[gwaMIT] gwaMIT Newsletter, November 2nd, 2020

Mon Nov 2 12:23:10 EST 2020

gwaMIT Newsletter

November 2nd, 2020

MIT Alumni Association and gwaMIT Virtual Dinner
When: Wednesday, November 18, 6:30 – 8 PM ET on Zoom.
What: Dinner over Zoom with alumna Colleen Akehurst, an MIT grad and experienced consumer goods CEO, and other graduate womxn at MIT. Participants will receive a $25 gift card to have a meal during the event. Space is limited so sign up today!
For more details about the event and Colleen Akehurst and to register, click here<https://alumic.mit.edu/s/1314/17form/interior.aspx?sid=1314&gid=13&pgid=54954&content_id=61549>.

gwaMIT Active Allyship Event

When: November 10th, 2020 7- 8 PM via Zoom

There is no feminism without racial justice, and Graduate Womxn At MIT (gwaMIT) is committed to supporting all womxn at MIT, including indigenous, Latinx, and Black graduate womxn at MIT and the Black Lives Matter movement. We must make changes and educate ourselves in order to dismantle systemic racism and support our community members.

To this end, we invite you to attend our discussion on active allyship in light of the election, the pandemic, and BLM movement, with a presentation by Leah Gallant from MIT’s Alumni Association and Resource Development’s Human Resources and Strategic Management team and Danny Becker of MIT’s PKG center. This event will be held over virtually during dinner time (reimbursement for a meal by gwaMIT up to $10) and will include some reading materials prior to the event to enable a fruitful and productive discussion.
To promote discussion, this event will be small with a limit of 30 attendees (we will also have a waitlist). Please sign up here<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9calWXBkzNbjWBZmgI6c1MCctNRAP0KEIb7mWrFJNqUvn3w/viewform?usp=sf_link> by November 8th, 2020. We hope to see many of you attend for a fruitful and interactive session! Email gwamit-exec at mit.edu<mailto:gwamit-exec at mit.edu> if you have any questions.

Meet the Department Reps!

[cid:image001.jpg at 01D6B112.ED7761C0] Olivia Pfeiffer/ Technology & Policy Program

What is your research about? My recent work was to estimate the lifecycle emissions of a new carbon utilization technology, tallying up emissions associated with the mining of materials, assembly, operation, and disposal, in order to determine whether a net climate benefit could be feasibly achieved. I am now currently working to understand how more sustainable concretes can be produced, and I aim to combine my interests in data science and policy to solve environmental challenges.

Who is your favorite womxn from history or the present times, and why? My current favorite womxn is Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She never fails to speak up in condemnation of sexism, pushes for climate action, and believes in “calling in” before “calling out.” We need more leaders like her, especially now more than ever!

What do you like about being a gwaMIT Rep? I love being able to connect with other womxn across MIT with such different backgrounds to plant events/initiatives, in order to build a community focused on empowerment and growth of womxn.

[cid:image002.png at 01D6B112.ED7761C0] Cate Heine/ IDSS

What is your research about? I use economic modeling and statistical inference to understand urban mobility. I'm generally interested in the ways that people move through cities, and how access to transportation shapes equity and socioeconomic inequality in general.

Who is your favorite womxn from history or the present times, and why? A womxn hero of mine is named Mary Breckinridge---in the 1920s, she founded the Frontier Nursing Service, a gang of lady nurses who traveled on horseback through the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Kentucky to bring healthcare services to people who lived in areas where there weren’t many other options for medical care. To me, she combines traits that I admire in a lot of the womxn in my life: compassion, care, ingenuity, determination, competency and, when needed, brute strength.

What do you like about being a gwaMIT Rep? gwaMIT helps me connect with other womxn-identifying students both within my department and across MIT's campus.

Did you know? Here is some womxn-related news from around the world:
Read about Alyssa Carson<https://thewomenjournal.com/2020/10/this-19-year-old-space-enthusiast-soon-become-the-first-person-to-set-foot-on-mars/>, a space enthusiast who hopes to be the first person on Mars and has dreamed of being an astronaut since childhood.

