MIT News breed · Science

MIT Program Integrates Humanities with Tech in Tulsa

The Code.Tulsa program at MIT offers undergraduate students a unique summer experience, blending technical innovation with a humanist perspective through internships and community engagement in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

MIT students interned with the Muscogee and Cherokee nations, and local nonprofits, working on projects like developing a maternal health data system. This involved analyzing data, drafting surveys, and considering tribal data sovereignty, offering a stark contrast to typical MIT coursework.

The program, supported by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and the George Kaiser Family Foundation, aims to help students integrate engineering problem-solving with a humanist understanding of social challenges.

Code.Tulsa also inspired the creation of the Tulsa Advanced Sciences Camp (TASC), a STEM camp for Native American high school students, founded by MIT student Jack Carson. TASC focuses on teaching curiosity and self-teaching skills alongside technical subjects.

TASC campers reported increased ambition and a desire to use STEM for their communities, with some inspired to pursue higher education at institutions like MIT.

Program participants emphasized that social impact is integral to engineering, driven by empathy, responsibility, and inclusion in system design, rather than solely by technology itself.

The experience helped students reconnect with their public purpose, reinforcing the idea that their MIT education can be used to benefit others, regardless of their career path.

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