PKG Public Service Center

PKG Public Service Center Microchallenge

Challenge Format 

Thank you to our generous challenge donors for supporting the PKG Center: Kat Jiang ’20, Paul Kominers ’12, Stella Sze ’94 and Fred Quintana ’93, and Jim Zaorski ’80!

If 50 donors give to the PKG Center on March 14, we will unlock $10,000. If 125 donors give on this day, we will unlock an additional $10,000.

About the challenge

Serving more than 1,000 students annually, the PKG Center taps and expands MIT students’ unique skills and interests to prepare them to explore and address complex social and environmental challenges. We educate students to collaborate ethically and effectively with communities, to engage in meaningful public service today and in their lives beyond MIT.  

Demand for the PKG Center’s programs continues to grow―the number of Social Impact Internship applications is currently 14 times greater than the number of opportunities we are able to fund. These academically aligned internships enable students to use the knowledge and skills they are learning in the classroom to address real-world challenges and make an impact. Gloria Huang ’25 (Course 15) worked as a product management intern at BestFit, Inc. and shared this important takeaway:  

“When creating AI programs, you have to think about the biases incorporated into machine learning; when coding websites, you must think about accessibility and consider language; and when working with data, you must think about ethics and the power dynamics represented in data. I now try to look at technology through an equitable lens, and this is a lesson I will carry with me for the rest of my career.”

The PKG Center depends on gifts from supporters like you to meet 60 percent of our annual budget needs. Your gift on Pi Day directly supports students, like Gloria, participating in the PKG Center’s programs, from Social Impact Internships to PKG Fellowships and the IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge. 

With demand only increasing for these public service opportunities, we must raise even more funds to cover the costs of these additional experiences. Please give to the PKG Center during the MIT 24-Hour Challenge on March 14―and make so much possible with your generosity!