Malala Yousafzai recently published an article<https://www.evoke.org/articles/october-2020/how-i-hope-we-rebuild-the-world-after-covid-19-malala/?utm_source=LI&utm_medium=MG_OG&utm_campaign=IDG&utm_content=101220_POST_NF> describing what she would like to see for womxn and girls as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the story of Alice Dunnigan<https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/633765/alice-dunnigan-first-black-woman-journalist-white-house-press-credentials>, who was the first black female journalist to get press credentials for the White House, a champion of freedom of press, and covered three different presidents.

14-year-old Anika Chebrolu<https://womenyoushouldknow.net/anika-chebrolu-top-young-scientist-covid-cure/> was named “America’s Top Young Scientist” and won the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge for work related to a COVID-19 cure.

Dr. Jeanette Epps<https://womenyoushouldknow.net/nasa-jeanette-epps-first-operational-boeing-crew-mission/>, NASA astronaut, will be the first Black womxn to work and live on ISS for a prolonged mission and has a planned launch in 2021.

Dr. Dolores Shockley<https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2020/10/15/dolores-shockley-first-black-woman-get-ph-d-pharmacology-dies/3655194001/>, the first Black womxn to graduate with a doctorate degree from Purdue University, passed away recently at the age of 90. She is known for battling racism, achieving her goals, being a pioneer, and doing all of this with grace.

Two sisters, Izzy and Ailbhe, have started a company<https://tanksgoodnews.com/2020/10/14/wheelchair-art-sisters/> which sells wheelchair covers in bright and diverse colors to provide a means of expressing personality. The business has grown since and the two sisters are now on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Forbes asked 15 female designers why they think voting is so important. Read their statements here<https://www.forbes.com/sites/gabbyshacknai/2020/10/19/these-15-female-founded-brands-want-you-to-vote-heres-why/amp/>.

Simone Leigh will be the first Black womxn to represent the US at the Venice Biennale exhibit in April 2022. This article<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/arts/design/simone-leigh-venice-biennale.html> also features some of her amazing work.

Events & Opportunities

  1.  MIT IDEAS Panel (Nov. 4th)
  2.  Patricia Saulis, “Creating Space for Balance; Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science – Two-Eyed Seeing – in Environmental Justice and Media” (Nov. 5th)
  3.  ICEO Community Dialogues: Hiding in Plain Sight, Confronting Implicit Bias (Nov. 9th)
  4.  Women’s Entrepreneurship Month @ MIT (starting in November!)
  5.  Seeking graduate student mentors for Wellesley Research Bootcamp (apply now!)
  6.  Paid Part-Time AI Teaching Opportunity at Inspirit AI: Winter 2020/Spring 2021 (apply now!)
  7.  Upcoming Cheney Room events (multiple dates)
  8.  Grad Technical Leadership Virtual Workshops (multiple dates)
  9.  Public Guest Lectures: Black Mobility and Safety in the US (multiple dates)
  10. MIT Society of Women Engineers UROP Mixer (Dec. 8th)
  11. MindHandHeart Community Innovation Fund (apply now!)
  12. PhagePro – Scientist Positions Open (apply now!)
  13. Scientists in Solidarity
  14. Full-Stack App Developer Internship Opportunity (apply now!)
  15. Get ready to vote! – Election Day is Here!
  16. The Social Scientist Mentorship Program (now!)
  17. Outreach Opportunities with Science Club for Girls (now!)
  18. STEMxx Chats Interest Form (now!)
  19. Join the IDHR Student Advisory Committee (now!)
  20. Join MITxHarvard Women in AI Group (now!)
  21. Become a gwaMIT Department Rep (now!)
  22. Sign up for the GradDiversity Newsletter!

  1.  MIT IDEAS Panel
IDEAS Panel - 11/04/20 @ 5:30 - 7:00 PM
Are you interested in learning more about the IDEAS program from the perspective of the staff and volunteers that make this program as special as it is? Join to meet online reviewers, judges, grantee teams, facilitators, and mentors.
Meet our panelists:
Robin Bose |  MIT Sloan Alumnus and Former judge
Sidhant (Sid) Pai | MIT PhD Candidate, IDEAS'14 Grant Recipient, Protoprint
Gayatri Pradhan | MIT Sloan Alumna, Former Judge and Reviewer
Klo’e Ng<https://mit.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6d774f705b8efa78f487c1a6d&id=9242ec45a9&e=e15571ae98>, MIT DUSP ‘20 Aluma, IDEAS '20 Grant Recipient, Out of the Box<https://mit.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6d774f705b8efa78f487c1a6d&id=429087c09e&e=e15571ae98>
Click here to register for the IDEAS Panel!<https://mit.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6d774f705b8efa78f487c1a6d&id=9a7235d9d4&e=e15571ae98>

