Shape the future. Become an AI changemaker.
Opportunities to learn and lead
APPLICATIONS FOR MIT FUTUREMAKERS SUMMER 2024 NOW CLOSED. APPLICANT NOTIFICATIONS: BY MAY 31, 2024
At SureStart, our goal is to provide high-school and college students with the skills to be an AI builder and changemaker. We are specifically committed to training and mentoring students from communities traditionally underrepresented in AI.
The heart of the program involves trainees learning hands on with sustained support from “proximate mentors.” Mentors are graduate students who excel at machine learning and AI skills, and can relate to the trainees’ educational journeys and their lived experiences.
This summer, SureStart will once again be collaborating with the MIT RAISE Initiative to host MIT FutureMakers Create-a-thon, Summer 2024! The 6-week program is entirely virtual, part-time, and at no cost to students and will run from July 1st through August 9th, 2024. MIT FutureMakers Create-a-thon offers multiple track options for middle school, high school and undergraduate students, as well as paid mentor opportunities for graduate and PhD students.
The MIT FutureMakers Create-a-Thon Program is virtual, part-time with flexible hours, and no-cost for students.
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Are you a middle-school student eager to learn about AI and App Development? Or do you know one such middle-schooler? Join our MIT FutureMakers Create-a-Thon program.
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Are you a high-schooler eager to learn about AI and App Development? Are you an undergraduate student interested in learning about AI and machine learning?
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Interested in becoming a mentor? Help build up the next generation of AI leaders, while developing your own leadership skills and getting paid for your efforts!
For Trainees: About the SureStart Program
Phase one: Guided self-paced learning
In the first phase, trainees gain an understanding of AI concepts, App Development tools or Machine learning frameworks and libraries, and ethical considerations in AI development through a curated, self-paced curriculum, accessed virtually. They are supported with one-on-one and group mentoring from talented mentors who share knowledge, and provide accountability and encouragement. Check out the skills you’ll learn here.
Phase two: The AI Create-a-thon
In the second phase, it’s time to put those skills to work in a fun, exciting, and creative way! Working in small teams, trainees build AI-based solutions for real-world problems in a Create-a-thon that caps off the program. From brainstorm to completion, trainees employ an entrepreneurial process to develop their project, with support from their mentors. Check out a previous Create-a-thon to see the incredible projects past trainees have developed.
And there’s more…
Throughout the program, students will also have the opportunity to attend technical talks, participate in career skill-building seminars, and engage in formal and informal networking with peers and industry professionals.
Start your journey to a successful career in AI with sustained support from a network of qualified mentors, engaged peers, and invested industry experts!
Application window for the Summer 2024 program is now open.
Trainee eligibility criteria:
Applicants must be currently enrolled middle school, high school or undergraduate students.
Prior coding experience preferred but not required.
Applicants must be able to commit to 3-4 hours per weekday during the program (July 1st through August 9th, 2024). Some extra hours on Saturdays may be required during the last two weeks of the program for Create-a-thon prep.
For Mentors: How you can change the future of AI
Do you remember the person who made you realize your true potential? Or a time when you needed guidance and didn’t know where to turn?
If you said yes to the above, and you are a graduate student with coding and machine learning skills, SureStart is giving you the chance to pay it forward, or perhaps the opportunity to be the mentor you never had.
Benefits of being a mentor
In less than 6 hours a week, gain experience that will boost your career and enrich your life. And get paid to do it!
Get hands-on management experience
Strengthen your leadership skills
Network with industry professionals
Deepen your technical abilities (look up “protege effect!”)
Make life-long connections across the globe
Inspire the next generation of AI minds
What’s expected of a mentor?
As a SureStart Mentor, your main responsibility will be to train, support and encourage a small group of four to five students as they develop machine learning skills through the program, and apply those skills to build an AI-based product. Your day-to-day responsibilities will be to interact with your group of trainees through regular meetings, to keep them accountable for finishing the prior day's tasks, and to guide them as they run into challenges by pointing them to resources, showing them how to debug code, or by giving them helpful hints to discover the answer on their own.
How we support you
This is a paid position where you’ll receive ongoing support from the SureStart Program Manager and Head Mentor. You’ll have the chance to review the curriculum before the Program kicks off, and you’ll also receive expert training on how to manage and mentor effectively. You’ll also get the chance to attend career development seminars and talks from industry experts. It will be exciting, challenging, and incredibly rewarding work!
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