OMICRONICLE
SPRING 2016
OFFICER REPORTS
President
Chapter Stats
House GPA
4.50
Ranked 7th out of 25 MIT
fraternities; placed on IFC
Academic Honor Roll
Chapter Size
Seniors15
Juniors13
Sophomores13
Freshmen13
Total 54
Living in house
Brothers35
Renters4
Fritz (GRA)
1
Total40
Alec Andersen ’17
R
eturning from adventures exploring
Chile to South Africa,
from the finance world
of Goldman Sachs to the
tech world of Facebook,
and from the research
labs having conducted
ground breaking work
with cancer cells to
rocket propulsion, the
brothers of Phi Sigma Kappa returned to campus ready to tackle the challenges of another
academic year. After a successful rush and initiation period, the brothers of Phi Sig continued
their consistent academic and professional success throughout the term, while maintaining a
vibrant social calendar and improving the state
of the house as a whole.
The newly restored flag of Phi Sigma
Kappa, courtesy of Michael Traub ’17, literally flew high during the fall semester – and
so too in a figurative sense. After a successful
Rush, thirteen outstanding individuals went
through the pledge process, culminating in
their induction in December. Academically, the
chapter continued its streak of being selected
for the MIT FSILG Honor Roll for house GPA.
Outside of the classroom, Phi Sigs remained
deeply involved in campus activities ranging
from varsity sports to philanthropy work. In
recent years, Phi Sigs have become increasingly
involved in Camp Kesem, a nonprofit organization that provides recreational camps for
children of parents with cancer.
Phi Sigs enjoyed an active social calendar during the fall semester, courtesy of social
chairs Emanuele Ceccarelli ’17, Stephen Guo ’17,
and Alex Springer ’16. The web infrastructure of
the house also experienced vast improvements
as Juan Diego Castrillon ’16 built a comprehensive web platform that has streamlined activities across the chapter. Between simplifying
electronic election voting, expanding course
bibles, and improving commissar requests, this
web platform has transformed chapter function and continues to be upgraded upon by
Marco Cunquiero ’18.
In the spring semester, multiple
chapter positions have already been revamped,
significantly improving both alumni relations
and our local philanthropy efforts. Joseph
Schuman ’16, a rare spring semester senior secretary, has organized dinners with alumni and
is even planning an alumni mini golf outing, a
tradition of events that will continue to solidify
alumni connections in the future. Philanthropy
chair Andres Mier ’18 has continued the chapter’s involvement in Relay for Life while also
expanding activity with new partnerships with
homeless shelters. With summer internship and
full-time offers already accepted at companies
ranging from Tesla to Bridgewater Associates to
SpaceX to Bain to Goldman Sachs to Facebook
as well as graduate school acceptances to Stanford, Caltech and MIT, the future looks bright
for the brothers and the house as a whole.
With these exciting improvements
continued personal achievements by Phi Sigs, a
spirited social lineup, and improvements across
the chapter, enthusiasm fills the house as we
look forward to another year of success here at
Phi Sig.
Officers
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Sentinel
Inductor
Rush Chairman
Fall 2015
Michael Traub ’17
Rory Beyer ’17
Daniel Chen ’17
Alec Andersen ’17
Tom Cook ’17
Juan De Jesus ’17
Stephen Guo ’17
Spring 2016
Alec Andersen ’17 Jeremy Stroming ‘18
Joseph Schuman ‘16
Sean Patrick Kelley ‘18
Matt Hagan ‘18
Juan De Jesus ‘17
Andres Mier ‘18
The Omicronicle is edited by Joseph Schuman ’16, Secretary
Vice President
Jeremy Stroming ’18
T
The learning curve
for Vice President is
steep, but even only a
couple of months into
the position, I have a
greater appreciation for
what it takes for Phi Sig
to operate smoothly.
