Unique opportunities for MIT students (by Tanguy)

I am going back to Asia. This time I'll be working in Cambodia for a short month to help set up a water filtration system and the teaching curriculum at an orphanage in Phnom Penh. My friend Christine and I both received a fellowship from the MIT Public Service Center for the project.

I find it amazing that MIT has such a thing as the Public Service Center. The way it works is basically donors give money to the center which then helps students go around the world to work on projects with lasting impact to the local community. In our case, by the time we leave the orphanage will hopefully have access to clean drinkable water as well as a teaching curriculum established that can be approved by the Cambodian Ministry of Education.

I would have loved having such opportunity while at Berkeley where I did my undergrad. I believe there is a lot more to gain from college than what is taught in class. Personally, I have learned more at Berkeley from my extracurricular activities --studying Chinese, doing research and interning abroad-- than from my engineering classes themselves. I have found that the things that influenced my life the most so far came from unsuspected opportunities that were along the way while I was pursuing another goal... The power of the MIT Public Service Center is that it allows and encourages MIT students to pursue these opportunities.