The Wonder of IAP

While most college students had a two week break and returned to their normal semester, the MIT MA Gammas got to enjoy one of the perks of being at MIT: IAP. IAP is the January term known as the Independent Activities Period. It can be used to make up classes from past semesters, vacation, or to take advantage of opportunities uniquely provided to MIT students for the term.


Iris Sheu ('14) spent one week in Anchorage, AK as part of the MIT's Women's Initiative, a program in which presenters reach out to middle and high school girls in cities across the U.S. in order to encourage them to consider degrees and careers in engineering. "I was kept fairly busy presenting to a total of 10 middle schools, but I also enjoyed attempting to be a true Alaskan and braving the negative temperatures. My adventures include seeing moose, going on a coastal hike, and sledding!"

Casey Wessel ('15) chose to brave the cold in Boston rather than travel. "I just had something awesome happen to me today! Yesterday I was at my IAP class, 6.S019 (Intro to Electronics) and my professor said there was one opening in the Bose Speaker building class. He held a lottery for the spot, and I WON IT! So today I got to spend the whole day with Bose engineers building speakers and amps. Everyone in the class got to build their own set of Bose speakers and an amp to power it, and we got to keep it. It was a really cool experience, and I can't believe I was lucky enough to get the spot. I was the only freshman there [out] of 30 students!"


MA Gammas are taking advantage of their free time and are spending their IAP at international locations, with sisters in Ghana, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Germany, Korea, and China. I got to spend my IAP working in Tel-Aviv, Israel.  I was surprised by how cold and rainy it actually was, although I have a feeling I will miss it when I get back to Boston. I was working at Tel-Aviv University in the Department of Immunology in a Nanomedicine laboratory. Israel is a cool country to work in, with a lot of technology and research to work on. I was even invited to join the MIT Alumni (although I don't graduate until June 2013) Club of Tel-Aviv for one of their events, aptly named "A Toast to IAP."