Waging war against
leaking pipes, malfunctioning radiators, and broken doors while leading a diverse assembly of 45 or so brothers has
proven to be an awesome experience. I also
have JVP Jackson Graves ’18 to help organize
and run projects while I am away.
The VP Department has been very
busy during the past year negotiating with
contractors to get the Annex up to city code for
inspection. As many alumni are already aware,
the door connecting the House and the Annex
through the bike room has been sealed off.
Additionally, many Annex lofts had to come
down, including those in 1R, 2RS and 3RS.
Finally, 2F has been converted into one large
room to meet fire safety regulations. We hope
to receive our official lodging license from the
city of Boston soon, so that we may begin making the Annex a little more homely again.
Fall Work Week—led by my esteemed
predecessor in the VP Department, Rory Beyer
’17—included a small remodel of 2F to fit the
new room format (including a large projector
screen), an extensive overhaul of our garden
accomplished by Andres Mier ’18, and repainting in many of the rooms where lofts had come
down. Cody Jacobucci ’17 also built a new freestanding loft for 3F that includes its own small
rock wall! Finally, we reinstalled the Phi Sig flag
outside of the house; a long needed effort that
makes our house look much more spirited to
the whole Kenmore neighborhood.
This semester, I have begun to implement a more organized approach to recycling
in the House that I hope to see passed on for
generations to come. I also plan to continue
with the remodel of the Annex front bathrooms, including new wood-stained doors
and new paint. Finally, I have initiated contact
with an architectural firm that will advise us
on re-outfitting our exterior locks, and installing two new doors (the back side of the house
and the front side of the Annex) to replace the
aging ones we have in place. When complete,
this installation will improve both our building security and exterior façade. Rest assured
that our brothers are working hard to keep this
house as beautiful as ever!
Treasurer
Sean Patrick Kelley ’18
T
he Spring of 2016
shows the Omicron
Chapter of Phi Sigma
Kappa in adequate financial standing. Budgets
over the past few semesters have proved to be
sufficient in covering any
immediate expenditures
the house has faced in
this period. This success can be attributed to
new financial strategies instituted by the house
this school year, including the renting of two
Apartment Building rooms to non-brothers.
Since living capacity was not reached with
brothers alone, this was a good solution to
retain the income otherwise lost, and will become common practice unless the rooms can
FY 2015-2016
Budget Highlights
Budget$377,850
Rent
Commissary
$180,000
$48,000
Utilities$42,500
VP$34,000
Rush$28,500
National
$14,000
Retreats
$8,000
Inductor
$7,000
Social
$6,500
IT
$2,000
Housebill
$7,950
Below: Flag flying outside
White House on its new pole.
Bottom: Panorama photo
of the recently renovated rec
room (formerly Blue Room).
be filled without renters. This financial tactic,
coupled with saving money on budgets such as
Commissary and Social, as well as efforts made
by the Vice President’s department concerning
home maintenance, have given us the edge to
remain in good financial standing this school
year.
However, over this same stretch of
time, there have also been financial burdens
above the scope of immediate house finances.
Of these, the most prominent include the
introduction of Sway Spa below 485 Commonwealth Avenue and increasing expenses in utilities. In looking to recover any debt incurred,
the undergraduate leadership is currently
working with the Alumni Association to create
a plan of recovering these financial loses. From
meetings already held, a promising solution to
this problem seems to be an increase in house
bill in order to increase income for the chapter
as a whole. This increase would be fairly conservative, and may be administered over the
next few terms to lower the immediate financial impact on brothers.
Aside from relieving the chapter of
any debt, the Alumni Association and undergraduates are also working to raise money for
a large-scale renovation of the chapter house.
This drive comes in the wake of several other
MIT fraternities undertaking large renovation
projects, and would be a beneficial investment
to the future of the Omicron chapter of Phi
Sigma Kappa.
