MEET hosts MIT Professor Daniel Jackson

In December, MEET students and alumni had the privilege to meet with Professor Daniel Jackson from MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Professor Jackson sits on MEET’s advisory board and also volunteers to help train and prepare MIT instructors prior to their arrival in the Middle East. Professor Jackson has been a long time supporter, but as he describes below, this was his first visit to MEET:

“This was my first chance to visit MEET in Jerusalem, and to get to chat with a group of MEET students about their background and experiences. I was so impressed by their energy and passion, and I have no doubt that these are people who can really change their world. I’ve known for a long time that MEET is an extraordinary organization, but talking to them and hearing about their projects, and meeting some of the fabulous staff, made it all much more real for me. Hopefully my next visit to MEET will be during the summer when I’ll be able to experience the summer program in person.”

Especially influenced by Professor Jackson were our year-long mentors, who are also MEET alumni. The mentors currently teach the Y1 students (15 years old) and sought advice on how to teach computer science. One of the mentors, Zohar Shevach, praised the advice she received from Professor Jackson:

“He gave us really good advice, he told us to start with an example and only then explain the topic….He suggested that when we ask the students a question we actually wait for them to think a bit before allowing one of them to answer, that way all the students can try and come up with the answer….these seem like easy things, but I think about this often when I teach now”