  1.  Patricia Saulis, “Creating Space for Balance; Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science – Two-Eyed Seeing – in Environmental Justice and Media”
Thursday, November 5, 2020 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EST
Two-eyed seeing has been a contemporary concept  by two Indigenous Mikmaq Elders in Cape Breton Canada. Through the use of Indigenous Oral Tradition, Elders Dr. Albert Marshall and Dr. Murdena Marshall have participated in many recordings of their concept and teachings. Their appearances at conferences across Canada and the United States provided many venues to share their work. In this presentation, Patricia Saulis will feature clips of the Elders speaking and provide some perspective on how their work could be brought forward in discussions of Environmental Justice and Media.
For more information, visit: https://cms.mit.edu/event/patricia-saulis-two-eyed-seeing-indigenous-knowledge/

  1.  ICEO Community Dialogues: Hiding in Plain Sight, Confronting Implicit Bias
With Noelle Wakefield & Beatriz Cantada
Monday, November 9th
12:00 – 1:30pm EST
Zoom link available upon registration
The Day of Dialogue may have ended, but the conversation is far from over…
“If you have a brain, you have a bias.” - Femi Otitoju
Implicit bias affects each of us every day – from our relationships to our decision-making, our professional lives to our academic spaces.
Join Beatriz Cantada and Noelle Wakefield to examine the unconscious shortcuts our brains create that impact the way we see others, ourselves, and our world. Learn how a heightened awareness of implicit bias can benefit your department, lab, or center.
This beginner level, 90-minute interactive workshop will help participants have an understanding of the implicit biases we all carry and some strategies to manage them.
Zoom link will be provided upon registration the week of the event. We are committed to making this dialogue accessible to all MIT community members. For accessibility requests, email rornitz at mit.edu.<mailto:rornitz at mit.edu.>
Click here to register!<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/iceo-community-dialogues-confronting-implicit-bias-and-microagressions-tickets-126986444875>

  1.  Women’s Entrepreneurship Month @ MIT
Women’s Entrepreneurship Day<https://www.womenseday.org/> is Thursday, November 19th. This year, MIT Innovation Initiative and the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship are inviting departments, labs, centers, programs, schools, and student organizations across MIT to empower, celebrate, and support our own women in innovation and entrepreneurship for the month of November—focused primarily on the week of November 16–20.
Show your support for Women’s Entrepreneurship Month @ MIT by taking part in the #WomenOfMIT campaign—create or share social posts during the month of November, host an event, submit a video. When you do, we’ll feature your logo on the WEM site.
To make it easy we’ve put together a webpage on the Women’s Entrepreneurship Month microsite of the ways that you can partner with us. Fill in the participation form<https://innovation.mit.edu/inclusive-innovation-2/womens-entrepreneurship-month-at-mit_join/>.

  1.  Seeking graduate student mentors for Wellesley Research Bootcamp

Hi, my name is Erica and I’m co-directing the Wintersession Research Bootcamp program at Wellesley College this January (which will be held remotely on Zoom). We are looking to recruit graduate students from Boston area schools to serve as mentors.

The program: Briefly, this program is aimed towards first year undergraduate students, many of whom are members of underserved communities and have not had access to good lab-based science classes in high school. As this year’s session will be held online, we have developed a computational genomics program. Each mentor will be paired with 2-3 students, and at the end of the program, students will present their work to Wellesley faculty and other students.

Responsibilities: This year’s bootcamp is scheduled tentatively for January 21-28. There’s also a welcome gathering in late December and two training sessions in early January, all which will take place via Zoom. During the week of the bootcamp, we ask mentors to be available for the majority of each weekday from about 10-5 EST. You will attend synchronous sessions over Zoom (tentatively planned for early afternoon), and engage with your two or three mentees intermittently throughout the day using the platform of your choice (Slack, Zoom, Google Meet, etc) to help students with the experiments. Throughout the week you’ll also be asked to give a short chalk talk on your research, a lecture about a scientific topic, an informal talk about your path to science, and (optionally) record a short video of yourself in your research lab as a way to let students “tour” research labs remotely.