Sentinel
Matt Hagan ’18
From the top down:
1. The Phi Sig class of
2017 poses for a photo at
our Fall Boat Cruise
2. Phi Sigs from the class
of 2018 pose on the Summit of Mt. Washington
3. Rory Beyer ‘17 and Dan
Chen ‘17 hang out with
alumus Taylor Rajak ‘14
4. Austin Freel ‘16 fills up
his cup with some beer
chilled from the river on
16s Retreat
I
n 2016, the Commissary
department is expecting big and bold moves.
From the expansion of
cooking teams from
three to four people, our
chefs now have more
than enough time to
craft the best meal possible each night. We are
seeing big turnouts from the brothers due to
this change, our attendance rate to weeknight
dinners has seen a 50% jump from previous
semesters. This expansion is in part due to the
help from the Freshman class, newly inducted
brothers David Wu, Eric Wong, and Charlie
Inman have all stepped up bigly and boldly to
make this possible.
One new and exciting addition to the
regular meal options is Waffle Tuesdays, during which Sean “Big Potential” Kelley (SPK) ’18
and myself wake up early to make homemade
waffles, bacon, and other breakfast items for
the brothers of the house. This resurrection
of breakfast was inspired by chats with noble
alumni who told tales of bygone days in the Phi
Sigma Kappa fraternity house. In those fabled
years, before the Great Winter of ‘75, breakfast
was a standard meal offered every day so that
brothers could always wake up to a fresh breakfast to start the day of right. The Commissary
department thusly decided to reinstitute this
tradition. So fear not, breakfast has not been
abandoned forever! In fact, we at the Commissary department are considering expanding it
in the future. Until then, it’s all gravy.
Rush Chairman
Stephen Guo ’17
F
rom the start of our
fall work week, preRush started off with a
bang, with a record number of brothers showing
up to help out due to a
convenient week delay
in MIT’s schedule. By the
time rush began, our
house was (relatively)
pristine and everything was falling into place
for an amazing Rush Week.
During pre-Rush, the number of 2019’s we met
in just that week grew to the hundreds thanks,
in large part, to the horde of orientation leaders
and pre-orientation program mentors among
our ranks. Additionally, Alec Anderson, ’17, and
Daniel Chen, ’17 led the charge meeting freshman on campus, keeping up with their record
performances from the year before. Also during
this week, we had our usual dodge ball on the
Mac Courts, whiffle ball in Lobby 7, and poker
activities to lure freshman into talking to us,
unbeknownst to them.
Off to an amazing start, Phi Sig kept the momentum going with the start of Rush Proper.
MIT has significantly reduced the impact of
the Killian Kick-Off by moving the class photo
that used to precede it, but Phi Sig continued
to make large gains the first day. That night,
the brothers and rushees saw the return of our
signature dance cages at our GRAFFITI party.
With the start of jaunts, the brothers only
gained steam. Each day surpassing the last, we
saw record numbers of participants as all of
our jaunts went over capacity. We even needed
to rent an additional van on top of our usual
three for our third jaunt: battle canoeing. John
Thomas Homrich, ’17 played an especially critical role in making sure our events went without
a hitch. In addition to jet skiing and paintballing, rushees flocked to the house to partake
in our evening events as well. The house was
again filled to capacity for our steak and lobster
dinner and Iron Chef meal, both of which were
prepared by Emanuele Ceccarelli, ’17, Daniel
Chen, ’17, and Alex Springer, ’16. Afterwards,
our new pledges conveyed their enjoyment of
the quantity and variety of activities we provided at Phi Sig with the brothers.
Rush drew to close with the strongest opening
day of pledges in the last couple of years. We
had 11 new Phi Sigs by the Saturday night, and
a total of 16 by the official end of Rush. These
new Phi Sigs amazed us time and time again as
they became integrated into the brotherhood.
Passing on the baton to Andres Mier, ’18, and
Jeremy Stroming, ’18, I am not alone among
our brothers in looking towards Phi Sig continuing to uphold the standards and principles
that define us as a brotherhood and that made
this past Rush an incredible experience for
brothers and pledges alike.
