The following essays, written by students in the introductory writing subjects at MIT, were selected for publication in Angles 2025 by an editorial board of lecturers. The twelve works are categorized by theme and linked below. For more information on Angles, see our About Angles page. For an overview of this edition of Angles and an explanation of the thematic categories chosen for this edition, please see our Editors’ Note.
Family, Identity, and Experience
Food of the Kings by Dhruv Shah
About a year back, I had adopted a policy of complete disinterest in food. “It is mere sustenance,” I would say, “if humans ran on diesel, I would drink that, too.”
Hard Work Soup by Rafy Yoo
Boiled for hours until the meat nearly fell off the bone… It was the kind of soup that clung to your lips, warmed your chest, and promised to mend whatever ached.
The Works of a Hand by Hannah Odland
This is real. Here I am, when I could be nothing. This isn’t a dream or a memory. My world exists over the backdrop of a void, a void that has been filled, and I am in it.
Her Grit by Joseph Huang
I can see, now, where Grandma developed some of the habits and dispositions that she brought into our household: the need to save, to plant a garden, the natural suspicion of outsiders…taking advantage of us.
The Vault of Past Regrets by Frost
If my own family couldn’t put up with the messes that I created, how could I ever present myself to others as a Good Person?
The Journey of the Self: Toward MIT and Beyond
Rekindling Intrinsic Passion: Healing My Alienation by Marlo Cyanovich
I couldn’t just sit, idling about in embryonic fluid speaking our language with my sister for six more weeks. I was too impatient. So that day, six weeks early, I decided I was going to be born.
Transfer Orbit: A Space Veteran’s Pivot to Climate Action at MIT by Justin Cole
Here at MIT, people seem to understand something: to quote the late Colorado Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, “You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time.”
Issues of Justice in Medicine and Public Health
Please Hold for an Interpreter: When Miscommunication Endangers Patients by Rowan Dzwonkowski
How many women, I wonder, are kept from communicating with their doctors by their abusers, and without other interpreting options can’t even speak for themselves?
The Cost of Cleanup: Fighting Corporate Malfeasance with Community Leadership by Alexis Cook
As Lori photographed the scene and her camera turned toward the decontamination chambers BP had set up for their employees and equipment, workers intentionally sprayed her with Corexit…
Engaging with Social Issues
Funding Innovation: Federal Grants, Private Philanthropy, and the Risks Facing U.S. Universities by Alexis Cook
Top research universities currently face two major challenges to their funding models from the federal government: decreased availability of federal funds and the introduction and proposed increase of endowment taxes.
Painting Cultural Conflict: Graffiti as a Social Lens into New York City by Hannah Mu
[Graffiti’s] persistence despite criminalization, criticism, commodification, and erasure is a true testament to its power as a “voice of the city.”
The Power of Literary Texts
More than Nonsense: Language Acquisition and Identity in Through the Looking Glass by Carl Osborne
The poem’s unfamiliar words position the readers in a pre-linguistic frame, where they must reason through Carroll’s language and either construct meaning or fail to understand.
Cover Photograph of Moghadam Building by Gretchen Ertl, May 3 2025. MIT Media Library, Flickr.