Mentors: Since a lot of our students are from underserved backgrounds, we’re really hoping to recruit graduate student mentors who have had similar paths to science. A lot of the students are first gen, minorities, and many of them identify as women, so we would love to recruit mentors with these aspects in common. If you don’t fall into any of these groups but are passionate about mentoring, please do apply as well. Additionally, as our topic is computational genomics-based, we would love to recruit mentors whose research is in this area (but not a requirement!).

If you’re interested, please fill out this short application (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScDvgA-N_t213szTST18FGR7UgPyw8H3vRj_bK_8M3JzvPEmA/viewform?usp=sf_link) and we will get back to you to schedule a brief interview. Please contact Erica Zheng (ericazheng at g.harvard.edu<mailto:ericazheng at g.harvard.edu>) with any questions.

  1.  Paid Part-Time AI Teaching Opportunity at Inspirit AI: Winter 2020/Spring 2021

Posted Fall 2020

Inspirit AI<http://www.inspiritai.com/> is an education project by a team<http://www.inspiritai.com/team> of grad students from Stanford and MIT focused on bringing AI education to curious high school students globally. This summer and fall, we’ve taught AI to hundreds of high school students from around the world through our live online AI program<https://www.inspiritai.com/liveonline>. Students learn about the technical, social, and ethical challenges of AI, build machine learning models in Python, and complete projects<http://projects> applying AI to social good, from assessing bias in the social justice system to identifying the origins of COVID-19.

We’re seeking students or recent alumni with AI/ML experience to join our teaching team (for a paid, remote instructor role) for our winter and spring programs. We’re looking for:

  *   Experience:  An intro machine learning course (like Stanford CS229/CS230 or MIT 6.036) or equivalent AI project experience. Teaching experience is a plus!
  *   Availability:  most days Dec. 21 - Jan. 3, or once a week Jan. 23 - Apr. 1. Multiple time slots are available.
  *   Enthusiasm: for teaching high school students across the globe and joining the Inspirit community!

We offer competitive compensation, training on teaching our curriculum, and an experienced team<https://www.inspiritai.com/team> from Stanford and MIT.

If interested, please fill out this brief form<https://forms.gle/BH7eBX6x2SLkAqFG7>, and feel free to email adeesh at stanford.edu<mailto:adeesh at stanford.edu> or daniela.inspiritai at gmail.com<mailto:daniela.inspiritai at gmail.com> with any questions. Looking forward to hearing from you!

  1.  Upcoming Cheney Room Events

November events:

  *   Nov 10, 12-1pm: COVID and Relationships: Workshop with Gurleen Kaur Singh
https://engage.mit.edu/event/6578318
  *   that same week, TBD: Against Mass Incarceration: What Can Be Done. A Roundtable with Massachusetts State Representative Liz Miranda, Black and Pink Boston, and representatives from the MIT Educational Justice Institute (TEJI).
  *   that same week, TBD: COVID and the Arts: A Discussion with representatives from the MIT Museum, the List Visual Arts Center, ICA Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Office of the Arts at MIT.
  *   the week after, TBD: Pleasure and the Body during COVID with Vienna Rothberg.
December events:

  *   Dec 4, @3pm: The Trans History of Video Games. Presentation and video game showcase by Whit Pow, assistant professor of Queer and Trans Media Studies at NYU.
https://engage.mit.edu/event/6578336
  *   Dec 3, 10, and 17 @ 12 noon: Virtual Group Workout for Woman-Identified and Nonbinary Students. Led by Emily Lin from MIT Rec.
https://engage.mit.edu/event/6578442
https://engage.mit.edu/event/6578449
https://engage.mit.edu/event/6578453

  1.  Grad Technical Leadership Virtual Workshops (Fall 2020)
The MIT-Gordon Engineering Leadership Program (GEL) and the Graduate Student Advisory Group for the School of Engineering (GradSAGE) encourage you to enhance your MIT graduate experience and enroll in the Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership Program. Attached and linked is a summary of the interim certificate requirements<https://gelp.mit.edu/grad-students/graduate-certificate-technical-leadership-interim-requirements>.
We would also urge you to attend our upcoming Fall 2020 Grad Technical Leadership Workshop Series, which can be used to help satisfy the certificate program requirements. (*Please note— If you are working towards to the Grad Certificate in in Technical Leadership you only need to attend four out of six workshops over the entire course of your time as a grad student.)
All of the following workshops will be held virtually from 5:30-7:30pm EDT:

