Hello all! I am so proud to welcome you to Alpha Phi at MIT. I am beyond glad you are here and hope you can learn a bit about this wonderful place we call home.
My name is Vie Kouadio, and it is my honor to serve as Chapter President of MIT's Alpha Phi Zeta Phi Chapter. I study Biological Engineering with a focus on environmental remediation using synthetic biology and microbial ecology. I came to Cambridge from California's Central Valley, and more than two thousand miles from my hometown, I found my chosen home in Alpha Phi.
But before I tell you about my sisters and this wonderful community, I want to ask a question that stayed with me during my very first week here.
If you had the chance to choose your community - truly choose it - what would it look like? What values would those people carry? Would they push you to your fullest potential? How would they move through the world, and what impact would they want to have?
These were questions running through my mind as I began my freshman year. I am the oldest of five children, and with three sisters, I already understood what sisterhood meant, but I found myself imagining what a chosen sisterhood might feel like.
I came to MIT because I saw the impact of ecological degradation in my hometown, and wanted to apply my education in bioengineering and earth science to positively impact communities suffering disproportionately from climate change. But my goals can not be achieved in a vacuum. In college, the people around you quietly shape who you become - your ambitions, your resilience, your sense of what's worth doing and why.
I’ve watched my sorority sisters direct summer programs for children facing a parent's cancer, give TED talks in packed auditoriums, publish first authored research papers and lead teams at top tech companies. I have watched my sisters travel to Iraq, taking time off of school to work on service and cultural initiatives. I’ve witnessed these girls raise over $10,000 for heart disease research, win national tournaments, and direct plays. And after all that, I’ve shared dinner with these same girls, who made me laugh so hard I cried during house dinner - who sat with me during my most stressful and heartbreaking moments at MIT.
This Institute has a reputation for putting the most ambitious spirits under intense pressure, and pressure can yield diamonds - but only if you have the right people supporting you. As I reflect on the year I have left here, I am deeply grateful for the coursework and research that has shaped my thinking. But closest to my heart are the friendships, lessons, and experiences the women of Alpha Phi have brought into my life. I was never alone - I always had Alpha Phi.
With love,
Vie <3
