Learning in Motion: From Curiosity to Career Building with MIT OpenCourseWare

Finding inspiration to make the world a better place is common among high school students, but turning that inspiration into action requires something more. High schoolers Hinata Yamahara and Graham Bertele are two examples of students who have relied upon MIT OpenCourseWare to empower and give life to their vision and imagination.

Hinata Yamahara was 10 years old when he went on a family trip to Osaka, Japan, and was fascinated by the efficiency of their train system. This sparked an interest in urban planning and the concept of walkable cities. When he returned home to the United States, he began reimagining the spaces around him through the lens of Japanese efficiency. The free and open materials on MIT OpenCourseWare gave him a strong foundation and the confidence to make real-world connections and then apply these ideals back at home.

Yamahara began his exploration of MIT’s educational materials with 11.001J Introduction to Urban Design and Development and has since accessed a variety of courses, such as 11.948 Power of Place: Media Technology, Youth, and City Design and Development and 11.304J Site and Infrastructure Systems Planning. These resources helped Yamahara as he completed an internship with a real estate firm, working on a city redesign project. “I’m part of meetings where we brainstorm how to create a community feeling, how to make a space creative and walkable, and how to make it somewhere people really want to be,” he says.

Graham Bertele is another independent learner in high school who relied upon MIT OpenCourseWare to build a foundation for himself and his community. “Two summers ago, I found Gilbert Strang’s 18.06 Linear Algebra playlist and loved it,” Bertele says. “Since then, I haven’t stopped learning.” With that course, Bertele was able to break down an intimidating subject, and it inspired him to launch an after-school program with his sister to tutor his classmates, where they invited students of all grade levels to engage with concepts usually reserved for college classrooms. MIT OpenCourseWare filled in the gaps that textbooks alone couldn’t account for. “I hope to do meaningful math research in the future,” Bertele says, adding that he wants to attend graduate school and ultimately become a professor.

We celebrate independent high school learners like Hinata and Graham, who you can learn more about in this MIT News article and MIT Open Learning Medium post.

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“Learning for Life: How Curiosity Shapes Well-Being” with Bia Adams

Neuropsychologist, former professional dancer, and lifelong learner Bia Adams recently sat down with Curt Newton, the director of MIT OpenCourseWare, to discuss how curiosity and continuous learning can transform personal growth and mental well-being. Bia’s own learning journey illustrates how open-access education empowers individuals to thrive in an ever-changing world. She explores and leans on multiple disciplines—from ballet and psychology to neuroscience and quantum physics—to understand the mind and body through the exploration of movement.

MIT OpenCourseWare’s free and open materials enabled Bia to explore fascinating and new connections across disciplines. Watch their full discussion from MIT Open Learning’s “open conversation” series to see how open learning empowers people to improve their lives and their communities.If you'd prefer to receive the MIT OpenCourseWare newsletter in your inbox each month, please sign up on the OCW site.

If you'd prefer to receive the MIT OpenCourseWare newsletter in your inbox each month, please sign up on the OCW site.