  *   Rethinking Leadership for Enhanced Innovation - Led by Rick Miller (President of Olin College of Engineering). Monday, November 2
  *   Technology Roadmapping and Innovation in the 21st Century (Part 1) - Led by Oli de Weck. Tuesday, November 17
  *   Technology Roadmapping and Innovation in the 21st Century (Part 2) - Led by Oli de Weck. Tuesday, December 1
Register for the certificate program and/or any or all workshops by emailing Lisa Stagnone (lstag at mit.edu<mailto:lstag at mit.edu>)

  1.  Public Guest Lectures: Black Mobility and Safety in the US

For zoom information, please click here.<https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/public-guest-lectures-black-mobility-and-safety-in-the-us/>

MIT Course Numbers: I Fall 2020 MAS.S63, II Spring 2021 MAS.S63

Ekene Ijeoma’s Black Mobility and Safety in the US<https://www.media.mit.edu/courses/black-mobility-and-safety-in-the-us/?utm_source=MLWeekly&utm_campaign=7e93967084-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_09_03_07_40&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_dee7222423-7e93967084-156224157> course this fall will include a series of public guest lectures co-sponsored by ACT around living while Black. The first semester's topics will include birthing, breathing, sleeping, eating, and walking while Black; the second semester will include learning, voting, driving, working, and loving while Black.

The two-semester public lecture series organized by Ekene Ijeoma, founder and director of Poetic Justice at MIT Media Lab, explores issues around mobility (physical, mental, socio-economical, political, etc) and safety for Black Americans. It's organized into two-week topics around living while Black. Read more at: https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/public-guest-lectures-black-mobility-and-safety-in-the-us/.

Fall  (Zoom<https://mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUqcO-hrz8qGtDBsu_3dCAa5QAi3_x-VnWp>)

November  3  @ 2-3 pm | Eating while Black II:  TBD

November 10 @ 2-3 pm | Walking while Black I: Professor Elijah Anderson (Yale University)<https://sociology.yale.edu/sites/default/files/pages_from_sre-11_rev5_printer_files.pdf>

November 17 @ 2-3 pm | Walking while Black II: Topher Sanders (ProPublica)<https://www.propublica.org/series/walking-while-black>

  1.  MIT Society of Women Engineering UROP Mixer
The MIT Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is excited to host a virtual UROP Mixer the evening of Tuesday December 8th (7-8:30pm EST) for undergraduates to meet graduate students and faculty, and discuss UROP opportunities for IAP/Spring 2021. The event will first feature brief introductions from professors and grad students about their research and available UROP opportunities. Then, we will split everyone into breakout rooms to allow for more detailed discussions. If you are interested in attending, please reach out to shobhita at mit.edu<mailto:shobhita at mit.edu>.

  1.  MindHandHeart Community Innovation Fund
Now accepting applications, the Community Innovation Fund<https://mindhandheart.mit.edu/innovation-fund> offers grants of up to $10,000 to students, faculty, staff, and students’ spouses. This year, we are looking to support projects that:

·        Build community and resilience in light of the COVID-19 pandemic

·        Support mental and physical health

·        Promote inclusion and respect

·        Counter imposter syndrome

·        Welcome new members of our community virtually

·        Encourage healthy sleep

·        Bridge political differences

·        Spread humor and joy

·        Foster life skills

Applications will be accepted through November 15th.

  1.  PhagePro – scientist positions open!

PhagePro is a discovery-driven venture spun out of the Camilli Lab at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. We aim to use bacteriophages (phages), which are viruses that specifically target and kill bacteria, to prevent bacterial infections. With the unmitigated rise of antibiotic resistance and the known negative consequences of gut dysbiosis caused by broad-spectrum antibiotics, bacteriophages provide a side effect-free alternative for preventing disease in clinical and community contexts.

PhagePro’s CEO, Mimi Yen, is passionate about increasing diversity in the life sciences. PhagePro is currently hiring for two positions: Scientist I and Scientist II. More details about these roles can be found on the company website<https://www.phageproinc.com/>.

