Taking on gender gaps in health care and technology
When Alicia Chong Rodriguez first toured the MIT campus as a high school student, she was so impressed by everything she saw that she still remembers excitedly phoning her mom back home in Costa Rica, calling collect from a pay phone in the student center. “It’s the first time I was faced with the fact that people create the things that we use,” says Chong, who has always been interested in technology and computers. “I felt like I could do that too.” Chong’s life has taken many twists and turns in the years since, but she is finally back at MIT as a master’s candidate in the inaugural class of the Integrated Design and Management Program. There, she is using her electrical engineering skills to combat cardiovascular disease in women, while also encouraging and inspiring young Latinas to pursue careers in technology. Journey to MIT Chong, who grew up in San José, Costa Rica,...