Srini Devadas
I grew up in various cities in India and arrived at the University of California, Berkeley for graduate school in 1985, weeks after turning 21.
Nikta Fakhri
I grew up in Tehran, Iran. After completing my undergraduate studies at Sharif University of Technology, I came to Rice University as a graduate student.
MIT's spiciest memelord
Before I got on Jeopardy, I’d catch it on TV, but it wasn’t really a big part of my life. I did quiz bowl in high school, and way back in the day I tried out for teen tournament, but I don’t really remember that at all.
Nasser Rabbat
I have spent more than half of my life at MIT. Having studied architecture in my native Damascus, Syria, I came to the U.S. to specialize in passive solar energy at UCLA in Los Angeles.
Mohammad Alizadeh
I am an Iranian immigrant. I came to the United States in 2006 for graduate school, accompanied by my wife and soulmate.
Campus Life editor's note
Every day we trudge through the Infinite. We pass peers, professors, and staff, all heading their separate ways. In Campus Life, we cross paths; we learn each other’s names and hear each other’s voices. This year, we heard resilience in struggle and grief in loss, courage under pressure and inspiration in hard work. We heard from our president, from a student EMT, from incredible people in hard places. Now, we return to their stories — we’ll catch a glimpse of their lives before they melt back into the crowd. This is you and me. This is MIT.
Inverse curling and Sunday tea
A group of my residents were huddled around a window on the 9th floor. With complete sincerity and transparency, one turned to me and said, “We froze a water balloon, and we think it’d be cool to throw it out the window!”
My best decision at MIT
Readjusting to the rhythm of academic life at MIT made me realize that a productive research agenda was not enough to carry me through my time here.
Paying it forward
You know the scene in The Sound of Music where Maria skips up to the gates of the Von Trapp Manor with two pieces of baggage and a song about beating imposter syndrome? That was figuratively me moving to MIT in 2015.
MIT: a personal Pandora’s box
I eagerly looked forward to my life at MIT, excited about the cultural discovery and surprises. These surprises started early.
Kyla Truman
My parents have struggled with substance abuse for as long as I can remember. My mom had me when she was 19. Both she and my dad tried to get clean for a little bit, but were largely unsuccessful.
The power of inspiration
I grew up in Caracas, Venezuela, the youngest of four brothers: Elias, Benjamin, Isaac, and me. When Elias was a baby, my parents fled from Eastern Europe in the late 1930s, just before World War II.
Meditation for mental health
The graduate student who recommended the course assured me it was a “totally different” experience than anything we’d done in the normal weekly classes. I was curious enough to give it a try.
On whale tails and Brexit
We were a group of young, forward-thinking individuals who celebrated diversity and learning, discussed enlightening topics over lunch, and had weekly lab meetings to hear presentations on the group’s research.
Lisa Lozano
In 2003, when I was in the third grade, my mom developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome and was paralyzed from the neck down. My grandpa also passed away around this time. My brother and I suddenly had many more responsibilities at home.
In the twilight zone
The “MIT bubble” is ubiquitous and yet sometimes invisible. Even Cambridge itself can seem like an enclave, the town of the ivory tower. Those of us who staff the MIT ambulance live in a sort of twilight zone, half in the bubble and half out.
I can see Russia from my lab
I spent my summer at the National Nuclear Research University MEPhI in the southern outskirts of Moscow, Russia. The Kremlin was just barely visible across Kolomenskoe Park on a clear day.
The illusion of experience
At this second barbecue, something that the host’s mother said stuck with me for the entirety of our trip. “My sister moved to Florida because it’s really dangerous here,” she had explained to us.
Marching to a different beat
My genes are over 99 percent identical to every other Homo Sapiens. I live in a progressive meditation community in Fairfield, Iowa, that is rich in eastern philosophy.
Growing up clueless
Although I was born in Louisiana, I grew up mostly in Texas. When I was growing up, my father was a “roughneck” in the West Texas oilfields. My dad only finished up to the 7th grade.