Building community, one lunch at a time

The Fradkin Graduate Student Lunch (GSL) is a program sponsored by the MIT Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (GA^3) and managed by the GSL Executive Committee to strengthen the AeroAstro community by encouraging graduate students to seek out new connections with other graduate students and staff throughout the department. As part of this program, the Executive Committee sponsors group lunches both on- and off-campus and provides snacks in the grad lounge to build community. 

“This initiative has inspired many of us to take a break from work, explore restaurants around Cambridge, and to form connections beyond our research groups,” says Skylar Eiskowitz, who runs the program this year.

The Fradkin GSL is named in honor of Ms. Pam Fradkin, a staff member in AeroAstro who is a tireless advocate of community building and whose door is always open to welcome everyone to AeroAstro.

“The GSL program was named after Pam at its inception in April of 2022,” says Ryan de Freitas Bart, a PhD student in the Engineering Systems Lab. “Pam inspired me to create the program as a way to build community in AeroAstro. I also thought that Pam really embodied the spirit of the program, as she is a central face in AeroAstro—everyone knows her and just stops by to chat.”