Casual Wichita meet-up

Deb was in Wichita for a conference and met with some of the Wichita alumni (Emmanuel, Steve, Tony, and Laura) at a WSU Starbucks.  John tried to get there, but there are two Starbucks at WSU.  She distributed some MIT swag and reconnected with some of the alumni there.

Summer Send-off 2019

Our summer send-off picnic was hosted again by Prof. Simon Friedman.  It was a very nice, intimate lunch with a new alumna to the KC area and some old friends from our alumni group.  We only had two new admits this year, one in KC Metro and one in Wichita.

MIT-KC Wichita Edition

A number of the Wichita-area alumni/ae gathered for the first annual Wichita MIT Alumni Dinner. We resolved to reconvene the same time next year.

Our group (left to right): Tony and wife (Patricia), Laura, Emmanuel, Jeanne and Laura (Deb was photographer) with little MIT banners

Mary and her family were a little late

The obligatory Brass Rat photo

Laura forgot her Brass Rat but sent a photo after the fact

Brunch and Kinetic Event

Jenny, (and Steve) and Deb participated in the Tower2Tower 5K,

Team MIT-KC at Tower2Tower 5K

 and then joined Jenny and Jesse for brunch at the Lenexa Public Market.

Jenny, Deb, Cherry and Jesse

We had an amusing interaction with a townie who asked if someone at our table went to MIT in a snotty tone.  We responded "All of us."   He took a step backwards and departed.

Pi Day 2019

This year, the Pi Day celebrations are one of two mandated alumni gatherings (in place of the Toast to IAP).  We wanted to have fruit pies and pizza and had some difficulty locating a venue, but the UMKC Emeritus College offered their facility (which is located in the library), so we held this event in mid-town Kansas City.

Jenny, Satyen and Deb, and the pies! Satyen's son was the photographer.

We included a charitable drive of toothbrushes and shampoo for Giving the Basics, and hoped for a nerdly gift exchange, but we only had one nerdy gift.  Therefore, we had an MIT trivia playoff (it was online) between Jenny and Satyen.  Well, Satyen won the clip-on calculator.

This was also the 24-Hour Challenge day, so we kept the website open to watch the progress of the challenges and fund-raising.

It was small, but fun.  Hope to see you at Pi Day next year.

Inaugural Sloan Event

Our kick-off Sloan event was a bit spoiled by the weather.

This was the weather map around 2115, after I got home safely.

It was a small turnout of the MIT-KC alumni, but the speaker was very good, and we hope to try this again later in the spring (when we only have severe thunderstorms to worry about).  Jay Pestrichelli was very interesting.  He's an RPI graduate, and enjoyed being able to discuss first-order derivatives and normal distribution statistics with abandon.  Royal Fund Management was a nice host for the event.  Stay turned for future Sloan events!

It was just fun

A few of us were meeting to plan the next MIT-KC event, when I noticed that my knife was magnetized.

And, being a proper MIT alumna, I made the most of it.

But after I put my little video on YouTube, I saw that this happens pretty often. But it was a first time for us.