Vancouver First: Alumni Discover Each Other

MIT alumni in Vancouver were non-existent, James Dai SM ’04 thought when he returned home after completing his master's at the MIT Media Lab and working as a Microsoft program manager. He now knows many and hopes to welcome even more as Vancouver hosts the world for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

He began meeting his peers at the inaugural MIT alumni event held in Vancouver, British Columbia, in April, attended by Toni Schuman ’58, president of the MIT Alumni Association, and planned by a committee headed by Oliver Chow ’93, MBA '97. Via a silent auction and raffle, the event raised funds to endow the MIT Alumni of BC Award for the Science Fair Foundation of British Columbia. As organizing committee member Will Gaherty ’84 noted, “wouldn’t it be great if the next admit to MIT from out here had the MIT Alumni of BC Award on his or her application! What a great legacy for this historic event.”