MIT Generation Global Fellowship for MIT Students
Proposals from MIT student teams are due: March 30, 2015. Below is information for MIT students only. Information for the Prospect Hill Academy community is here.
Are you passionate about being a responsible global citizen? Do you believe that your ideas can make a difference? Do you enjoy mentoring high school students? Would you jump at an opportunity to engage with a local high school to design and implement a problem-based curriculum centered on a global issue?
The MIT Center for International Studies (CIS) is seeking proposals from MIT undergraduate and graduate student teams (teams are comprised of two students only) for a competition called MIT Generation Global.
Your ideas can make a difference!
This year’s MIT Generation Global theme will be the global problem of scarcity. Scarcity is an issue that presents itself in many forms both globally and locally. Around the world, particularly in developing countries, shortfalls in potable water, arable land, water for irrigation, food, shelter, fuel, electricity, internet access, and medical care are endemic.
Proposal submissions should focus on presenting a scarcity issue that not only manifests itself globally, but also has a local connection that is relevant to high school students. The proposal needs to explore the social, political, economic, and technological challenges involved in the scarcity topic. MIT student teams may wish to consider ways of increasing resources, diminishing needs, improving the efficiency of technologies that draw on resources to satisfy wants, and/or altering the distribution of resources.
The proposal should include the following:
- The Problem: What is the problem and why should we care?
Your proposal should clearly state the global problem of scarcity and then introduce the problem in more detail by presenting at least two compelling examples of how your scarcity issue impacts the global community. - The Hook: How will you engage high school students in the global problem?
Your proposal should describe an overview of a curriculum program that is appropriate for high school students and include at least one example lesson. The lesson plan should include (1) student learning goals and (2) a short summary of the lesson plan that explicity describes how you will connect your global scarcity problem to issues that teenagers/young adults care about. (See Prospect Hill Academy website for more details about the student population you will be working with.) - The Constraints: What are some of the key social, political, economic, and technological challenges?
Your proposal must describe two key social, political, economic, or technological challenges and cite peer-reviewed research/policy papers relevant to your chosen scarcity topic. - The Recommendations: What are a few possible solutions worth exploring?
The recommendations of possible solutions made by the winning team will be fully explored during the curriculum phase of the fellowship.
Judging Criteria
Your proposal must:
- Be well-written and easy to understand.
- Address a problem related to global scarcity.
- Consider the social, political, economic, and technological challenges.
- Be grounded in relevant literature.
- Clearly and explicitly state why you would like to and how you will help high school students to make a personal connection to the presented global scarcity issue and gain a deeper understanding of its impacts on the global community.
- Provide up to three recommendations on how to authentically address this problem.
The MIT winning team will have the opportunity to:
- Develop a problem-based curriculum based on your global scarcity topic under the mentorship of a K-12 curriculum development expert and a high school teacher from Prospect Hill Academy (PHA) in Central Square (Cambridge).
- Implement and co-teach this curriculum with the PHA teacher during a two-week summer pilot program for PHA rising 10th and 11th graders. The capstone project will be a portfolio which will be presented to a panel of experts.
- Live on MIT campus. All costs will be covered for the duration of the fellowship (May 26 – July 10, 2015.)
- Receive a monthly stipend of $1500.00 for the duration of the fellowship: May 26 through July 10. For the days in May and July, this will be prorated at 49.00/day.
Deadline
Applications are due on or before March 30, 2015.
The winning team will be notified on April 10, 2015.
Winners must accept offers and submit appropriate paperwork by April 13, 2015.
Award/Fellowship Requirements
- The MIT Generation Global Fellowship for MIT students begins May 26, 2015 and ends July 10, 2015. You will need to be fully available during this time in order to participate in the fellowship.
- For the first month of the fellowship (May 26 – June 25) MIT students will be involved in lectures, seminars, further research and project development, and becoming more familiar with the Prospect Hill Academy environment.
- Scheduled activities will take place during the week but there are two four-hour Saturday workshops that you will need to participate in on May 30 and June 27.
- June 29 – July 7 is when the two-week summer program for the PHA students begins. During these two weeks you will be a part of a teaching team that includes a PHA teacher. The teaching team will receive input from the curriculum development expert as needed. The summer program will take place on MIT campus and will run Monday through Friday from 9 AM until 5 PM.