  1.  Scientists in Solidarity

Scientists in Solidarity<https://www.scientistsinsolidarity.org/> (SIS) was founded in June 2020 by three Boston-based friends in the life sciences who have championed and supported each other through the difficulties of navigating  spaces that focus on diversity but not inclusion and equity. We created SIS to address the need for a community that supports BIPOC in STEM. During these unprecedented times, we need to show up for each other as #ScientistsInSolidarity.

  1.  Full-Stack App Developer Internship Opportunity

Position: We are seeking a full-stack developer intern to join our team to refine our mobile application. The back-end currently uses a Python Django framework, and the front-end was built using React Native. The intern will need to dedicate 10-15 hours per week to our venture. Depending on performance and if desired, the intern will also have the opportunity to join our team (still on a part time basis) and receive equity in our business.

Background: Loneliness and depression are on the rise, and younger workers, who make up 67M individuals in the USA, feel it most - 71% say they feel alone due to work and life transitions and the lack of a support system (Cigna). This problem is expected to only worsen post COVID-19 with many jobs will move virtually, giving young workers little to no way to meet new people.

The Company: We are an early-stage startup that aims to revolutionize the way young professionals form social and professional connections to combat the aforementioned issues. Through extensive research, surveys, and conversations, we have found promising evidence for widespread usage of a sleek, easy-to-use mobile application that specifically targets young professionals. We have built a minimum-viable product and were accepted by the Founders Institute Accelerator (has helped founders raise over $950M in funding) as well as Halo Incubator's Fall 2020 cohort. We have started conversations with potential investors and plan to launch our app in Summer 2021.

Requirements:

1) Ability to debug and refine existing code to ensure the app is functioning smoothly and as efficiently as possible

2) Ability to embed additional functionality to enhance the user experience. For example, we would like content displayed to change depending on a user’s location.

3) Not required but a plus - Familiarity of backend app deployment on servers, supporting HTTP and websocket connections (need to host the Django App over multiple server machines with the load distributed with a load balancer if needed or through another hosting platform)

If interested, please email kd2746 at columbia.edu<mailto:kd2746 at columbia.edu> and manasa.grandhi at gmail.com<mailto:manasa.grandhi at gmail.com>

  1.  Get Ready to Vote - Election Day is Here!
Have you voted yet? The last chance to vote is on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3rd. This blog post<https://gradadmissions.mit.edu/blog/why-i-vote-and-why-you-should-too-0> talks about why grad students should vote and how international students can get involved in our democracy, and these clips<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF9VMjdB3Rwaar14oZoRkEA/> from MITvote’s panel “The Impact of Your Vote” explain why your vote matters.
Voting in MA: Polls are open from 7am to 8pm on Tuesday, Nov. 3rd. Due to COVID-19, some polling sites have been relocated - search for your polling place here<https://www.sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA/bal/MyElectionInfo.aspx>. The GSC has made a voter guide<http://vote.mit.edu/2020-general/GSC_Ballot_Questions_2020.pdf> about this year’s ballot questions<https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/IFV_2020.pdf>. Question 2 is about ranked-choice voting<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRPMJmzBBw&feature=youtu.be>, which Cambridge already uses for its local elections. If it passes, this question would expand ranked-choice voting to state and federal congressional races as well.
Voting in Other States: For information about voting on Election Day in other states, check here<https://www.vote411.org/select-state>.
Voting by Mail: If you haven’t returned your mail-in ballot yet, in many places it is too late to mail back your ballot via USPS (check your state’s deadline<https://www.vote411.org/select-state> for receiving mail-in ballots). Instead, drop it off at a ballot drop box or go vote in person if you can. In Cambridge, drop box locations are listed here<https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/electioncommission/earlyvoting/earlyvotingbymail> - ballots must be dropped off by 8pm on Tuesday, Nov. 3rd - and you can track your ballot online<https://www.sec.state.ma.us/wheredoivotema/track/trackmyballot.aspx> to see if it is accepted. For other states, information about drop boxes and ballot tracking can be found here<https://www.vote411.org/select-state>.

