Students

Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Mitchel Resnick explores how a new coding app developed by researchers from the Lifelong Kindergarten group is aimed at allowing young people to use mobile phones to create interactive stories, games and animations. Resnick makes the case that with “appropriate apps and support, mobile phones can provide opportunities for young people to imagine, create, and share projects.”

“Brief Tender Light,” a documentary by Arthur Musah '04, MEng '05, spotlights four African-born MIT students and their experiences with adapting to the culture and challenges in and out of the classroom, reports Celina Colby for The Bay State Banner. “The story of international students, or specifically African students, in the U.S. hadn’t really been told,” says Musah. “Stats that I’ve learned more recently say there are about a million international students in any given year studying in the U.S., of which about 40,000 are African. That seems like a substantial portion of the fabric of American society.”

Arthur Musah '04, MEng '05 and graduate student Philip Abel Adama speak with WBUR host Tiziana Dearing about Musah’s documentary, “Brief Tender Light,” which follows the lives of four African-born MIT students, who “were driven to study in the U.S. and create change at home.” Musah explains, “I made this film because I felt having gone through the experience of studying in the U.S. and gone through a transformative experience, I felt that there were questions that were unanswered that I didn’t know I would have after the experience and so it was a way to go back and answer those questions or look for answers.” 

Michael Bergren, director of MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, speaks with U.S. News & World Report reporter Katie Rix about research opportunities for undergraduates at MIT.

Arthur Musah '04, MEng '05 speaks with Boston Globe reporter Kajsa Kedefors about his new documentary, “Brief Tender Light,” which follows the lives of several African-born students from their first year at MIT through graduation and to their first jobs. Musah, “weaves in his own reflections in voice-overs throughout the film, exploring what it means to be an international African student at an elite American institution,” explains Kedefors. “He speaks to the pressure the students in the film share from back home: the idea that education is valuable and rare — that they should bring back what they learned to better the community.”

Nature reporter Abdullahi Tsanni spotlights Nicole McGaa, a fourth-year student at MIT, and her work leading MIT’s all-Indigenous rocket team to the 2023 First Nations Launch National Rocket Competition. “Our project and others like it will set a precedent at MIT that will help Indigenous students to bridge their identity with their engineering aspirations and career goals,” says McGaa. “I encourage other Indigenous students to be brave, approach your projects with courage and try incorporating your identity and values into your work.”

Undergraduate student Isabella Struckman and Sofie Kupiec ’23 reached out to the first hundred signatories of the Future of Life Institute’s open letting calling for a pause on AI development to learn more about their motivations and concerns, reports Will Knight for Wired. “The duo’s write-up of their findings reveals a broad array of perspectives among those who put their name to the document,” writes Knight. “Despite the letter’s public reception, relatively few were actually worried about AI posing a looming threat to humanity.”

Undergraduate student Manaal Mohammed, one of six members of the 2023 New York Times Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship, discusses the inspiration for the crossword she recently cooked up that is “full of references with personal significance,” reports Caitlin Lovinger for The New York Times. Mohammed’s “humor in the entries is quite effective, with some dry notes and some goofy connections,” Lovinger notes. “This puzzle is inspired by the many pastas my mom made over the years because I was too picky to eat other food,” says Mohammed.

The New York Times reports that a new study from Opportunity Insights examines the advantage wealthy applicants have in gaining admission to highly selective universities, and shows that at MIT they were no more likely to attend than the average applicant with the same test score. Stu Schmill, dean of admissions and student financial services, notes: “I think the most important thing here is talent is distributed equally but opportunity is not, and our admissions process is designed to account for the different opportunities students have based on their income.”

In an episode of The Moth, Anh Vu Sawyer MBA '20 speaks about what it was like for her to attend MIT Sloan as a 64-year-old student. “The experience of being at MIT showed who I really am” says Sawyer. “That I can still dream. It opened many opportunities; it opened many doors.”

Writing for Times Higher Ed, Prof. Carlo Ratti makes the case that in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, big data and analytics could “help admissions officers quantitatively capture the kinds of disadvantages applicants face and the kinds of diversity they may represent.”

In an article for U.S. News & World Report spotlighting U.S. universities that offer students access to the latest cutting-edge technologies, Cole Claybourn spotlights MIT’s maker culture. “‘Maker culture’ permeates the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where students work in collaborative settings to innovate and create,” Claybourn writes. 

Chancellor Melissa Nobles discusses challenges facing higher education, touching on the importance of diversity, inclusion, and affordability in higher learning, as well as her research on race and politics. Nobles notes that MIT’s signature ability is “to foster excellence in fundamental research and education and then to use that research and education to help tackle the world’s toughest problems. Our success rests crucially on our people. We support, we welcome, and we collaborate with some of the best faculty and staff around the world. And, of course, we attract the best students.”

In a letter to the editor of The Washington Post, MIT President Emeritus L. Rafael Reif and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, vice provost of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, emphasize the importance of ensuring international graduate students can stay and work in the U.S. after graduation. “International graduate students are one of the 21st century’s most valuable resources,” they write. “It is time for the United States to start treating them that way.”

Latinx students were celebrated at the first MIT Latinx graduation celebration at the Media Lab on May 31, reports Arrman Kyaw for Diverse Issues in Higher Education. “It was an honor to plan the first Institute-wide Latinx graduation ceremony, a process that began over a year ago with the mission to recognize not only the academic achievements of our community but also this large milestone within our culture and heritage,” says Isabella Salinas ’23, president of the Latino Cultural Center.