Over the past few years of running PIT-UN and speaking with both graduate and undergraduate students, our team has been continuously struck by their tenacity, drive, and passion. We leave many of our conversations thinking that we need to work together to remove as many barriers as we can, so we can fashion the more just and equitable world we want to create for ourselves and our communities.

When we sought to spotlight students’ work from across the PIT universe, we were expecting enthusiasm for a growing field, keen observations about the challenges of doing the work, and frank discussions about taking the status quo to task. We got those and more.

Read on to learn what it’s like for students working on social impact projects, navigating the path to becoming a PIT practitioner, uncovering the emerging PIT job landscape, building a supportive community on Discord, and charting their own paths through an undefined (mine)field of interdisciplinary coursework, internships, first jobs, or a new mid-career direction. We invite you to share your own #iamPIT story @NewAmericaPIT.

-PIT-UN editorial

Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer science and biology student Mercy Oladipo explores why her interests keep leading her to a PIT path and discusses her latest project, Birth By Us, a platforme geared at helping Black women find safer birthing options.

The Public Interest Technology University Network reached out to students from the Social Impact Internships and Employment Program at MIT’s Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center, which connects undergraduate students with internships for challenging opportunities that yield significant community impact, to hear firsthand how students can engage PIT.

Recent Carnegie Mellon University graduate and founder of Data for Black Lives, Alex Jack, provides in depth advice for charting a PIT path and outlines what she wished she had known before embarking on a educational and professional PIT career.

Arizona State University (ASU) graduate student, Jeremy Liu, discusses how he leveraged his understanding about the ASU’s inner workings to develop student-originated PIT projects with university resources and the key lessons he learned.