By Maria Iacobo
Three students in the School of Architecture and Planning are among this year’s Graduate Women of Excellence awardees: Belén Saldías Fuentes and Ufuoma Ovienmhada (Media Arts and Sciences program) and Nina Wexelblatt (Department of Architecture).
Every two years, the MIT Office of Graduate Education honors a group of students as Graduate Women of Excellence, selected based on their leadership and service contributions — such as dedication to mentoring, efforts to improve the student experience, and leadership qualities displayed when challenges arise — during their time at MIT. Faculty, staff, and other graduate students are asked to nominate graduate women who are either nearing graduation or in their third year or more in a graduate program.
Fuentes is a doctoral student in MAS and affiliated with the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Constructive Communication; Ovienmhada completed a masters degree in MAS and is now a doctoral student in the Aeronautics and Astronautics department; Wexelblatt is a doctoral student in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art program in the Department of Architecture.
Forty awardees were honored at an event earlier this spring. Each woman created a poster detailing her path to MIT that were displayed during the event. Colleagues, friends, and family were invited to share in celebrating the awardees.
