showcase

Community Service Bulletin

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Spotlight

Attend the Fall IDEAS Generator Dinner and kick-off!

Want funding for your innovative community service project? Want to recruit new members or mentors for your IDEAS team? Want to get involved, but don't yet have an idea? Then come to the Fall IDEAS Generator Dinner and kick-off and get connected!

The dinner will take place on Wednesday, October 14 from 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. in Morss Hall (Walker Memorial). RSVPs are appreciated - email ideas-rsvp@mit.edu.

The IDEAS Competition is open to everyone, but at least one-third of a team must be full-time MIT students. All types of projects, including for-profit ventures, are encouraged as long as they address the needs of an under-served community. For more information, visit http://web.mit.edu/ideas/www/timeline_generator.htm.

One-Time Opportunities

Ongoing Opportunities

One-Time Opportunities

Attend a PSC information session about the Lemelson-MIT and Teach For America funded opportunities (10/15)
This IAP, take your love of innovation, science, or math back to school! The Public Service Center, Lemelson-MIT, and Teach For America are offering some great fundedopportunities in classrooms across the United States.

Find out more about the following opportunities and eat free pizza at our information session on Thursday, Oct. 15, from 5:30-7:00 p.m. in the Bush Room (10-105).

Here’s what you could do:
Be a Lemelson-MIT Fellow and inspire a new generation of inventors!
Work with teams of high-school inventors, their teachers and mentors, to help them to successfully build and test their inventions. The teams are selected and supported by the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams program: http://web.mit.edu/inventeams/. Or, work with a team of high-school inventors that aren’t quite ready to be full InvenTeams. Help these schools by implementing and adapting invention education curricula and design challenges developed by the Lemelson-MIT program.
Find all the details at: http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc/showcase/opportunities/projects/inventeam.html
Applications will be accepted through the PSC Fellowships program and are due at noon on 10/23.

Or, learn about Teach For America and make a difference for kids!
Ever wonder what it’s like to teach in a small, rural school? A big inner-city school? Want to inspire kids about science? Motivate them about math? Drive educational change? Have you wondered what Teach For America is like, and you don’t want to wait to find out? Then take part in the Four Weeks for America Challenge!
Find all the details at: http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc/showcase/opportunities/four-weeks.html
Applications are due 5:00pm on 10/20.

Questions? Contact Alison at hynd@mit.edu
Questions? Contact 4foramerica@mit.edu

Volunteer for Boston Medical Center’s Halloween Town 2009 (10/23-10/26)
Join the Boston Medical Center for ghoulish games, a monster mash dance party, pumpkin decorating, and more! All proceeds from Halloween Town will benefit the Kids Fund at BMC, a program that provides a variety of necessary items – from eyeglasses to winter coats – for the hospital’s pediatric patients.

Halloween Town will take place at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston. Volunteers are needed for the following shifts:

  1. Set-up on Friday, 10/23
  2. Volunteer Shift 1: Saturday, 10/24 from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
  3. Volunteer Shift 2: Saturday, 10/24 from 1:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
  4. Volunteer Shift 3: Sunday, 10/25 from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
  5. Volunteer Shift 4: Sunday, 10/25 from 1:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
  6. Breakdown on Monday, 10/26

Visit www.halloweentownboston.com to sign up to volunteer or call Kayla Rogers at 617-638-6140.  If you have a group interested in volunteering, please call Jessica Orndorff at 617-638-6910.

Attend the Yunus Challenge Dinner (10/15)
Take the 2009/10 Muhammad Yunus Innovation Challenge to alleviate poverty. Each year, the Yunus Challenge highlights a need of the world’s poor and enables MIT students to develop solutions through a variety of mechanisms, including Public Service Fellowship, Internships, Grants, the IDEAS Competition and D-Lab. 

Learn more at the Yunus Challenge Dinner, an informal gathering to talk about potential projects and ideas, which will be held on 10/15 at 7 p.m. in the Stata R&D Lab.

Help with the Lights on Afterschool open house at the Boys and Girls Club (10/22)
The Lights on Afterschool open house will feature highlights from the many programs offered at the Boys and Girls Club. Stop by to see dancing, gymnastics, science, cooking, art, and so much more. We are looking for 4-5 volunteers to share their love and passion for science by joining some students for the afternoon to demonstrate and participate with afterschool children at the Boys and Girls Club of Arlington, MA. Come inspire a child to be great!

Please contact Anne Resmini at 781-648-1617 or aresmini@abgclub.org.

City Year Heroes Team Leader
Our Heroes programs run social justice programming with Boston middle school and high school students. We run workshops and discussions on social issues that they are interested in. Then we take them out into Boston to do physical community service directly-related to those issues! For example, if we discussed homelessness, we may take them out to work at a soup kitchen for a day.

Team Leaders facilitate the discussions and lead the youth in physical service.
When: Most Saturdays from December to May. Meet at City Year headquarters.

Please contact Scott Hollander at 617-927-2338 or shollander10@cityyear.org for an application. Applications Due 10/30

Ongoing Opportunities

Check out the Public Service Center’s paid Fellowship and Internship opportunities for fall and IAP!
The Fellowships and Internships programs both support MIT students working on capacity-building service projects. Students work with community-focused organizations such as non-profits, schools, and social enterprises. This IAP, we are focusing on projects in the Americas, but projects in other geographical areas are also welcome.

Applications for IAP projects must be submitted by noon on Friday, October 23.
Applications for fall projects will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Find more information about both programs at http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc/resources/internshipsandfellowships/index.html.

