I volunteered for a year
And not just because my mom wanted free shirts
Katherine Liu – The Tech
KATHERINE LIU – THE TECH
My mom’s been disappointed in me since the day I came home from CPW. She’d seen the WeChat photos of merch hauls from the club fair (Midway) and had been ready to proudly share her own daughter’s grabs — surely, at least a shirt from MIT Poker Club!
But I had none.
Not one new item of clothing gained from my visit to MIT.
My return during winter break was slightly better received! I could offer my mom the PE & Wellness shirt from the swim test and the Class of 2029 Orientation shirt. But the first week had passed by, and with it, another Midway. Still, the same question remained — where were my club T-shirts??
Then finally, finally, when I got home last week for the summer, I could at long last fulfill my mom’s dreams. I’d even called her about it ahead of time, too excited to leave my gifts a surprise. The glorious bounty of shirts was the first thing I unpacked when we arrived home from the airport, each one beautifully branded with a club name: MIT Science Olympiad (Scioly), Ring Committee (RingComm), MIT Science Bowl, and MIT Educational Studies Program (ESP).
But what happened? Had I suddenly locked in, competing ferociously with the prefrosh for merch at their Midway? No way. Did I somehow balance all these clubs and extracurriculars on top of my first semester off P/NR? Absolutely not. The answer lies elsewhere. Intertwined in the threads and cheap print of every shirt I’d collected was a story, the secret to my success: volunteering, my favorite side quest.
I love volunteering. I volunteer that we take a tour of my (and my mom’s) new closet! We have many shirts and memories to wade through and rate.
MIT Scioly
Shirt - 7/10. Cute art on the back but I’ve never worn it out.
Experience - 9/10. Some of my dearest memories from high school are from Science Olympiad competitions (like MIT Scioly 2025!), so I love any chance to continue being a part of it. I got to proctor and grade my favorite event, Codebusters, and talk to some former teammates from my high school.
Harvard University Science Olympiad
Shirt - 9/10. The long-sleeve shirt had so much aura; I loved the art as well but I messed it up while doing laundry so I’ve also never worn it :(
Experience - 8.5/10. Same nostalgia as MIT Scioly but a slightly less cool school running it, you know what I mean?
Class of 2028 Brass Rat
Shirt - 7/10. Super cool to have this shirt as a class of 2029, but slightly uncomfy.
Experience - 7.5/10. I got this shirt while volunteering to set up for the sophomores’ ring premiere; a bunch of us created an assembly line to pack over a thousand gift bags with shirts, stickers, and… shot glasses? They said it would take around four hours, but we got it done in one!
MIT Science Bowl
Shirt - 10/10. So incredibly comfy and cute, I wear it to sleep all the time.
Experience - 8/10. I never did Science Bowl in high school, but I was always in awe of the kids who did because they were so smart, and it was no different here. I kept score in the morning (including for the eventual winning team!) and got to watch the team from my high school compete live in the afternoon.
ESP Security
Shirt - 0/10. White block letters on a bright red shirt; it was embarrassing to wear.
Experience - 6/10. I was volunteering for Splash! The first day, I stood in Building 26 for hours to offer directions to lost high schoolers, which wasn’t the most exciting thing to do. The second day, I got to teach a walk-in lesson on spinning a pencil around your thumb, my favorite party trick — if you consider taking notes at school a party — since sixth grade. I really like teaching, and I was super happy that so many of my students got it by the end!
Pie a Pi Phi
Shirt - 10/10. Unfair competition because it’s a soft hoodie.
Experience - 7/10. My friend smashed a shaving cream pie into my face and then rubbed two more into my hair, so it would definitely be weird to say I enjoyed the experience more than a mere passing grade. However, I loved supporting my sorority’s philanthropy, Read > Lead > Achieve, so it was very much worth it! I wasn’t able to attend our spring event, Arrowspike, or else I’d have a shirt for that as well.
Honorable mention to the Math Prize for Girls competition, which I didn’t explicitly include because it’s not an MIT club. From them, I not only received two Jane Street–branded T-shirts, but also a water bottle, backpack, and stuffed animal.
Other organizations that I’ve volunteered for this year, but didn’t receive a shirt from, are the Massachusetts State Academic Decathlon, MIT’s English Partner Program, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, MIT Theater Guild, and Y2Y, the youth homeless shelter in Harvard Square. I wish I’d found the time to help out at SpringFest and HMMT as well, among others.
Regardless, I’m extremely satisfied with the way I’ve spent this past year, waking up at 7 a.m. on Saturdays as often as I could (thank god Dunkin’ opens that time as well). Many of the jobs that called to me from the endless slew of dormspam opportunities involved proctoring for high school competitions; I remember sitting in the same iconic seats when I was younger (Walker Memorial! 10-250!) struggling over some insane math problem, knowing that a successful solution could change my life. (And it did; I’m an MIT student now, aren’t I?) I love doing my tiny part to make these competitions run as smoothly as possible, hoping that a kid in the crowd is securing their future like I was lucky enough to do. I hope you’re proud of me, Mom.