Podcast: Creating Community Where You Live

What creates a community? At MIT it can be courses, clubs, and classes, but also where students live. Nearly 6,000 students live in some form of MIT housing, with each different living group building its own unique community. From roller coasters at East Campus to aged milk at Random Hall, living groups at MIT are full of stories and shared memories.  We recently invited students and alumni to share some favorite memories from their community at MIT. Here’s what they had to say:

Read the episode transcript.

For current MacGregor resident Marianne Olsen '18, a recent almost-birthday celebration is a favorite. Olsen explains that her floor at MacGregor celebrates residents’ birthdays by the month. But moving out of the dorm in May and having a June birthday, meant Marianne would miss her own birthday celebration—she thought. “Before I left, they surprised me with a cake to celebrate my 18 and 11/12ths birthday!” she remembers.

For John Wilkens PhD '77 and Lucie Wilkens PhD '77, who met at MIT, a favorite community memory is breaking in a new graduate residence—Tang Hall—and setting a precedence for their family in the building. “We were some of the original tenants, Lucie lived on the 7th floor. I lived on the 19th. And our son lived on 13th floor of Tang Hall,” John remembers, doing some quick math to explain why the floor numbers are so important. “Seven plus nineteen divided by two equals thirteen. So everything is falling right into place.”

Hear more stories of community at MIT in the podcast above. And share your favorite living group story in the comments.