Melanie Cole (Host): MIT Spouses and Partners Connect is a dedicated network for the significant others of MIT students, post-docs, staff, and faculty who have relocated to the Boston area. Welcome to Conversations with MIT Health. I'm Melanie Cole. My guest today is Jennifer Recklet Tassi. She's the program manager for MIT Spouses and Partners Connect. Welcome to the show, Jennifer. Tell us about Spouses and Partners Connect. What activities and events do you offer to help members meet each other, share information and enjoy life in Boston?

Jennifer Recklet Tassi (Guest):  Thanks, Melanie. We offer a huge menu of opportunities to the spouses and partners who follow their MIT student or post-doc to the Boston area. We focus our programming on newcomers to Boston, to the United States. We are also have programming for new parents because many of our members come with small children or have children during their time at MIT. We work also with people who are looking for jobs while they're in the Boston area. We have, as I said, a big menu of opportunities. We have weekly meet-ups where people can come together and socialize and also learn about a new topic, or hear from a professor about their expertise, or take a trip in the Boston area. Our members organize interest groups based on their passions and their expertise. We have a Spanish teacher this semester. We have a wonderful woman who teaches the Japanese tea ceremony. We always have members who want to cook together and we also provide larger social events for couples and families to get together and get to know each other, like our annual kids' clothing exchange, and we're starting to have an annual ice skating party so people can really embrace the joy of winter in the Boston area. So, there are many-many events and activities, many entry points for people.

Melanie:  How fun! How do new arrivals at MIT find out about MIT Spouses and Partners Connect?

Jennifer:  We work very, very hard to get the word out about our programs and activities. We have our campus partners, other offices, and services on campus where we know spouses are going to go to get their ID cards, or learn more information about applying for a work permit, or find information about getting child care. We make sure those offices and people are well-informed about what we are offering and can refer people to us. We work very closely with the graduate student council during their orientation period to provide events that give useful information to new spouses, and it just gets our name out in the community. We've got a terrific website, we have an active Facebook presence. We’ll post flyers on the bulletin boards. We do it all to make sure we can reach our audience.

Melanie:  Spouses and Partners Connect has a very diverse membership with people coming to MIT from all over the world. Learning to speak English is a big priority for many of the newcomers. What kind of support does Spouses and Partners Connect offer to those members who are trying to learn English?

Jennifer:  It's a very good point, Melanie. It is one of the biggest concerns of our international members:   how can I improve my English and feel comfortable conversing with the people that I'm encountering in my daily life?  We are lucky in the Boston area that there are many, many schools and organizations that provide English classes but what we do is create a really safe, supportive environment for people to practice speaking. It's one thing to sit in class and study your grammar. It's a whole different experience to go into a coffee shop and try to order a sandwich. We try to say, "We go for participation, not perfection." We want people to come and talk, make mistakes, stumble over their words. We are the kindest, safest audience to practice and learn and really start to use your English.


Melanie:  How lovely! Tell us about the Career Connect, the job search and career development support program.

Jennifer:  We're very, very proud of our Career Connect program, and we've worked very hard over the years to develop it. This is aimed at people who are looking for work, people who are interested in exploring new careers, and people who just want to think about how to keep their professional life going while they're in Boston because it might be a short-term visit or it might be that their visa doesn't allow them to work. So, we have created a series of workshops that we hold in the fall semester and the spring semester and we cover a variety of topics that are really designed, customized for first-time job seekers in the United States. We discuss how to craft a resume, what to expect in an interview, how to network in a job search. We cover LinkedIn. I also do a talk on adapting to the American personality so they can have an idea of what to expect in a workplace. We always, at the end of each semester, pull together a group of spouses who have found jobs, and they can tell their personal story to the job searchers, and really inspire them and support them as they go through what can sometimes be a difficult process. We also offer private consultations to members who want me to read through their resume or maybe they're getting ready for an interview and want to practice the questions, or just want to talk about ideas. Maybe they are a little stuck in their job search and need some new ideas and a fresh perspective on it.

Melanie:  Many members are parents, often new parents, Jennifer. Can you tell us a little bit about the challenges that parents may face when moving to a new city, and what kind of support does Spouses and Partners Connect offer through the Parents Connect program?

Jennifer:  Yes, wow! It is hard enough to move yourself to a new country, never mind small children. There's a lot of logistics involved in that, just like do I have the right health records? How do I sign them up for school? How can I find a reliable baby sitter? The list goes on and on. We are very well-connected with the other supportive resources at MIT which include our Work Life Center and our Pediatric Service. What I think we do best is providing peer support to meet other parents who walked the path ahead of the new parents, and to share resources, ideas, commiserate, be there if someone needs a babysitter last minute. We also provide free optional childcare at our weekly meeting. So, that's a great way for parents to maybe have a little break for those two hours or, if they are really new to leaving their child with a babysitter, it's a really great safe and comfortable place where they can practice to see how they feel, to see how their child feel. It's really to peer support community and it's wonderful to see how parents really help and support each other when their families are so far away.

Melanie:  So, our programs are not just about studying, parenting and career development. Spouses and Partners Connect host a lot of fun activities. Tell us about some of the social events.

Jennifer:  As I mentioned, we've had a great ice skating party over the past couple of years. Every year is different. That's what happens with Spouses and Partners. Our group is really influenced by our members and our volunteers. Every year we have new volunteers with great creative ideas. Last year, we had a really fun dessert competition which was fantastic. The year before, we did a really big, fun Brazilian carnival. So, it really depends but we try to make it fun. We try to make it a family friendly. There's usually food involved and maybe exposing people to something that they haven't done before. For a lot of people with those cold winters in Boston, they never ice skated before, so this is a great chance for them to try something new and have some fun with friends and family.

Melanie:  Wrap it up for us, Jennifer. What a wonderful program that you take care of there at MIT. Wrap it up for us with the website where people can find out more about MIT Spouses and Partners Connect?

Jennifer:  Sure. We are on the web at www.spouses.mit.edu. You should find everything you need to know about our group and what we're offering. There are great resources for newcomers on that website. You can also from that website subscribe to our weekly e-mail updates. There's a subscribe form. Fill that out and you'll hear from us every week about all the activities that are coming. We have a Facebook page. We have a Facebook group. We have a LinkedIn group. Those are all great ways to find us. We are in the Medical Department on the fourth floor, so you can also come up stairs and say “hi” to us as well.

Melanie: MIT Spouses and Partners Connect is a dedicated network for the significant others of MIT students, post-docs, staff, and faculty who have relocated to the Boston area. Welcome to Conversations with MIT Health. I'm Melanie Cole. My guest today is Jennifer Recklet Tassi. She's the program manager for MIT Spouses and Partners Connect. Welcome to the show, Jennifer. Tell us about Spouses and Partners Connect. What activities and events do you offer to help members meet each other, share information and enjoy life in Boston?