Social Chairman
Ignacio Fernandez ’18
S
pring 2016 looks to
be a great semester
for Phi Sig’s social scene.
David Klee ’18 and I are
working to further cement Phi Sig’s place in
the college social scene
with a plethora of different events.
This semester, we’re
opening up the dance
floor by throwing several house parties, which
so far have had great turnouts, despite the
winter chills. We have multiple annex parties
planned, each with its own quirky theme. The
last annex party was themed “Fifty Centuries of
Grey,” where partygoers were encouraged to
dress as any of their favorite historical figures
from the past 500 years – the winning costume
was someone dressed as an American colonist
dying of typhoid! On top of these parties, we’re
having mixers with MIT, Harvard, and BU sororities as well as focusing on events for bros and
close friends exclusively in order to promote
brotherly bonding. This semester looks to be a
solid one for our social scene. Here’s to hoping
to Make Phi Sig Great Again!
Top: House cat Hector
patrolling Phi Sig for mice
Bottom Left: A magician
captivates an audience at
Spring Formal
Bottom Right: A photo of
Fenway, Kenmore and MIT
taken from the plane of
Sean Patrick Kelley ‘18
Phi Sig Varsity & Club
Cycling
Alex Springer ‘16
Crew
Connor McMahan ’16
Jeremy Stroming ‘18
Hamilton Eng ‘18
Charlie Inman ‘19
Patrick Dent ‘19
Fencing
Alex Andriatis ‘18
Hockey
Ethan Payne ‘17
Lacrosse
Michael Traub ‘17
Cody Jacobucci ‘17
David Klee ‘18
Soccer
Joe Schuman ‘16
Austin Freel ‘16
Marco Cunqueiro ‘18
David Wu ‘19
Binh Le ‘19
Swimming
Bo Mattix ‘16
Dane Erickson ‘18
Track
Rory Beyer ‘17
Julius Baldauf ‘19
Triathlon
Alex Springer ‘16
Ultimate Frisbee
Eric Wong ‘19
Arjun Khandelwal ‘19
Wrestling
Frankie Soucy ‘19
Left: Michael Traub ‘17
tearing it up on the
Lacrosse Field
Center: Connor
McMahan ‘16 leading the
heavyweight crew team
in stroke seat
Right: Rory Beyer ‘17
setting the pace for the
Men’s Cross Country team
Athletic Chairman IT Chairman
Alec Andersen ’17
I
ntramural dominance
at Phi Sigma Kappa was
restored in recent years.
The chapter fielded nine
intramural sports teams
in the academic year
2014 to 2015, including
ice hockey, flag football,
soccer, ultimate frisbee,
volleyball, and basketball. The lads netted two intramural championships in this year: dodgeball and indoor soccer.
The chapter fielded its first intramural dodgeball team in fall 2014 and led by stars such as
Alex Latham ’17, otherwise known as “the most
unintimidating dodgeball savant in a century,”
Phi Sig cruised to a perfect 8-0 record, sweeping Chi Phi in the championship. The chapter
also fielded impressive fall performances in
outdoor soccer as well as flag football, in which
a loss to the eventual champions in the semifinal round snapped a Cinderella season.
In the winter season, the boys battled
it out in ice hockey and basketball,
only narrowly losing deep in the playoffs. In the
spring of 2015, the chapter captured its second
intramural championship of the academic year
in indoor soccer. Led by Austin “I may or may
not play varsity soccer” Freel ’16, Phi Sig won
the title from an anonymous group of angry
graduate students. In the year 2016, Sami
Kebede ’18 took the mantle of intramural direction, leading a fall season with strong performances from David Wu ’19 and other members
of the newly minted freshman class. As the
chapter heads into a heavily contested basketball playoffs, the future of intramural sports at
Phi Sigma Kappa is bright indeed.
