Reimi Hicks, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s associate director of admissions and recruitment, plays a vital role in welcoming middle and high school students to MIT through various outreach initiatives and events.

MIT's STEM-focused programs for middle and high school students, which have been running for nearly five decades, continue to evolve and expand. Over the past nine years, MITES Associate Director of Recruitment and Admissions, Reimi Hicks, has been instrumental in scaling these initiatives. Initially, her role centered on MITES Summer, a program since 1975 where she lived with students on campus. As her responsibilities grew, she now manages a variety of outreach programs, including MITES Saturdays, MITES Semester, and MITES Summer. Each program is designed to provide college preparatory experiences, challenging coursework, and a strong sense of community. The initiatives receive support from a diverse range of sources, including individuals, foundations, corporations, and MIT itself.

MITES, an acronym for Mentorship in Engineering and Science, is a free educational initiative designed to provide rigorous STEM training, including programming and room and board, to high school students and their families. MITES Summer is a six-week residential program for rising seniors in high school, offering immersive STEM experiences. MITES Semester was introduced when an alumna from MITES Summer expanded the program’s reach to more students, creating a virtual six-month enrichment program. MITES Saturdays is a hybrid program for students attending public schools in Boston, Cambridge, or Lawrence, Massachusetts, offering STEM enrichment from seventh grade through high school graduation. The program emphasizes rigorous academic challenges but also includes workshops, design challenges, mentorship, and social activities to support students’ holistic development. MITES staff maintain a 1:5 student-to-staff ratio, ensuring students receive individualized attention and care. Instructors and mentors come from diverse backgrounds, including MIT faculty, staff, and professionals from various industries.

MITES partners with working professionals in STEM fields and university students near MIT to provide students with exposure, preparation, and inspiration in STEM fields. Each year, 100 temporary staff join MITES annually to help prepare students for MIT, affirm their interest in STEM, and connect them with the resources they need to achieve their goals. Mentors from MITES also play a vital role in guiding students toward their academic and career aspirations. Hicks and her colleagues employ a multifaceted outreach strategy, prioritizing the promotion of MIT

MITES is the top-ranked school to which many MITES alumni choose to apply.“A lot of our efforts are about being positive ambassadors for the Institute,” Hicks explains. “It is crucial to us to attract the most talented and motivated students, regardless of their ZIP code, because our mission is to increase accessibility to STEM fields for young people across the country.” The outreach efforts are working well. In 2024, over 4,000 students applied to MITES, which is the largest applicant pool in the program’s history. The MITES application is similar to a college application. Students provide details about themselves, including their backgrounds, free-time activities, work and volunteer experience, and extracurriculars, as well as their transcripts. Short-answer questions on the application help the MITES team understand what’s important to the students and what motivates them. The application process allows Hicks to learn more about each student beyond their transcript. An important part of the recruitment and marketing process are MITES alumni. This close-knit group actively share information about MITES through their networks and communities. In fact, MITES alumni played a role in Hicks’s interview process. “The alumni emphasized the importance of community,” Hicks recalls. “I can’t tell you how many alumni I’ve spoken to, and I’ve seen thousands of students come through our programs, who tell us that even 30 years after their experience at MITES, they remain deeply connected to the program and its values.”

later, they remain friends with the people they met through MITES, whether they become study buddies, business partners, or best friends. This connection is vital for the program's peers and instructors. MITES emphasizes the concept of "Delta," symbolizing change, and focuses on personal growth over competition. The program encourages participants to grow individually while supporting one another through challenging coursework and high expectations. Soundbyte Q: What brings you the most pride? A: The most pride I feel is when students who participated in MITES go on to attend MIT for college. I had the opportunity to be a part of their MIT journey as a sixth grader or someone they roomed with over the summer before enrolling. Q: What do you most appreciate about your colleagues at MIT? A: I appreciate my colleagues' dedication to the program's mission. They genuinely care about the work we do.

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MIT researchers are exploring and mitigating extreme weather risks, with innovative tools being developed to address these challenges. A new project, “The Climate Grand Challenges—New World of Weather,” focuses on advancing modeling, planning, and infrastructure to enhance climate resilience. Meanwhile, MIT is introducing a novel initiative to support storytelling through fiction and memoir, aiming to strengthen community connections and celebrate narrative power. Additionally, researchers have uncovered new insights into how enzymes influence bacterial protein production, expanding our understanding of RNA’s role in genetic information processing. Notably, MIT PhD candidate Lanie McKinney is pioneering technology to convert Mars’ atmosphere into propellant, paving the way for safe human missions to the Red Planet. This news highlights MIT’s continued commitment to groundbreaking research and innovation across diverse fields.

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