MIT Spokes 2025

The Spokes 2025 team is made up of 8 MIT students from all over the country and globe, who came to the Institute to pursue their passions in math, science, technology, engineering, and the humanities—for the greater good. At Spokes, our mission is to share this knowledge and passion of the MIT community with young students across the United States, with the hope of inspiring the scholars of tomorrow.

The 2025 Spokes Team

Charles Ge ‘25, Course 2A-6 (Mechanical Engineering w/ Robotics)

Greta Lawler ‘27, Course 3 (Materials Science and Engineering)

Ishaq Balogun ‘25, Course 6-7 (Computer Science and Molecular Biology)

Joseph Alvarez ‘28, Course 16 (Aerospace Engineering)

Ramona Poreitere ‘28, Course 18 (Mathematics) or Course 6-3 (Computer Science and Engineering)

Ruth Shiferaw ‘25, Course 2 (Mechanical Engineering)

Sarah Schmitt ‘28, Course 7 (Biology)

Tian Lin ‘24, ‘25, Course 21M-2 (Theater Arts) and 6-2 (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)

The central goal of MIT Spokes is bridging the gap in STEM education and empowerment among rural, low-income, and underserved communities across the country. Unfortunately, rural communities are often left behind in terms of education quality, and the practice of funding schools through property taxes only exacerbates this inequality. Schools may also lack the funding to provide experiential learning and develop engaging activities for students. MIT Spokes strives to address the lack of engaging educational opportunities for these students, as well as incarcerated youth. Students in juvenile detention receive noticeably less instructional time than other students in the United States, and courses are often limited in scope and complexity. The creativity and dynamism of experiential learning are not prioritized within these educational systems.

We also want to show that engineers and scientists can be athletic, too. By biking around 4,000 miles in around 80 days (from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, CA), we are breaking the stereotype of the shut-in, sedentary academic. We’re also stepping out of our own comfort zones, physically and mentally. And...how many people can say they’ve biked across the United States of America?