Marco Cunqueiro
T
he Information Technology department is
tasked with addressing
issues with the printer
and house network as
well as developing the
fraternity’s website. As
of this past semester, the
IT department now has
another duty: developing and adding features to triple T (TTT). TTT
was an initiative started by previous IT chair,
Juan Diego Castrillon ’16, along with the help of
Michael Handley ’16 and Josh Haimson ’16. The
website now has features that show the weekly
dinner schedule, allow for the reservation of
late plates, and show PM requests. Additionally,
key benefit of TTT is that it allows users to create elections for Phi Sig officers during house
meetings and tallies the votes in a simple and
accurate manner.
As IT for this semester I wish to further
the capabilities of Triple T. When I
ran for this position, I promised features such
as Saturday Work signup and confirmation of
Monday Night Cleanup completion. I plan to
have these finished by the end of the semester
and if I finish these projects early, then I will
also look into working on additional features.
Our assistant Information Technology Chair,
Sean Fraser ’19 will be helping me with these
improvements.
Overall, the IT department has several
major goals for this semester and
we will try our best to make the brotherhood
Damn Proud.
Aviation
Matt Guthmiller ’17
When he landed in San Diego on July 14,
2014, 19-year-old Matt Guthmiller became the
youngest pilot to fly solo around the world.
F
or as long as I can remember, aviation has
fascinated me. As a kid I became obsessed
with flight simulator games and eating at
the airport café. I was inspired by stories of
the Wright brothers, Howard Hughes, Chuck
Yeager, and the Apollo program. Hearing
experienced pilots say it would be difficult to
plan and safely execute only made me more
determined.
After nine months of calling and emailing, I finally reached Mike Borden, president of High Performance Aircraft, a company
based in El Cajon, California, that maintains,
buys, and sells planes, who agreed to lease me
one of his planes. Meanwhile, I had been wrapping my head around the logistical nightmare
of circumnavigating the earth alone and seeking out people to handle some of the more
intensely bureaucratic processes for me. While
raising funds to cover the significant expenses
that would be involved, I had also realized I had
an opportunity to help others, so I decided to
use my trip to raise money for Code.org, which
promotes computer science education as a tool
for all kids to achieve their dreams.
Between May 31 and July 14, I spent
over 180 hours alone in a small plane, covered
roughly 30,500 miles, and made 23 stops in
15 countries on five continents, crossing three
oceans—as much as 16.5 hours and 2,700 miles
at a time. In Cairo I climbed the pyramids, nearly ended up in jail for taking photos of a spice
market, and witnessed a family of five riding a
motorcycle in six lanes of traffic on a four-lane
road in the middle of which two gentlemen
were selling sugar water. In the Philippines I
was treated like a rock star. And in American
Samoa I spent days lying in bed, almost completely cut off from the outside world while I
waited for the weather to clear so I could make
the last couple of flights to get home. When I
finally took off, I had to fly my plane 26 percent
above its maximum takeoff weight in order to
carry enough fuel.
Forty four days after I took off, I landed
back in San Diego on July 14 having circumnavigated the globe. Inspired by the giants
of aviation before me, I had come across an
impossible idea, was determined to make it
happen, and pursued my dream to completion.
Now I just have to make it through MIT…
Schwarzman
Scholarship
O
n August 22nd, 2016, Tsinghua University
in Beijing will welcome its first class of
111 Schwarzman Scholars. Started by Stephen
Schwarzman, founder of Blackstone investment
group, the goal of the program is to increase
the dialogue and understanding between
China and the rest of the world. Touted as the
Rhodes for China, the Schwarzman program is
a new distinguished fellowship which Alexander Springer (Course 2, ’16) has been awarded
to study International Studies as part of a new
Global Leadership Master’s Degree program.
