Improving Walkability in Lawrence, MA: The Start!
Mariko Davidson will spend IAP collaborating with non-profits Groundwork Lawrence and WalkBoston on pedestrian safety issues and increasing walkability in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The project will highlight safe pedestrian routes and propose design solutions to connect people from central Lawrence to the new Spicket River Greenway path system. This proposal will be submitted to the Mayor¹s [...]
Math tutoring at a local school
Drew Minnear ’14 spent IAP 2011 learning about the Cambridge Public School system. Through a Community Service Work-Study position, he worked in the Cambridge School Volunteers office writing public service announcements and distributing them to radio stations while also investigating ways for the office to go paperless. The second part of his job allowed him [...]
Connecting to the environment
Sondra Smith ‘12 spent the summer of 2010 as a Community Service Work-Study student with theMOVE (the MA Outdoor Volunteer Experience), a new nonprofit that coordinates reflective farm-volunteer workdays for diverse groups throughout the Boston area. Sondra helped with data analysis, creating an experiential learning curriculum, and setting up a membership system. She said, “I [...]
Mixing dance class with homework
During IAP 2010, Ashli Davis ’12 and Merricka Livingstone ’12 worked as homework tutors at the Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House afterschool program through Community Service Work-Study. The Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House is a very short walk from campus in Area IV and is a member of the Kendall Community Group—a collaboration between MIT, local businesses [...]
ReachOut: Teach a child to read
The MIT Public Service Center partners with the Cambridge Community Center to run a literacy tutoring program for elementary school aged children called ReachOut. During the 2010-2011 school year, fifty-five MIT students participated in the program as volunteer or work-study tutors, meeting with the same child twice a week to tackle reading, writing, and language [...]
Grace Lee ’10: Student Leader in Service
Student Leaders in Service is an AmeriCorps program that provides participating students with tuition assistance for completing 300 hours of service over the course of a year. Forty-two student awards have been handed out since MIT began participating in the program in 2008. Two-time participant Grace Lee ’10 performed the majority of her service as [...]
Blogging from the field
This summer, eight Public Service Fellows and Interns will be blogging about their public service project. Students will be working this summer in places such as Jakarta, Indonesia, Surrey, British Columbia in Canada, and in rural Uganda. A short description about the students’ projects is below. To read the blogs, click on the student bloggers [...]
Cleaning up the Charles River during CityDays
CityDays kicks off the school year as a traditional part of orientation at MIT. Groups of MIT students – freshmen and upperclassmen – venture into the Cambridge and Boston communities to complete service projects. Some of the community organizations (among the 42 total) that students work with include AIDS Action Committee, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of [...]
Designing the Cyclos motor
In the class Product Engineering Process, 2.009, a team of students designed an affordable system, Cyclos, that extracts oil from filters so they can be safely recycled. Cyclos is targeted to the small auto shops that often throw away their filters – leading to serious water contamination around the landfills. Pictured are Dave Foster ’08 [...]
Working for New Ecology Inc.
Community Service Work-Study student Shiva Prakash ’09 assisted New Ecology Inc (NEI) with background research on new technologies for public housing and other government sponsored projects in low-income communities. NEI works with its constituents to help them integrate sustainable development into their ongoing work: development that protects environmental quality and eliminates pollution and waste, provides [...]
Using the 6dot Braille Labeler
The 6Dot Braille Labeler, a portable electronic label maker for the visually impaired, originated in MIT Professor David Wallace’s 2.009 Product Engineering Processes. The 6dot team was awarded a 2009 IDEAS implementation grant of $7500 in 2009. Since then, the team has worked to conduct further in-depth user trials of their prototype and are now [...]
Before running the Chi Phi Back Bay 5K
Duane Dennis (’13, Undeclared), Sebastian Begg (’13, Undeclared), and Ishaan Kumar (’13, Undeclared) learning about Pure Home Water before the before the Chi Phi Back Bay 5K 2010 race with proceeds to fund local organizations. Photo: Saba Mohsin
Physiology Understanding Week
Alexandra Elisa German (G, Course HST) and Grace Sock Leng Teo (G, Course HST) using an activity to explain blockage of blood vessels with coffee sticks and straws during Physiology Understanding Week (PhUn Week) in November 2010. PhUn Week, a nationwide outreach program building connections between scientists and their local schools, aims to engage students [...]
Explaining physiology
Harry Benjamin Larman (G, Course HST) explains bones and the skeletons with children for Physiology Understanding Week (PhUn Week) November 2010. PhUn Week is a nationwide outreach program building connections between scientists and their local schools.
