Better buildings, better lives
Every year, MIT senior Marisa Simmons bakes a 10-layer cake from scratch for her dorm. Her first attempt, as a freshman, toppled sideways, but Simmons has since engineered a structurally sound pastry. Her secret? “Pepperidge Farm pirouette cookies are actually very good reinforcement,” Simmons divulges.A civil engineering major from South Pasadena, Calif., Simmons calls the International Development House (iHouse) home while she’s at MIT. Simmons and the 20 other undergraduates in iHouse come from all over the world, but they’re united in their passion for international development.“Some people do human rights projects, some people do education, others do health projects,” Simmons says. Her own interests lie in infrastructure like roadways and water supply — the large-scale systems that connect people and their basic needs.The plunge into developmentWhen she first entered the Institute nearly four years ago, Simmons knew she wanted to be a civil engineer. She had enjoyed math ever...