Voting Questions and Resources: Contact MITvote<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYUQwM9_WcuLZxaBVWHfcy3TKGEzJZNiErjFP3t3UMFZxqZQ/viewform> with any voting questions and check out MITvote’s website<https://vote.mit.edu> for more voting resources.

  1.  The Social Scientist Mentorship Program

The Social Scientist is a nonprofit initiative for career guidance and advice in the STEM fields. In order to provide resources for all, The Social Scientist is an online platform for STEM mentorship. Our core program model aims to provide a global community of higher education students and professionals that are accessible and willing to dedicate their time for mentorship. We are an interdisciplinary group of diverse mentors that engage with young students and advocate for those already immersed in the STEM fields.  https://www.thesocialscientist.org

We connect with mentees in an informal setting to encourage a relaxed and easy conversation. The Social Scientist mentors can speak upon their education, career path and provide valuable insight on the nature of their work. From graduate students to industry directors, all of our mentors have diverse backgrounds and endured their own struggles and success with their career trajectory. We currently have enlisted STEM volunteers from across the world in Academia, Engineering, Industry, Writing/Publishing, US Government, Technology, Mathematics and Alternative Careers. We follow up with every inquirer after their chat to ensure a high-quality interaction with the mentors and establish an ongoing relationship between them and The Social Scientist. Additionally, our mentors have set up ongoing communication with their mentees to provide stable and long-term mentorship. Mentorship is critical at every stage of one’s career and we aim to create opportunities in STEM that are not equally and widely available. Currently, 67% of our mentors are women in STEM.

  1.  Outreach Opportunities with Science Club for Girls

Science Club for Girls (SCFG)<https://www.scienceclubforgirls.org> is a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to foster excitement, confidence, and literacy in STEM for girls, particularly those from underrepresented communities, by providing free, experiential programs and by maximizing meaningful interactions with women STEM mentors.”

Mentors: SCFG is looking for volunteers to serve as mentor scientists and lead fun, hands-on science experiments with girls of ages ranging from kindergarten to 8th grade. This semester, the program will be virtual via Zoom and all materials will be provided by SCFG. Virtual clubs will run for 8 weeks beginning the week of Oct. 5 and will be held at the following times:

Tuesdays 3-5pm

Thursdays 3-5pm

Saturdays 10am-12pm

There will be a mandatory online training session on Saturday, September 26 from 9:30am-12pm.

Please register to be a mentor by filling out this application<https://www.tfaforms.com/4824242>.

SCFGLive Committee: SCFG is also seeking volunteers to assist with video editing and production, script writing, advertising and outreach, and conducting interviews for their weekly Live SCFG programming<https://www.scienceclubforgirls.org/scfglive>  If interested in joining the SCFGLive Committee, please send an email to hweinstock at scienceclubforgirls.org.

Other Volunteer Opportunities: If you are not able to commit to weekly mentoring or participating in the SCFGLive Committee but would still like to volunteer, you can find other options for SCFG volunteer opportunities here<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfNw2UKUqiU66lh-npPw0vOp2qAHGfiT4YlFurlcsGupQQitA/viewform>

  1.  STEMxx Chats

STEMxx Chats is helping trainees, especially women in STEM, succeed in their career paths and in life. At MIT, our predominant benefit will be to undergrads and graduate students. We will address key gaps in facilitating their career development with particular emphasis on professional development tricks and soft skills that they’re not getting in any systematic way. We hope to offer mentorship, support and guidance while addressing key gaps in facilitating their career development. We hope to create a group culture that is uniquely focused on the person, has a high positive tone, emphasizes positive impact, and seeks to do this in a sustained way and have personal friendships form as opposed to one-and-done activities. We hope that creating a culturally and academically diverse group at MIT will allow you to share similar experiences while benefitting from the resources and events of the greater STEMxx Chats community. Below is the interest form for those wanting to join. We will host monthly meetings in addition to the broader STEMxx Chats events (eg. panels on career decisions, key speakers from top women in STEM, etc). We also have Twitter and Instagram (@stemxx_chats) for those who want to learn about the latest events.

Feel free to reach out to the organizers (Shirley Chen, schenxy at mit.edu and Mariana Avila, avilam at mit.edu) if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you in the fall.

