I didn’t want to do any work this week, but the editors asked me to write a reflection of my time at Caltech. I started thinking about all the things that have changed in the four years I’ve been here, and I found that some of the biggest changes came from the actions of students. So, as the seniors graduate and we celebrate the academic accomplishments of the class of 2003, I’d like to highlight some of our non-academic contributions to the Caltech community.

Graduating in 2003 are two ASCIT Presidents and two Caltech Y ExComm Presidents – double the number there usually are. We are graduating seven House Presidents but only six ASCIT BoD members and four BoC Reps. Overall, there were 85 seniors who were at some time involved in student government. We are also graduating 40 varsity athletes. A rough count reveals that 150 seniors were significantly involved in some extracurricular activity during their time at Tech.

The administrators handed out leadership awards to a few of these students, but there were many seniors who were overlooked. I want to point out some of those students first:

Juan Rodriguez was by far the most active House President over the past year. He guided Ricketts House through its biggest crisis in recent memory and gave everything he had. Last spring, he took the initiative to ask Student Affairs for a new Alcohol and Fire Policy, which are now close to implementation. He also chaired the Alcohol Policy committee through the summer and through most of this year. While that was going on, he also served on the UASH committee. The student body and Ricketts House in particular will miss his presence.

Juan served on an IHC chaired by Marcus Williams, who is another one of the outstanding leaders of the senior class. When his predecessor had to leave office early, Marcus stepped up from his position as Dabney House President, mediating numerous crises on a succession of ASCIT BoD’s and IHC’s. In a thankless job, Marcus could always be counted on for a level-headed opinion. He put in far more than was ever asked of him and will leave many lasting effects on campus.

There are quite a few permanent marks that the senior class will leave behind at Caltech. Some of them have gone relatively unnoticed. For example, Kaisa Taipale started a Math Club at Caltech that actually has math majors talking with each other.

One of the more prominent legacies of the senior class is Crippling Depression, which is a product of seniors Tim Wan and Ben Lee along with junior Mike Yeh. We are also graduating two Tech editors in Dana Sadava and Jon Foster as well as a little t editor in Andrea McColl, a Big T editor in Mona Sheikh, and a Totem editor in Martha-Helene Stapleton.

One of the biggest contributions to the student government came in the form of a web site at donut.caltech.edu, and for that the credit goes to three graduates by the names of Jonathan Dama, Robert Christy, and Dylan Simon. They are also responsible for the online CURJ, but the donut site will be their legacy as it has brought us online voting, a working student directory, a restaurant guide, and a book exchange among other features. They also engineered the ASCIT DVD library, and their efforts will serve students for decades.

Frosh today probably could not imagine ASCIT without the donut site, but without Jon, Rob, and Dylan, it wouldn’t be there. Another product of our class is the Caltech Cheer Squad, which was dormant until Nicole Eber resurrected the cheerleaders in 1999. Stephanie Kovalchik, Dana Sadava, and Nitzan Roth were also part of that reincarnated squad, and Oscar Jay Carlton, Elaine Ou, Jialan Wang, and I joined later as the cheer squad grew from Nicki’s dream to a professionally-coached team that brought home a trophy.

If it were possible, I’d highlight the extracurricular accomplishments of every member of the class of 2003. Unfortunately, that would make for a really long article, so now I’m going to give up and just make an alphabetical list of some people I missed:

Jon Bird was Social Chair of Fleming House and played on the Men’s basketball Team.

Abel Bourbois was VP of the Caltech Y ExComm and chaired a Student-Faculty Conference Committee.

Saskya Byerly was a BoC Rep and a Caltech diver.

Zack Chadick was Dabney House Treasurer and a Boc Rep.

Jing Chen was President of Tau Beta Pi, Secretary of SWE, and Treasurer of Building Bridges.

Eugene Cheung was on the Page Ath Team and Treasurer before becoming President, and he played on the Men’s Gold Team.

Andy Conner was Dabney House Ath Man and Vice-President, and he played baseball.

Dan Fabrycky was a member of the Blacker Social Team and President of the CCF Council.

Randie Kim played for the Women’s Basketball Team, was a member of the Freshman Admissions Committee, and was Fleming House Historian.

Chad Kishimoto was a member of the Ruddock House Social Team and the Hawaiian Club, and he played in the Concert and Pep Bands.

Elise Kleeman was IHC Secretary and a CRC Rep.

Kelly Klima was President of SWE and played for the volleyball team.

Vikram Mittal was Fleming House Librarian and the BoC Chair.

Tony Nannini was Fleming House President and played for the Soccer, Baseball, and Track teams.

Marc Popkin-Paine sang with Ecphonema and the Chamber Singers, and he was the Fleming House Secretary and a member of the Freshman Admissions Committee.

Joy Qiu was a member of the Caltech Y ExComm and President of the Women’s Glee Club.

Isaac See was the Large Group coordinator for CCF, Election Chair for ASCIT, and concertmaster of the Orchestra.

Melissa Soriano played for the Women’s Basketball Team and was Head Captain at the Ath and the Coffeehouse Manager.

Kevin Tse played for the Soccer Team and was Fleming House Ath Man and Vice-President.

Ada Yu played for the Women’s Basketball Team and was a Student Captain at the Athenaeum.

That’s still not even half of the graduates who gave their time to extracurricular activities during their time at Tech, but hopefully you get the point. What you get out of college doesn’t just come from professors and books, and the class of 2003 should be commended for giving more to the student body than anyone ever asked of us.