From over 3000 applications, just
111 young global leaders were selected from
around the world to make up the special first
cohort of Schwarzman Scholars. This is a very
high honor for brother Springer who has
aspirations to create medical technologies to
eradicate healthcare disparities in the developing world. With diverse engineering projects
like a voice-controlled wheelchair, an allergen
detection device which won Time Magazine’s
50 best inventions of the year in 2015, and an
anemia diagnostic device, Springer has cultivated knowledge and experience in healthcare for
the developing world. With the Schwarzman
program, he hopes to round out his technical education with an understanding of the
humanistic side of international development
including the socioeconomic and political policies that lead to healthcare disparities. At the
conclusion of this program, Springer endeavors
to launch a creative capacity building initiative
in a developing country in order to foster innovation in healthcare around the world.
In keeping with the tradition of Phi
Sigs traveling around the world and
making an impact wherever they may go,
Springer welcomes any alumni living or traveling around Beijing to contact him. From the
ever growing throng of Phi Sigs, we eagerly
await to hear stories of success from our brothers around the world as they launch their
careers and forever remain Damn Proud!
Top: Matt Guthmiller ’17
with the plane in which he
circled the globe.
Bottom: Alex Springer ‘16
MEET THE PLEDGE CLASS OF 2019
2 Eric Wong
Juan De Jesus ’17, Inductor
T
Inductor
1 Arjun
he brothers of the Phi Sigma Kappa class of
2019 have, in their short time in our midst,
already proven themselves to be of the highest kind and quality. These thirteen young
boys, who under our auspices will one day
blossom into men, are fitting in well with the
house. They have a love for sports, proving
their worth in IM games and on the Varsity
fields, rivers, matts and tracks. The younglings
have an interest in Computer Science, as can be
seen by the age-old tradition of 6.01 P-setting
during House meeting. The cultural diversity of
the class is vibrant, with students hailing from
Switzerland, New Zealand, Egypt, and from all
over the United States. While we see different
interests in the 19’s, one thing is for certain;
when the time comes to come together to
prepare an event, like SK Late night and the sorority serenades, the 2019’s have already made
us Damn Proud!
These biographies were authored by the
pledges themselves, #1 wrote about #2, etc.
1 Arjun Khandelwal
2 Eric
3 Charlie
Arjun Khandewal is from nearby Lexington,
Massachusetts and even though he lives just
10 minutes from home, he almost always does
his own laundry. As a pescatarian, he doesn’t
eat meat, chicken or any of the viable sources
of protein. Arjun is a huge fan of debate, math
and he definitely hasn’t taken a break since he
came to MIT. Arjun is already involved in the
UROP program, is active in the Poker Club and
Traders@MIT, and already traveled to Brazil for
an externship during IAP. He is hoping to major
in some combination of Computer Science,
Math, and Management. While not attempting
to rule the world, Arjun kicks back by playing
the ukulele and plays some ultimate frisbee.
4 Julius
Eric Wong hails from Brooklyn, New York,
and is planning on pursuing a degree in Civil
Engineering and Architecture. As one of the
talented few consistently representing the
brotherhood of Phi Sigma Kappa in the sacred
clash that is Intramural Basketball, it shouldn’t
be a surprise that Eric excels at sports; when
not trampling the likes of Delts and Sigma Chi
on the court, he also finds time to be a star
player on the men’s club ultimate frisbee team,
Grim Beaver. In case you weren’t completely
convinced of Eric’s physical prowess, he’s also
earned the distinction of being an Eagle Scout,
the Boy Scouts of America highest rank. We
expect big things from Ewok down the line and
we are confident that he won’t disappoint.