Website: https://aliceestanton.wixsite.com/aliceestanton/stemxxchats

Interest form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxDhfUz57xILhrgSkIGwUYufkRhrzyxfbRC81wA6pMQByyQA/viewform?usp=pp_url

  1.  The IDHR Student Advisory Committee is looking for more students to join this year!

MIT’s Institute Discrimination & Harassment Response<http://idhr.mit.edu/> Office (IDHR) is dedicated to preventing and addressing discrimination and discriminatory harassment across the Institute. The Student Advisory Committee<https://idhr.mit.edu/our-office/get-involved/student-advisory-committee> is made up of undergraduate and graduate students from across the Institute who provide feedback and input to the IDHR office regarding our messaging and outreach campaigns and help us most effectively engage with the student body. In addition to monthly committee meetings, the student advisory committee has two subcommittees focused on: 1) institutional advocacy and 2) messaging & partnerships. To get involved, contact idhr-education at mit.edu<mailto:idhr-education at mit.edu>

  1.  MITxHarvard Women in AI Group

Are you interested in Artificial Intelligence? Curious about neural networks, GANs, reinforcement learning, neuro-symbolic approaches, or program induction? If you don’t know what any of those are, but want to learn, think, and discuss not only the technical side of machine learning and AI, but the ethics of AI and applications to biomedicine, cognitive science, environmental sciences, and more! Then we’d love to have you join the MITxHarvard Women in AI Group!!

We are a new initiative spanning both MIT and Harvard, composed of undergraduate and graduate students, seeking to provide a welcoming, supportive community for students excited about AI (no prior background is needed!!)

Our group centers around two prongs: 1) aiming to bring together students of all backgrounds to talk about AI in a supportive community via Zoom paper reading sessions, lightning talks, project sessions, and a fun Slack page! and 2) developing outreach material to get other students excited about AI! We’ve already begun an interview series with amazing women in tech from professors at Harvard, MIT, and Caltech to researchers at DeepMind and Microsoft! This will be posted on our website and YouTube shortly, and we are eager to have more student interviewers on board! If you want to meet other cool students at MIT and Harvard or want to help with our interview series, outreach, and more, please sign-up here: https://tinyurl.com/mitharvardwai<https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2Fmitharvardwai%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR09t8hzcjSGIrTn9svLmU5Xhisb1llWs8ly84av5cDf406_47KdVAEuqBo&h=AT1QrLxISgTmJtxzinOvL3tkkcrqcnRyrang_ahmhjmgHzblO5YayvhoLx4euu9Y4KcMHJt4vbf9BbPHiFWnzY8LuV8voyXFims5iCAonHXAMvb6S_fD9Cuv4Wv8RzcWcVhCq-xvtQg>

Feel free to check out our initial website https://web.mit.edu/women-ai/ or reach out to wai_exec at mit.edu  if you have questions or want to learn more!!

  1.  Become a gwaMIT department rep!

gwaMIT is accepting applications for the position of department representatives! As a gwaMIT department rep, you'll build connections across MIT and help in the personal & professional development of graduate womxn. It is also a powerful means to bring about department-level change and strive towards a more equitable and inclusive MIT. The position lasts for one year, with an option for renewal. Read more about the role and responsibilities here<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BepM4QWy2tUO7ju1dkIOt69lb9wJb_DIs9Us_ljVqUA/edit>. Fill out the short application form here<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxO1KrUGe7rS_tvZsAW8jOOMFNBnv5BdAi4ssn1svoKUqV9w/viewform>. Womxn who are members of underrepresented and minoritized groups are encouraged to apply. The departments with openings are: Sloan, ChemE, Arch, PolSci, HASTS, Humanities, Writing, NSE, CCWCE, CMS, CSB, MAS, CRE, CCE, CTL, EECS. If the position is currently filled, but you are still interested in being involved with gwaMIT, email us to let us know! We have multiple avenues for engagement in gwaMIT's activities and initiatives.

  1.  Sign up for the GradDiversity Newsletter

The GradDiversity Newsletter is a biweekly newsletter that features events, opportunities, and resources for Graduate Students of Color. You can sign up here<https://oge.mit.edu/graddiversity/graddiversity-newsletter/>!

“Every girl has potential. She has promise. She has the right to learn, the right to be heard, the right to play, and to discover. The right to be exactly who she is.”

-Meghan Markle

To unsubscribe or change your mailing preferences, please visit: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/gwamit
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