By Pamela Ferdinand

In fields as varied as computer architecture, behavioral economics, data activism, and planetary science, MIT Presidential Fellowship recipients and alumni credit the prestigious award with improving their research, expanding their opportunities, and broadening their academic network.

The donor-supported program, administered by the Office of Graduate Education in coordination with the Office of the Provost, provides fellows with tuition, a monthly stipend, and medical insurance for their first academic year at MIT.

Raechel Walker SM ’23, a PhD candidate in the MIT Media Lab’s Media Arts and Sciences program working in the Personal Robots Group, says the Presidential Fellowship has helped her build on a passion for increasing diversity in computing through her Data Activism Program for African American high school and college students. During her master’s thesis, Walker introduced the concept of “liberatory computing,” which ensures African American students use their computing skills for societal transformation.

Today, she’s publishing the program’s results and sharing her data activism curriculum with a larger audience. She ran two programs last summer virtually and in person at the Media Lab with 34 students. While collaborating with four community organizations, students used computer programming and data analysis to create insightful data visualizations highlighting systemic issues such as AI bias in education, environmental injustice, health care disparities, and mass incarceration.

“What excites me the most about my research is seeing students view themselves as data activism researchers after completing my program,” Walker says. “I also love when students feel more empowered to become data scientists because they share a similar cultural background with their classmates and mentors, which is not usually the case in a typical computing environment.”