Photo courtesy of MIT
MIT Federal Credit Union has partnered with MIT’s Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center (PKG) to establish a social impact internship position to give students an opportunity to contribute content to “Student Talk,” a new feature on on the credit union’s Money Talk blog.
The position was offered as part of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Independent Activities Period, a four-week term in January before the start of the spring semester. The PKG Center provides public service programs for the MIT community.
“PKG Center’s Social Impact Internship (SII) Program focuses on providing financial education for students and marginalized communities, and it seemed an obvious fit for the credit union,” MIT FCU said in a statement.
The program’s first intern is MIT engineering student Nathan Liang. The credit union said he wrote for a target audience including lower-income students and underserved, marginalized, and unbanked minority communities, including LGBTQI, Latinx, and African American populations. His work also targeted international students attending MIT.
Liang developed his content for Student Talk by crowdsourcing viewpoints, stories and everyday experiences from his peers at MIT. He also shared his personal experiences. Topics included financial planning, building credit, renting and leasing basics, and health insurance. He also used crowdsourcing to get feedback on his early drafts to ensure he was accurately representing peer experiences, the credit union said.
“We believe that hearing all voices in our community that tap into real-life experiences are of great value for the members and communities we serve. Nathan’s perspective and approach to financial education for his peers are very relevant,” Rui Domingos, CEO and president of MIT Federal Credit Union, said in the statement. “His content highlights many individuals’ struggle with a lack of awareness and basic knowledge of financial services. I’m happy with Nathan’s work as it complements the mission of MIT FCU as a member-focused credit union that exists to improve the lives of all members of our community.”
Liang produced 10 articles for the Student Talk Series, and they will be published on the blog over the next several months. MIT FCU said it plans to continue the Student Talk Series beyond this pilot program.
