader of MIT Alumni for Climate Action (MACA). As he described in a recent Virtual Tech Reunions video, MACA grew out of an initiative in his home state of Maryland in October 2018, when a group of alumni in Maryland sent an open letter on climate change to all candidates running for public office in the state. MACA has now grown to several hundred active members in dozens of US states and foreign countries, with active working groups on climate advocacy, technology, education, and climate justice. MACA advocates for science-based solutions to the serious challenges posed by the climate crisis. Shiladitya’s motivations in founding and leading MACA include a genuine concern for our planet and future generations of Earth’s inhabitants―among whom are our current students and future alumni/ae. He believes strongly that most of us in the MIT community have similar concerns, and that MIT alumni/ae can lead by example in their own lives and together supply a credible and important voice that should be used to advocate for appropriate responses to the climate crisis.

Benjamin was the president of the MIT Taiwan Alumni Club for the year 2019–2020. During his presidency, Benjamin revived the club, bringing new energy and vitality. Under his leadership, the club organized over 20 successful events. He also collaborated with other Ivy League alumni clubs to hold events such as singles mixer parties, happy hours, and annual bike trips.

Benjamin created a Line chat group and a WeChat group and rekindled the club’s Facebook page. When the Covid-19 pandemic first began, there was a big shortage of medical supplies in the US. In less than two weeks, Benjamin was able to help gather PPE donations to send to MIT for Boston area hospitals. With his relentless efforts, the Taiwan Alumni Club and friends donated over 47,000 KN95 respirators, 5000 3-ply surgical masks, and hundreds of protective gowns, shoe covers, goggles, and head covers. Benjamin himself donated 1,000 KN95 respirators. He also worked with the MIT alumni clubs of Greater China; using his China network, he helped them raise US$117,000, including $100,000 to buy 15,000 N95 masks and 1,000 medical gowns.

As vice president of programs and events for the MIT Club of Northern California, Patricia conceived of and executed a Global IAP Day in January 2021 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of IAP (Independent Activities Period).  Patricia leveraged the virtual nature of events during Covid isolation to encourage the MIT spirit of collaboration and invited all interested MIT alumni clubs to join the MITCNC annual IAP event. The result was a multiclub event, with 25 sessions conducted by 15 different MIT alumni clubs (including the clubs of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Great Britain, and Austria), held over a span of 12 hours to accommodate different time zones. In the fall of 2020, when MITCNC leadership identified a community need for career planning, Patricia brought together a team of alumni she had come to know through MITCNC virtual events, collaborated with MIT Alumni Career Services, and conceived of and produced a successful three-part alumni career workshop series based on the Designing Your Life framework. 

Sarah is an active member of the MIT community. She was elected to a five-year term in 2019 as a recent-graduate member of the MIT Corporation. Now a member of the Corporation Screening Committee, Sarah is heavily involved in the annual nomination process and final candidate selection of recent graduates to the MIT Corporation. Sarah also serves on the visiting committees for Chemistry, Economics, Social Sciences, and Undergraduate and Graduate Education. In recognition of Sarah’s talents and familiarity with campus partners, she was invited to serve on the Alumni Association’s Program Committee in 2019. She also devotes her time to prospective students and their families as an educational counselor and is an engaged regional representative for the MIT10 Committee.

Dr. Auer has volunteered for more than 50 years as an educational counselor. He has inspired countless students to attend MIT and has been a sounding board for many other educational counselors.

Steve joined the Educational Council in 1999 and is currently the regional chair (RC) for the Worcester, MA, region, which generates many MIT applicants. Steve runs his region well and continually volunteers to take on more work when other RCs are at capacity. Besides managing the Worcester region, Steve conducts many interviews. He is an overflow educational counselor and has helped by interviewing applicants from around the world. Steve has also enjoyed helping the MIT Admissions office―serving as a parent connector and moderating MIT parent events―as his daughter is an alum of the class of 2021. Steve also helps with the Tech Challenge Games (part of Tech Reunions) and volunteers with the Community Catalyst Leadership Program and as an instructor for the MIT DanZan Ryu Jujitsu Club.

John joined the Educational Council in 2010 right after graduation and is currently the regional chair (RC) of the United Kingdom. In 2021, John also agreed to help as one of the co-RCs of the Overflow region. The Overflow region continues to make an important contribution, enabling MIT to interview many applicants. John worked in the Admissions office and served on a key student/faculty committee when he was an undergraduate. The UK usually has one of the highest number of applicants to MIT among international students. John has always maintained a solid group of educational counselors through recruiting. He also helps tackle some of the more difficult interviews in his region.

Pauline joined the Educational Council in 1998 and is currently a vice chair for the Lower Hudson Valley, NY, region. She agreed to absorb the Orange County/Rockland County, NY, region into her Westchester region this year, as there was no regional chair or vice chair for Orange/Rockland. This helped reduce the workload for the EC office. To help manage the additional applicants, Pauline took the initiative to recruit alumnae from her MIT sorority. Her recruiting effort helped set a precedent for MITAA and the EC office to recruit educational counselors from alums of FSILGs. Pauline has also done an excellent job managing her region, in addition to interviewing applicants there.