Looking for project ideas? Check out the PSC’s new opportunities page: http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc/showcase/opportunities/index.html. IAP opportunities in the Americas include everything from developing portable water infrastructure in Mexico to creating art and technology projects in El Salvador. Click on "Focus on the Americas" to find out more, and check back regularly for more opportunities!

Questions? Contact Alison at hynd@mit.edu

Apply for a PSC Grant for IAP travel by November 16
The PSC grant program helps members of the MIT community solve real-world problems by funding local, national and international public service projects.  If you are looking to participate in such an opportunity over IAP, please submit your proposal by November 16.

Looking for help with an existing idea or developing one?  Visit our PSC Grants resource page for more information:

Apply for the Merage and Truman Scholarships
Merage Scholarship Information Sessions
October 7, 2008, 3:30-4:30pm, Rm. 4-231
October 8, 2008, 3:30-4:30pm, Rm. 3-133

The Merage American Dream Fellows program is a highly competitive, merit-based award offered to exceptional immigrant students. For more information, visit http://web.mit.edu/scholarships/details/merage.htm.

Truman Scholarship Information Sessions
October 14, 2008, 3:30-4:30pm, Rm. 4-231
October 15, 2008, 3:30-4:30pm, Rm. 3-133

The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is a highly competitive, merit-based award offered for graduate study in preparation for a career  in government, the non-profit sector or elsewhere in public service. For more information, visit http://web.mit.edu/scholarships/details/truman.htm.

If you are unable to attend, please contact Kimberly Benard in the Distinguished Fellowships Office (12-189), or by e-mail at scholarships@mit.edu.

Make a difference and go on a free trip during IAP – join the MIT Women’s Initiative
The MIT Women's Initiative is a group that sends pairs of female engineers (both graduate and undergraduate) from MIT to middle and high schools around the country for a week during IAP.  They give presentations about opportunities in engineering and encourage high school girls to remain interested in math and science. Previous presenters have been to Washington, Hawaii, Miami, Alaska, and San Francisco, to name a few.

For more information and to apply, please visit http://mit.edu/wi/presenters/. The application deadline has been extended to midnight of Monday, October 12.

Volunteer for the Shriners Hospital for Children
Help needed in the following areas: Patient Admission, Child Life, Recreational Therapy, Clerical Work, and Education (Teachers). Public relations and marketing opportunities are available for volunteers. Must be 18 years of age or older, and we are asking for a minimum of a one year commitment from all incoming volunteers.  For more information, please contact Barbara McCone at 617-371-4716 or look online at www.shrinershospitals.org.

Apply for a Students Serve Grant to fund a service project
Students Serve is now accepting applications for service project grants! Students Serve provides money to college students so that they can use their knowledge and talents to make a difference in the community.  Between now and 11/15, any college student with an idea about how to address a local, national, or global problem can submit the online application at StudentsServe.org.

Mentor with WiSE: Women in Science & Engineering
Join WiSE and inspire high school girls, meet MIT professors, be a leader, and eat free food! Volunteer once a month to share your interests in science and engineering.

The mentor training session will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 13 from 8-8:30 p.m. E-mail questions to swewise@mit.edu.

Inspire budding marine scientists at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School
Encourage more minority students to study Marine Science and give them hands-on experience doing projects in this area of science! The Marine Science Program at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School seeks undergraduate and graduate student mentors for high school Marine Science students.

There are a number of ways to get involved: you can offer a place in your lab to a high school student, collaborate on cutting-edge Marine Science curricula and labs, work directly with students throughout the semester, work with the Ocean Science Bowl Team before and after school, allow students to take or audit your courses, or come up with your own idea.

Contact Paul McGuinness at pmcg.crls@gmail.com for more information.

AIDS Action Committee
The AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts relies heavily on the generosity of volunteers. Opportunities are available in the hotlines program on one of our three statewide hotlines: HIV/STI, Hepatitis, and Sexual Health. Other options at the agency include the check-in program, administrative assistance, the health library, and the switchboard. We also have opportunities for outreach with our gay and bi men’s drop-in center, The MALE Center, and at our resale store, Boomerangs. Shifts are available during the day and evenings.

AIDS Action Committee is located at 294 Washington St, Boston, MA 02108

For more information contact Emily Hollett at (617) 450-1396 or email ehollett@aac.org please visit our volunteer website at www.aac.org/volunteer.

Writing Tutors Needed at Prospect Hill Academy in Cambridge
The Writing Center at Prospect Hill Academy, a Charter School at 50 Essex Street in Cambridge is seeking writing tutors to work one-to-one with high school students. The Writing Center provides writing assistance at all stages of the writing process (from brainstorming and drafting to revision and editing) on a variety of writing assignments across all disciplines.  The Center is open Monday through Friday, from 3 PM to 5 PM, so potential tutors should have availability for at least two of these days. Potential tutors should also have patience, strong analytical writing skills, and an interest in working with high school students. A stipend is available for this work.

For more details, please contact Meghan Dunn, Writing Center Director, at 617-284-7905 or by email mdunn@prospecthillacademy.org.

The MIT Public Service Center is not responsible for the quality or safety of outside service agencies, and does not screen volunteer placements or projects. The Community Service Opportunities bulletin is published once a week by the staff of the MIT Public Service Center. If you have questions, feel free to call us at 617-253-0742, or stop by 4-104.

To be removed from this list, please email: psc@mit.edu.

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