Over IAP 2015 (MIT Speak for our January break), Justine Jang and I worked with Fred Daso and the MIT 2017 Class Council on the Mixer Series project as a way to connect MIT sophomores with each other.

What we did

MIT is a very diverse community, but students are very busy. So how does one meet new people outside of her daily life cycle of classes, clubs, psetting, and her friend group? I met with Justine and Fred to discuss ideas of bringing the sophomore class closer, and we thought about randomly matching sophomores to get lunch together as a nice way to meet new people.

To participate in the Mixer Series, we created a google form and posted it on the class of 2017 page. We wrote a random matching algorithm to create groups of four sophomores not in the same major, dorm, or affiliation. Then, the program emailed the matches and groups began to coordinate a time and place to meet up.

Throughout February, 300 sophomores signed up, and new friendships were formed. Groups met up and posted selfies to the facebook page, generating “likes” and a better sense of community within our diverse class.

Sample Selfies

Here are some of the photos of the class of 2017!

Links

View the proposal document we wrote to the 2017 Class Council

View our form here!