The Public Service Center (PSC) offers MIT students multiple ways to enrich communities beyond MIT while expanding their own education and life experience. The guidance, resources, and support offered by PSC help students to identify the public service choices, both paid and volunteer, that are best suited to their passions and abilities.
Fellowships and Grants (http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc/): Beyond Boston and Cambridge, students have opportunities to provide Hurricane Katrina relief, help youth in Latin America develop entrepreneurial business skills, or work on community issues in their own hometown. Supported by fellowships and grants, students can work individually or as part of a team during term breaks and during the academic year. These fellowships and grants ensure that the MIT educational experience is as diverse and far-reaching as the ambitions of its students.
The MIT IDEAS Competition (http://web.mit.edu/ideas/): Student teams develop and implement projects that can make a positive change for communities across the globe. Entries are judged on innovativeness, feasibility, and community impact.
Service Learning (http://web.mit.edu/servicelearning/): Applied learning for student and community benefit is another way that students can gain valuable life experience while serving community needs. Service learning integrates coursework with academically relevant community projects. For example, freshmen can enroll in a public service design seminar, where they could build a prototype to ease vaccine transportation in the developing world, or redesign a community garden's composting device. In doing so, they gain a deeper understanding of their subjects and a better appreciation of their own problem-solving capabilities.
Innovative, engaging outreach activities are available through student groups, Institute residences, and many MIT departments and programs. A sampling of groups can be found online through the MIT Outreach Database (http://web.mit.edu/outreach). The PSC website, http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc/, is also a useful resource for learning more about how to participate in public service at MIT.