EGN NEWS DESK
In the halls of MIT, a particular thread of compassion weaves by means of the material of schooling. As college students alter to a postpandemic regular, many professors have performed a pivotal function by serving to them navigate the realities of hybrid studying and a quickly altering postgraduation panorama.
The Committed to Caring (C2C) program at MIT is a student-driven initiative that celebrates college members who’ve served as distinctive mentors to graduate college students. Twenty-three MIT professors have been chosen as recipients of the C2C award for 2023-25, marking probably the most intensive cohort of honorees so far. These people be a part of the ranks of 75 earlier C2C honorees.
The actions of those MIT college members over the previous two years underscore their profound dedication to the well-being, progress, and success of their college students. These educators go above and past their roles, demonstrating an unwavering dedication to mentorship, inclusion, and a holistic strategy to pupil improvement. They goal to create a nurturing surroundings the place college students not solely thrive academically, but additionally flourish personally.
The following college members are the 2023-25 Committed to Caring honorees:
- Hamsa Balakrishnan, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
- Cynthia Breazeal, Media Lab
- Roberto Fernandez, MIT Sloan School of Management
- Nuh Gedik, Department of Physics
- Mariya Grinberg, Department of Political Science
- Ming Guo, Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Myriam Heiman, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
- Rohit Karnik, Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Erik Lin-Greenberg, Department of Political Science
- Michael McDonald, Department of Physics
- Emery Neal Brown, Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology
- Wanda Orlikowski, MIT Sloan School of Management
- Kenneth Oye, Department of Political Science
- Kristala Prather, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Zachary Seth Hartwig, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
- Tracy Slatyer, Department of Physics
- Iain Stewart, Department of Physics
- Andrew Vanderburg, Department of Physics
- Rodrigo Verdi, MIT Sloan School of Management
- Xiao Wang, Department of Chemistry
- Ariel White, Department of Political Science
- Nathan Wilmers, MIT Sloan School of Management
- Maria Yang, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Since the founding of the C2C program in 2014 by the Office of Graduate Education, the nomination course of for honorees has centered on pupil involvement. Graduate college students from all departments are invited to submit nomination letters detailing professors’ excellent mentorship practices. A committee of graduate college students and employees members then selects people who’ve proven real contributions to MIT’s vibrant educational group by means of pupil mentorship.
The choice committee this yr included: Maria Carreira (Biology), Rima Das (Mechanical Engineering), Ahmet Gulek (Economics), Bishal Thapa (Biological Engineering), Katie Rotman (Architecture), Dóra Takács (Linguistics), Dan Korsun (Nuclear Science and Engineering), Leslie Langston (Student Mental Health and Counseling), Patricia Nesti (MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Beth Marois (Office of Graduate Education [OGE]), Sara Lazo (OGE), and Chair Suraiya Baluch (OGE).
This yr’s nomination letters highlighted distinctive tales of how college students felt supported by professors. Students famous their mentors’ dedication to frequent conferences regardless of their very own busy private lives, in addition to their dedication to making sure equal entry to alternatives for underrepresented and underserved college students.
Some wrote about their advisors’ cautious consideration of scholars’ wants alongside their very own when confronted with skilled development alternatives; others appreciated their lively assist for college kids within the LGBTQ+ group. Lastly, college students mirrored on their advisors’ encouragement for open and constructive discourse across the graduate unionization vote, exhibiting a real want to listen to about graduate points.
Baluch shared, “Working with the superb choice committee was the spotlight of my work yr. I used to be so impressed by the considerate consideration every nomination obtained. Selecting the following spherical of C2C nominees is at all times a heartwarming expertise.”
“As somebody who aspires to be a college member sometime,” famous Das, “being on the choice committee … was an exceptional alternative in understanding the breadth and depth of risk in how one can be a caring mentor in academia.”
She continued, “It was so heartening to listen to the completely different ways in which these college members are going above and past their specific analysis and educating duties and the superb affect that has made on so many college students’ well-being and skill to achieve success in graduate faculty.”
The Committed to Caring program continues to bolster MIT’s tradition of mentorship, inclusion, and collaboration by recognizing the contributions of excellent professors. In the approaching months, information articles will function pairs of honorees, and a reception will likely be held in May.
