Zoe Wright
At MIT, excellence is often measured in scientific breakthroughs and discoveries. This April, members of the MIT graduate community gathered to focus on something just as critical: the human connections behind those successes.
The Leading with Care reception, hosted by Vice Chancellor Dave Darmofal, brought together students, faculty, and staff for a night of recognition and appreciation of the various ways in which people show up for one another, build community, and make MIT a more supportive place to learn and work. The evening highlighted three key cohorts: 2025-27 Committed to Caring faculty, 2026 Graduate Students of Excellence, and the inaugural Enduring Impact staff. Each honor recognizes a different dimension of what it means to contribute meaningfully to the graduate experience, all coming together to create a more complete image of graduate life at MIT.
The Committed to Caring program recognizes faculty who go above and beyond to support graduate students as people, rather than simply researchers or scholars. Dean Denzil Streete (OGE) shared examples of the thoughtful mentorship provided by these faculty members, which illustrated the lasting impact this kind of support can have — not only on individual students, but across entire departments.
Graduate Students of Excellence were recognized for their leadership, service, and impact within the MIT community. While their work often happens behind the scenes, Dave Darmofal’s remarks brought their contributions front and center, reinforcing how essential graduate students are to the fabric of MIT.
The Enduring Impact Honor rounded out the evening by celebrating staff and administrators whose work has had a sustained and meaningful effect on the graduate community. As Denzil’s words showed, these are the people who sustain programs, create support systems, and quietly ensure that students have the tools necessary to succeed.
In addition to their presence, each honoree was also invited to contribute an object– ranging from something tied to their research to something more personal– that represents a facet of how they see themselves within the MIT community. These pieces, arranged museum-style for attendees to view, transformed the space into a kind of curated exhibit of graduate community life.
Walking through the display, guests were able to see leadership and excellence not just through accomplishments on paper, but through objects that reflected identity, values, and lived experience. The result was a more layered portrait of the honorees, celebrating the whole person, rather than a single achievement.
Additional remarks were shared by Maria Yang, Vice Provost for Faculty, and Taylor Baum, a former Graduate Woman of Excellence. Each speaker brought a slightly different lens, but a shared theme emerged: excellence at MIT is deeply tied to care. Whether it’s mentoring a student through a difficult stretch, advocating for better systems, or creating spaces where people feel they belong, these acts add up to create a more ‘human’ MIT.
The Leading with Care reception was brought about by the combined efforts of the Office of Graduate Education, Career Advising and Professional Development, and the MIT Division of Graduate and Undergraduate Education.
