About

The mission of The CRWN is to inspire undergraduate women of color to move confidently as visionaries, grounded in excellence, empathy, and support for one another.

Women of Color includes Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islanders, and other minoritized ethnicities. Women includes transgender women, cisgender women, and non-binary women.

While our program is designed to support and celebrate undergraduate women of Color, participation is open to all students regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and national origin.

Program Goals

  • To enhance and strengthen community amongst students at MIT.
  • To enhance and increase opportunities to pursue and participate in academic excellence and professional development opportunities at and beyond MIT.
  • To support positive racial/ethnic, cultural, gender identity, self-awareness, confidence, etc.
  • To assist students in effectively and efficiently navigating the MIT experience, e.g., through general advising and group mentoring opportunities.

 

The CRWN’s Four Pillars

The CRWN’s four pillars are critical to the program’s success — these are the areas of need that we heard students articulate the most.

Roomful of event attendees applauding a speaker at the podium

Community

  • Encouraging support for one another creating space for students to connect with each other, share experiences, and be themselves without the pressure of assimilation and being hyper aware of themselves.
  • Types of programs include: Group mentoring with graduate student WOC, retreats, socials, etc.
Woman smiling at event

Personal Development

  • Person-centered: students are empowered to explore their identity/identities outside of the classroom. Through this component, we hope to help you think about how you want to show up n the world and how you define yourself for yourself.
  • Types of programs include: Self-care events, mental health check-ins, book clubs, etc.
Women listening at a seminar

Academic Success

  • We want to support students in their learning and academic journey.
  • Types of programs include: Study sessions, bootcamps, peer support, Flipping Failure, etc.
Women conversing at a table

Professional Development

  • We want to help students develop their professional personas: How do they represent themselves in workspaces? How do they excel in their work and in the world, especially surrounded by people who don’t always look like them?
  • Types of programs include: resume workshops, salary negotiations, and various other professional seminars and workshops.

Program Benefits

  • Develop a network of undergraduate and graduate students at MIT.
  • Participate in Group Mentoring opportunities.
  • Receive support achieving academic success goals.
  • Access to social outings, retreats, dinners, and fun events.
  • Access to financial assistance for pursing academic and professional development goals.