Community Service

For a great many students, the most satisfying way to spend their spare time is participating in community service. Most often, this is coordinated through MIT's Public Service Center, located prominently on the Infinite Corridor.

MIT jugglers perform for children with impaired hearing and speaking disabilities. Students often become Big Sisters and Big Brothers to children in the area. Participants in our Change a Life Program volunteer at homeless shelters, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, children's hospitals and other community centers. Freshmen participating in the Adopt a Grandpa Program visit elders on an ongoing basis, spend time talking with them, share in social activities and even help with tasks requiring personal presence and reassurance.

Other service organizations include: Alpha Phi Omega (a national service fraternity), Amnesty International at MIT and Alternative Spring Break. Circle K members volunteer at local soup kitchens and provide tutoring for the local Boys and Girls Club. AISES/NASA provides tutoring to Native American Students in the New England area, while members of Chocolate City conduct outreach and tutoring for African American students in Boston and Cambridge high schools. Various student organizations and clubs around MIT organize fundraising events, dinners and drives that benefit communities throughout the US and the world at large.

At MIT, community service isn't just something we do as an extracurricular. Through the Service Learning Initiative, class projects and UROPs integrate significant service elements into their focus. For example, one seminar developed and built a prototype that expands the possibilities for vaccine transportation in the developing world, while an engineering class teaches engineering design by creating an electro-mechanical device to aid a person with a unique disability.