The Girl Scout Benefit
My name is Andrew, but my friends call me Jamoozy. After 7 years, I finally finished my doctorate work at CSAIL last week. Now, I’m taking what I call a “microsabbatical,” visiting friends and family in Europe and the US.
There was a tradition at CSAIL, called “The Girl Scout Benefit.” Every Friday1 people convene on the 9th floor in an effort to raise money for the Girl Scouts of America. This tradition started back before CSAIL even existed, it started in the days of the AI Lab2 The story I was told is that there was a graduate student in the lab at the time whose daughter was in the Girl Scouts. She wanted to raise money by collecting bottles3, so her mother4 decided to help her in that task, by asking her fellow graduate students to create empty bottles. GSB was born.
Well, what kinds of empty bottles they traditionally are isn’t really important to this story—my introductory post. The thing I think I will miss most about being a student at MIT is sending GSB messages every Friday to announce that it will be happening. Yes, I was Den Mother of GSB for 5 years. My messages were sometimes lame, sometimes funny, sometimes insightful, and sometimes very brief. Always, they were a beautiful release. I would not have completed my Ph.D.5 without GSB.
I’m starting this blog to keep writing messages in a similar style to GSB. I hope you enjoy them.
1Well …almost every Friday.
2The lab that CSAIL got its “A” and its “I” from.
3Back then, 5¢was worth it, I guess.
4I’m not sure why I think it was her mother that was the grad student. Memory is funny that way.
5Actually, it was a Sc.D.—a doctor of science—but I find myself calling it a Ph.D. most times to avoid the inevitable question.