Dick joined the Educational Council in 2011 and is currently a regional chair (RC) for the entire state of Nevada. He agreed to comanage the entire state of Nevada with the prior RC of Las Vegas. When the Las Vegas RC unexpectedly resigned due to another MIT event, Dick never missed a beat. By managing Nevada as a single state, he helped the EC office and students to avoid unnecessary zip code mappings.  Dick is also a prolific interviewer.  The EC office has relied on him to interview time-sensitive requests, including those from international students.

Steve joined the Educational Council in 2015 and is currently a vice chair for the New Brunswick, NJ, subregion. Though Steve’s subregion usually generates many MIT applicants, it has few MIT alums. He recognized the deficiency and worked for a few years with the EC office to recruit educational counselors. He also worked to identify remote ECs who are permanently assigned to his subregion (rather than depending purely on Overflow). As a result, Steve improved the number of students interviewed. He also learned about the new EC Portal in detail. He uncovered a subtle bug in our auto-assignment algorithm. He also helped to design a new zip code mapping table for the entire Central area of New Jersey. 

In view of the ongoing pandemic, the Class of 1961 had no choice but to hold its 60th reunion virtually. In preparation for the reunion, the class’s website was greatly enhanced to include more than a thousand printed pages of copy pertaining to the class and hundreds of photographs from past reunions. 

The class initiated monthly chats over Zoom during the summer of 2020 to help drive participation for the reunion. Engagement in the chats grew from an initial five class members to more than 75 participants during the ensuing months. These chats eventually included almost a quarter of all living classmates.

The committee arranged a full schedule of events during reunion weekend, including get-togethers and planned lectures by classmates. A highlight of the reunion was a special memorial service, which the spouses of deceased classmates were individually invited to. The memorial service had over 120 participants and included a reading of the names of all 110 members of the class who had passed away since the class’s 50th reunion. During this nondenominational service, led by MIT clergy and several classmates who had become members of the clergy in their later careers, participants had the opportunity to share their personalized remembrances.

A reunion book, which contained photographs and individual write-ups submitted for more than 400 classmates, was sponsored by the committee. Despite the disappointment of not being able to hold what for many classmates would be their last great get-together on campus, over $20 million dollars in contributions were raised for the benefit of the Institute and its students.

The Class of 2020 Alumni Council worked tirelessly to keep their class connected following an unprecedented disruption to the conclusion of their time as students and transition into the alumni community. The 14-member council, led by copresidents Joaquin Giraldo-Laguna and Kayla Vodehnal, worked tirelessly to plan a thoughtful and robust virtual engagement plan for their class. The class missed out on so much surrounding graduation due to the pandemic, including traditional Commencement exercises, Senior Week, and a traditional introduction to the MIT Alumni Association. The council faced an extremely difficult task of trying to bring together a class that understandably felt deep disappointment and loss when thinking of MIT and, by extension, the Alumni Association.

Despite these challenges, these individuals nominated themselves to serve a five-year term in representing the class of 2020 as leaders on the alumni council. In July of 2020, they dove straight into frequent meetings to discuss how they could bring the class back together through the virtual tools at their disposal, creating a comprehensive engagement strategy for their first year from graduation.

The council worked hard to hire Course 6 alumnus turned celebrated bartender Jared Sadoian ’10 to lead a fun and informative hands-on class, garnering over 50 registrations. From there a variety of virtual events was offered, including trivia, group video game playing, and a limoncello-making class. The council also connected their peers back to their favorite professors through Fifth Year Flag, a fun, quirky series offered in four installments over the course of the year. These events gave the class of 2020 an opportunity to have casual, engaging conversations with professors Stephen Banzaert ’98 (MechE), Peter Dourmashkin ’76, ’78, PhD ’84 (Physics), Raúl Radovitzky (AeroAstro), and Chris Peterson (Comparative Media Studies).

In addition to a full slate of wonderful events, the class council sent frequent email check-ins, sharing additional ways to engage through class notes, social media, etc. Finally, they facilitated a one-year extension of their virtual yearbook, which offered the class an interactive way to update classmates on their plans as new alums, as well as share favorite memories from their time on campus. To date, an impressive 652 pages have been created by members of the Class of 2020, or 62 percent of the class.

To retain and increase alumni engagement between their communities, the MIT clubs of Rochester and Western New York used outside-the-box thinking to develop a virtual slate of open, monthly, joint events. The launch of these events was announced in June of 2020. The clubs shared resources and extended programming via their Virtual Tech Café talk series to current students within their communities, parents of current students, and all MIT Alumni club members around the world. Multiple events were planned concurrently and were developed to leverage the MIT Alumni Association Zoom license, allowing all registrants to join from any location.