3 Charlie Inman
Charlie “Donkey Punch” Inman is the dashingly good-looking new member of Phi Sig all
the way from Grafton, MA. Instead of driving,
he occasionally rows the hour drive instead
since crew practice just isn’t enough for this
jacked guy. When he isn’t erging away, he
looks at nuclear plants and stuff, pursuing his
interesting in Nuclear Engineering. Outside of
school and sports, Charlie doesn’t do much but
sources tell us that he like Chipotle. So there’s
that. He’s a great guy though. A real charming
fella. 10/10
4 Julius Baldauf-Lenschen
Our fourth pledge, Julius Baldauf-Lenschen
hails from the land of Zurich, Switzerland,
only to be drawn out of Europe by the allure
of MIT. To fully integrate himself in American
culture, Julius thought it best to tie his pledge
to the Omicron chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa to
America’s pastime. After somehow getting past
security and breaking into Fenway Park, he
made his declaration to many confused brothers who had been chasing fellow pledge Eric
5 Sawyer
6 Sean
Wong through the area. When he isn’t being
extremely friendly to everyone around him or
studying cool physics stuff for Course 8, Julius
spends his time as a member of the MIT Track
and Field team, both indoor and outdoor. Besides that, he’s a huge fan of skiing, or as they
call it back home, “shredding pow”. Another
hobby of Ian’s is robotics, and he founded the
rocketry club.
5 Sawyer Hart
It is frequently said that Sawyer Hart is the
most interesting man in the world. As a Houston native, Sawyer is interesting in the hiking,
fishing, and hunting - it is said that he once
killed two stones with one bird. Sawyer also
lists “mudding” as an interest, which is apparently something that people do somewhere.
And when he does it, he wears a ten-gallon hat
that holds twenty gallons. As far as his personality is concerned, he once won a fistfight, using only his man bun. His business card simply
says, “I’ll call you.” In museums, he is allowed
to touch the art. Sawyer plans to study Materials Science here at MIT, which he believes will
make him the most educated hillbilly in the
world. We wish him the best in this endeavor.
6 Sean Fraser
Sean Fraser was born in Auckland, New
Zealand, on the 24th of June. It was a stormy
evening. At the exact moment of his birth a
lightning bolt struck the Kahikatea tree under
which his mother lay. Seeing this as a bad
omen, Momma Fraser went to see the oracle
who told her not to fear, for this was in fact a
sign that the boy Fraser was to be endowed
with great speed, endurance, and intellect as
well as a voice like sweet honey to the ears of
any whom it graces. Endowed with his birthright, Sean went on to master cross-country,
tennis and soccer in high school. However,
physical competition was not enough to
quench the young Fraser’s thirst. He decided
to then excel in academia. As a course 6 major,
and already having held a UROP in course 20,
Sean shows great potential as predicted by the
7 Chris
oracles so long ago. As having been born under
the supple branches of the mighty Kahikatea,
Sean has always been most at home outdoors,
in particular on the mountains skiing.
7 Chris Goul
Chris Goul, a Newport Beach, CA native,
embodies all of the attributes of a true brother
of Phi Sigma Kappa. In terms of scholarship,
Brother Goul has UROPed in Course 16, but will
likely major in course 2 as he is interested in
robotics. Last semester Chris participated in a
sword making UROP and is doing a course in
blacksmithing this semester, which is one of
his diverse passions. In regards to his character,
there is little to question – Brother Goul is a
true brother through and through, as he has
shown in the classroom and on the baseball
field. Lastly, as far as his brotherhood is concerned, Chris is literally a brother in that he is
one of three triplets who are all in the MIT class
of 2019. And already within Phi Sigma Kappa,
Brother Goul has strengthened the chains
of brotherhood by excelling in the game of
“Odds” – it’s spooky how good he is.
13 Ali
8 Patrick Dent
12 Bihn
9 Frankie Soucy
11 Ben
Patrick Dent hails from McLean, VA. He was
a two time national champion rower in high
school, and continues to row for the MIT Crew
team. He’s considering studying economics,
mathematics, or business, but is still currently
undecided – much alike a child deciding which
ice cream flavor to pick at Ben and Jerry’s. In
his free time he enjoys listening to rap music
and watching Netflix. Patrick is known for his
crazy, and often goofy, stories, most of which
you would not believe were they about anyone
else other than him. He has already held a
house position, and continues to contribute to
fraternity life in many ways.
