Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center (PKG)

At the Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center, we help you to connect with a wide variety of public service projects in local, national, and global communities. We also provide guidance—and often funding—for your project.

The mission of the Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center (PKG) is to get you out there, working side-by-side with like-minded collaborators to help build -- in large ways and small -- more humane communities. You contribute your skills and your knowledge, your energy and your spirit, your creativity and your ingenuity to improve the way the world works, one project at a time. Depending on the program or the initiative you choose to work on, your involvement may last a day, several weeks, or longer.

The Public Service Center (PSC) offers MIT students multiple ways to enrich communities beyond MIT while expanding their own education and life experiences. The guidance, resources, and support offered by the PSC help students to identify the public service options, both paid and volunteer, best suited to their passions and abilities.

Through a selection of fellowships and grants, the IDEAS Competition, programs such as ScienceExpo and Freshmen Urban Program (FUP), community service work-study positions, service learning classes, advising resources, and the International House for Global Leadership (iHouse, a residential living-learning environment), PSC helps students with hands-on experiences that serve communities and the students themselves in life-transforming ways.

Fellowships, Value-Added Internships, and Grants -- In locations as near as Cambridge or as far as India, there are many opportunities to work on community issues, whether it is addressing predatory lending in the city of Lawrence, MA; implementing a reforestation and tree nursery plan in Mexico; or testing an electronic pill box in India. Students can work individually or as part of a team on projects during term breaks and during the academic year.

The MIT IDEAS Competition -- Students form teams to develop and implement projects that make a positive change for communities across the globe. Entries are judged on their innovation, feasibility, and community impact.

Programs, Planning, and Volunteering -- Through local outreach programs, MIT students can teach in a K-12 science classroom, serve as a mentor to adolescents in math and science, or teach a child to read. CityDays, ScienceExpo, FUP, Giving Tree, and ReachOut are programs led by students under the direction of the PSC. PSC staff also advise students about international and local volunteer opportunities, service group management, grants and proposal writing, and other areas that help MIT students and groups to participate in community service.

Community Service Work-Study -- Students who qualify for Federal work-study are able to add to their work experience while assisting nonprofit organizations with the problems they face.

Service Learning -- Applied learning for student and community benefit is another way that students can gain pragmatic educational and life experiences while serving community needs. For example, freshmen can enroll in a public service design seminar, where they may build a prototype that eases vaccine transportation in the developing world, or redesign a community garden's composting device. Students can gain a deeper understanding of their subjects, and a better understanding of their own problem-solving capabilities.

iHouse -- A newly formed living-learning community, iHouse is focused on MIT's mission of applied learning and global leadership development.

As part of MIT's Division of Student Life and Department of Student Life Programs, the main goal of the PSC is to enrich the educational and life experiences of students through leadership and service opportunities. The PSC was established in 1988 to provide centralized institutional support for community service.