James Boyd ’83, Laurel Carney ’83, Michael Frauens ’00, Robert Karz ’67, and David Ortman ’79 from the Club of Rochester and Robert Stall ’79 and Susan Udin ’69, PhD ’75 from the Club of Western New York worked tirelessly to develop and implement the joint virtual programming via biweekly meetings and continuous email contact. Alumni Association staff supported the initiative by ensuring that all available resources were leveraged and event communications were properly prepared and distributed.

This pioneering collaborative effort between the clubs of Western New York and Rochester has been a resounding success and was well rewarded. The hard work and creativity resulted in a series of highly successful virtual events, attracting over 500 registrants to date. This will serve as a blueprint for reciprocal virtual event programming going forward.

Hosted by the MIT Arab Alumni Association (MITAAA), UnliMITed interviews alumni and students about the different paths they took to apply to MIT, their time on campus, and how their careers have evolved.

UnliMITed created a platform that brings us all together to hear each other’s stories and unite in our shared humanity. This initiative is the brainchild of recent graduates Dana Dabbousi ’20, our director of conferences and digital engagement; Omar Obeya ’18 MEng ’19; Areen Bahour ’16; and Mamoun Toukan AF ’17, MAP ’18, MITAAA treasurer.

Launched in October 2020, UnliMITed has produced 15 episodes with 1,900 downloads generated from the following top 10 countries: United States, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Palestinian Territories, France, Canada, United Kingdom, and Kuwait. The first season, hosted by Dana Dabbousi, introduced listeners to our 2020–2022 board members, their journeys and their passion to stay involved with MIT through the Arab Alumni Association.

The second season launched on March 14, 2021, aptly called UnliMITed Pi Series, targeted MIT applicants hoping to learn more about life on campus. Areen Bahour interviewed current Arab students and new graduates from MIT to highlight the opportunities MIT offers, students’ great accomplishments, and their attachment to the Institute. Finally, in the third series, Omar Obeya interviewed Arab alumni to learn about their journeys after graduation. The pilot episode was in Arabic to highlight the beautiful language and cater to a larger audience.

More than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, and very familiar with Zoom capability and virtual events, the class of 1986 Reunion Program Committee thought outside the box to bring their 35th reunion off the screens and into classmates’ homes.

The committee crafted an excellent reunion that engaged their classmates through interactive instructional classes, trivia, a baking demonstration, games, laughs, and virtual opportunities for connection. Great thought and care went into planning the event, and the committee’s work exceeded expectations. Connecting via screens can be challenging, but the Class of 1986 went the distance, using innovation to create virtual experiences that made the screens feel like they disappeared.

Co-chaired by Sharon Israel ’86 and Scott Berkenblit ’86, SM ’90, PhD ’96, the 35th Reunion Program Committee broke into smaller subcommittees to plan five events and an overarching scavenger hunt game over the duration of the Reunion weekend.

The class events included a 30-second show-and-tell night, trivia and happy hour, a progressive tasting party, and a farewell Sunday event. There was an event for every personality type and time zone. The highlight of the weekend was the progressive tasting party. This featured a live mixology class with a signature class cocktail, a design challenge, and a cooking demonstration by Food Network star Lasheeda Perry.

Bringing the fun off the screen, the committee sold a swag box, which included a stress reliever beaver (the start of the design challenge) and a special Class of 1986 cookie baked by guest speaker Lasheeda Perry.

A marketing campaign was created to build excitement around the Tech Challenge Games and having an appointed class captain. This organization and enthusiasm resulted in a win for the Class of 1986.The average attendance at a 35th reunion is 80 alumni, but the Class of 1986 had 143 classmates log into virtual Tech Reunions over the weekend.

Bonnie Klein’s involvement with MIT began shortly after she was married to her husband, Stanley Klein ’58, in 1967. Bonnie and Stan were actively involved with the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, where they sponsored a writing prize, and the Koch Institute, where they started a small fund. After Stan’s passing, she attended an Emma Rogers Society meeting to continue her association with MIT. 

Bonnie continued to volunteer at the Koch Institute and began attending every Emma Rogers Society event that was offered. Before long, she was reaching out to new MIT alumni and faculty widows, offering support in person and by phone. Early on, she discovered that several long-time members of ERS lived close to her in Sudbury, MA. She quickly organized this group to carpool to MIT events and to engage MIT widows in their town.  

Since 2015, Bonnie has formally served as an MIT ambassador to members of the Emma Rogers Society in Boston and in the Palm Beach area, where she spends her winters. In that capacity, Bonnie has made 400 phone calls to new widows, spending many hours talking and comforting them. This is work that combines two passions―the importance of personal relationships and MIT. Her outreach on behalf of MIT has resulted in many women stepping outside their comfort zones and attending Institute events on their own.  But her work does not stop at the phone call. If they come to an event, she greets them and makes them feel welcome, following up afterward as well.