Francis “Frankie” Soucy is from Danvers
Massachusetts. An avid sportsman, Frankie’s
wrestling team won the state championship in
high school and hopes to continue his domi-
8 Patrick
9 Frankie
10 David
nance for the MIT wrestling team. In the classroom, Frankie plans on majoring in course 6-3
because he thinks it’s about time that computers were as smart as he is and he has currently
secured a research position in the Media Lab.
Frankie has counted to infinity on at least three
separate occasions. He once got bitten by a cobra, and after 3 days of agony, the cobra finally
died. I am proud to call this man my brother.
10 David Wu
Back in October, we freshmen trembled in
fright in room 10-250, just hours before our
first serenade. Questioning our manhoods,
doubting our bids to Phi Sig, shaking in our
boots, Dan Chen was simply not the hero this
pledge class needed. That was when David
Wu, a native of Naperville, IL, stepped up to the
plate and made us see our God-given potential.
Rhythmically stepping to an odd combination
of Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson, “Big
Dave”, as I like to call him, inspired us to not
jump ship when we suited up and headed over
to SK. Sure, the majority of us forgot the lyrics
anyway, and David neglected to take off his
shirt, yet all of us at Phi Sig should remember
David Wu for his courage. We have no doubts
that Mr. Wu will continue to demonstrate such
grace under pressure in his future endeavors,
while pursuing his interests in Civil Engineering and Urban Planning and on the MIT soccer
team. was born in Woodridge, IL and has lived
there his entire life. He grew up attending
Downers Grove South High School, but transferred during his Sophomore year to the Illinois
Mathematics and Science Academy, a public
boarding school run by the state of Illinois.
While at IMSA, John was an active participant
in economics and mathematics clubs. He has
a passion for anything related to economics,
including finance or applied econometrics.
11 Ben Gruber
Photos of the Class of 2019
on Pledge Retreat in the Fall
of 2015
Benjamin Gruber or “Grooby Groobs” hails
from Signal Mountain, Tennessee, and yes ... he
is in fact the only 10 I see. As a child, he learned
how to tie a bolo tie before he could tie his
own shoes. In high school ran cross-country
and participated in youth government cuz “he
a beast.” He has since switched his focus to
Navy ROTC and partying ... but mostly partying – being the first one at and last one to leave
the party. His dedication to the brotherhood is
second to none. This commitment was evident
if Gruber’s “red sheet” performance: in one day
Ben learned more about all the brothers than
they knew about themselves and passed the
examination with flying colors. Ben also loves
very explicit rap music and voluntarily got shot
in Reno, Nevada to feel closer to his heroes Notorious BIG, Tupac, and Chief Keef. True story.
12 Bihn Le
Binh Le graduated from Portage Central
High School in Portage Michigan, where he
played varsity soccer for four years. He has continued his soccer career on the varsity team at
MIT. Binh has an interest in programming, and
has been pursuing this interest in his free time.
He made “Pantry,” and award-winning application, in the class 6.148. He has also made two
iPhone games, “Project Space Monkey” and
“Tropic Rush,” which have over 1100 downloads
to date. Binh has an identical twin that goes to
Yale, and is the youngest of four brothers.
13 Ali Badr
From Cairo, Egypt, Ali Badr brings to Massachusetts his love for sports, music and just
plain old fun. His dance moves single handedly
salvaged our rendition of Jackson 5’s “I Want
You Back” during sorority serenades. Towering
over the rest of us at well over 6 feet, he’s both
a prominent force on the basketball court as
well as in the classroom where he graduated
as his high school valedictorian. When he’s not
dominating the paint in intramurals or crushing
exams, he spends some of his time organizing the MIT Energy Career Fair with an interest
in majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a
concentration in Energy.