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ACE – Active Community Engagement

Leadership through community service

Active Community Engagement is a five-day program designed to highlight the challenges facing our local community and the impact you can have working with organizations to address these needs. ACE will introduce you to MIT and neighboring agencies in Boston and Cambridge, as well as different methods of social change. In the style of MIT’s motto Mens et Manus – mind and hand – ACE will encourage you to consider your role in this community and grow your awareness of many public service issues in your new neighborhood. Not only will you participate in thought-provoking activities and small group discussions involving topics such as hunger, privilege, and race, but you will also gain a greater understanding through your hands-on experience volunteering with local organizations who fight social injustice in the greater Boston area.

As part of the ACE family, you will be part of a tight-knit community of fellow ACE-ers who will continue to encourage you and learn with you throughout your time at MIT. The program will introduce you to the inside scoop on surviving and thriving at MIT, and will also give you many chances to explore the exciting Boston area. We will share many great parts of the city with you- from service placements like the Greater Boston Food Bank or Community Servings, to visiting beautiful outdoor spaces, to dinners, cannolis, and more!

At MIT, we know how to have fun while always keeping in mind the positive impact our education can bring to the world. ACE-ers lead this drive, and have gone on to found important service organizations on campus, participate and lead in service-oriented engineering projects all around the world, and receive prestigious campus-wide and national recognition for the impacts they have on their community.

Start off your MIT experience right and apply for ACE – join the ACE family!

ACE Specifics

  • Dates: Tuesday, August 22 – Sunday, August 27, 2023
  • Place: First-years will be housed in their assigned dormitory.
  • Available Spaces: 25
  • Cost: Free to participants. The cost includes all meals, transportation and day-time and night-time activity costs, and supplies. Participants may bring money for snacks, incidentals.

** We look forward to connecting students to in-person experiences. If we need to adapt programming due to community partner capacity or other emergent circumstances, we will communicate that to all participants.