MISTI Excellence Award Winner 2025

Zachary Francis '24, MEng '25, is no stranger to MISTI, often walking down the hallways to chat with a program manager or plan his next trip abroad. The recent mechanical engineering graduate has set foot in four countries—Singapore, Japan, Armenia, and Hong Kong—and has completed five programs with MISTI. As an advocate for MISTI, he received the 2025 MISTI Excellence Award.

1. Why did you include MISTI in your 4-year journey?

   I have a vague recollection of my older sister, who graduated from MIT in 2019, telling me that she regretted not participating in any MISTI programs during her time at MIT. I am pretty sure that is where I got the idea of doing MISTI in the first place. The initial drive was the opportunity to do an exchange program with Tokyo Tech, as I was doing Course 22 [Nuclear Science and Engineering] when I first enrolled at MIT. That is actually what led me to take Japanese language courses. Eventually, COVID would hit, and I had to rethink a lot of the things I wanted out of life, as it seemed so fragile at the time. So I switched from Course 22 to Course 2 [Mechanical Engineering] (and later on Course 6, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) and had a massive desire to travel as much as I could. I think the best way for me to put it is that I always planned to do MISTI programs coming into MIT; I just didn’t plan to love them so much that I would end up doing five. 

   Images below show Zach in Japan during the summer of 2023 when he interned at a startup company, MUJIN Robotics. 

2. What were some of your most memorable experiences while abroad?

   I really like being a fish out of water. I’m more used to feeling different than not when I’m around other people, and I truly believe that is why I have the beautiful memories I have. I can’t pinpoint which moments were the most memorable because it’s the people I love remembering. From the random encounters that I ended up having in the streets in Armenia and Singapore to the less-than-fluent conversations I had with drunken salarymen in Japan in bars, I loved every minute that I got to be different and talk to someone about it.

   Zach's first summer internship in 2022 was at the Advanced Robotics Center of the Engineering Faculty at the National University of Singapore.

   In 2022, Zach went to Armenia during IAP as a pilot Global Teaching Labs Armenia team at the American University of Armenia.

   During IAP 2024, he participated in the MISTI-MIT Entrepreneurship & Maker Skills Integrator (MEMSI) program.

3. What was your biggest takeaway professionally? 

   I learned what kind of people I want around me in my career. I was really lucky to be surrounded by coworkers who loved life, and lucky that I can call them friends. Being able to go to work and see somebody that I can laugh with later at lunch or go out for a drink with after work—those were able to sustain me through some tough days I had. The work I do is important to me, but who I do the work with is equally as important to me because if I have to spend 8 hours trapped with people, I may as well like them. 

4. Why should someone in your major participate in MISTI? 

   At MIT, it sometimes feels like America is the only country that exists in the world of tech. You always hear about your friend getting an internship in the Bay Area or getting a full-time position in New York. There is a reason for that: they are epicenters for technology and progress, but they aren’t the only ones. There are a lot of engineering opportunities abroad, especially in the realm of robotics, that are just as good as those in the US. I think it’s a little funny because, as an MIT student, we’re told that the work that we will be doing in the future will affect the world, but a lot of us will just stay here and not engage with the rest of the world, outside of a couple of emails. Students should do MISTI to get a feel for that real engagement at least. 

5. What were some classes you took that directly had an impact on your MISTIs? 

   As part of the requirements for MISTI Japan, I had to take four semesters of Japanese language and an Intro to Japanese Culture class. These were extremely valuable as they just straight up allowed me to communicate better during my time in Japan. For MISTI Singapore, I took a general Asian cultural class, [because MIT doesn’t offer any courses on Singapore/Southeast Asia], which ended up being "Topics in Indian Pop Culture." I enjoyed the class, but I don’t think it had much impact on my time in Singapore.

6. What's next for you?

   I’ll be moving abroad to work in Taiwan in the fall of 2025. If it weren’t for MISTI, I wouldn’t have considered working outside the US. It was the love of exploring and meeting new, different people that made me want to pursue this path after graduation. I’m scared, yet excited.