On October 9th, the Office of Graduate Education and the Office of Undergraduate Advising co-hosted best selling author and Boston University professor Dr. Anthony Jack to discuss his newest book, Class Dismissed. In order to accommodate both employees and students’, MIT hosted two separate events.
The first event was a professional development opportunity open to all MIT faculty and staff, and was moderated by Chris “Petey” Peterson, from the Admissions Office. Petey asked insightful questions about the book, and engaged in conversation with Dr. Jack about how MIT faculty and staff can best support student success. Dr. Jack shared impactful recommendations based on his extensive research on inequalities in higher education. This event was well-attended by faculty and staff, who also engaged with Dr. Jack during the Q & A portion.
The second event was a student forum, open to all undergraduate and graduate students. The MIT COOP generously donated 20 copies of the book, which were given to students on a first come first serve basis. Two students were selected to introduce Dr. Jack at the beginning of the event– undergraduate student and executive director of FLI@MIT, Kano Tungkitkancharoen, and graduate student and co-founder of GFLI@MIT, Diana Grass. Dr. Jack’s books and research focus heavily on first generation student experiences, so Kano and Diana were excellent choices to introduce Dr. Jack at the student forum. This event had a smaller crowd than the first, which allowed for a conversational format to the forum. Many of the students appeared to have personal connection to the topics in his book.
