Maya honored with the MISTI Excellence Award

Maya Makarovsky '25 has completed four MISTI programs in Israel, Dubai, the United Kingdom, and Italy. During her freshman year, she researched optic nanosensors at Tel Aviv University in the Bisker Lab. The following summer, she interned at Sharegain in the UK and worked on applications for Sharegain's product team as well as broader initiatives within the company around data structures. Her final two MISTI programs were during the Independent Activities Period. In 2023, Maya taught debate, math, physics, Russian, and English at a bilingual Italian-Slovenian school in Trieste, Italy. She then went to Dubai in collaboration with MIT's DesignX Accelerator in 2024 to develop models for demand forecasting for the startup ActDivate. She also helped lay the groundwork for future international collaborations, including fieldwork in Ghana through D-Lab: Development. 

She was recently awarded the 2025 Suzanne Berger Award for Future Global Leaders. The award is presented annually to a graduating student who, through coursework and MISTI experience abroad, has demonstrated the potential to become a global leader. View the past awardees. 

Maya shared her thoughts on why she participated in four MISTI experiences and her most memorable moments abroad, how MISTI fits into her career path, and more!

1. Why should students include MISTI while at MIT? 

MISTI is a gem at MIT that feels almost too good to be true: fully funded travel that accelerates your career instead of pausing it. When I tell my friends at other schools about MISTI, they’re genuinely shocked that something like this exists. It’s not just a line on your resume—it becomes the first thing people want to ask about. During my job interviews, I’d have recruiters skip past technical achievements altogether just to ask about what I did in Dubai or Tel Aviv. It truly sets you apart from the rest. The only catch is that this kind of opportunity doesn’t usually exist once you leave MIT, so don’t get too used to it! It can feel daunting to live abroad and immerse yourself in a new environment, but I believe that college is the perfect time to take that leap. Stepping outside your comfort zone now will shape how you live for years to come.

2. What were some of your most memorable moments while doing MISTI programs?

Some of my favorite college memories happened thousands of miles from Cambridge, all during my MISTI experiences. An unforgettable time was the MISTI Israel retreat, where we were immersed in the cultural and historical complexity of the region. We met with Druze, Circassians, Israeli Arabs, and IDF soldiers, and did fun activities like rafting down the Jordan River. I made special memories with each MISTI experience, whether it was learning to make pizza rolls from scratch with my Italian host family, going to an impromptu Shabbat dinner with an MIT alum in London, or running into 20 other MIT students in Florence on a spontaneous weekend trip. The memories were more than just tourist moments, and allowed me to experience how other people live and see the world.

Maya and her friends in front of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy.

Maya and her friends out on a sunny day in the Jubilee Gardens in London.

3. What was your biggest takeaway professionally? 

Professionally, the biggest thing I took away from MISTI was how to work with people from completely different backgrounds. It’s one of the most valuable skills you can have, and MISTI is the best way to gain those skills. You learn quickly how to communicate across cultures, adapt to ambiguity, and handle sensitive situations with nuance and care. Being in diverse environments forces you to grow. It stretches your perspective and keeps you from falling into an echo chamber. You start to see how people live and think differently around the world, and you realize that there’s a lot you can learn from that. In a time when division and polarization are on the rise, learning how to collaborate globally presents itself as a professional asset and a responsibility.

4. Why should someone in your major do a MISTI? 

As someone majoring in Computer Science, Economics & Data Science and in Business Analytics, I’ve seen firsthand how cross-disciplinary our work really is and how important it is to develop people skills alongside technical expertise. MISTI gives you the opportunity to collaborate with people from entirely different cultural and professional backgrounds, which is crucial in today’s global research and tech landscape. A lot of innovation is happening across borders, and the ability to navigate unfamiliar environments and communicate across differences is what sets great thinkers apart. If you want to be creative and contribute to cutting-edge work, you need to be open to new ways of thinking. MISTI challenges you to expand your perspective, work across disciplines, and bring more depth and curiosity to everything you do. It’s one of the best ways to grow as a thinker and as a teammate.

5. What were some classes you took that directly had an impact on your experience abroad through MISTI? 

A few MIT classes had a significant impact on my MISTI experiences. One was 17.567: Israel: History, Politics, Culture, and Identity, which helped me approach the Israel/Palestine conflict with more nuance and understanding. It didn’t force a narrative on us, and instead helped us see multiple perspectives and think critically across cultural lines. Another was 11.011: The Art and Science of Negotiation. Though I took it after my MISTIs, it completely reshaped how I navigate complex interpersonal dynamics, advocate for myself, and build collaborative solutions. And really, the MISTI trainings themselves—the cultural briefings and language resources—were crucial in giving me the confidence to show up in a new place already feeling a bit at home. Though, the real question is how MISTI has helped me in my coursework; and for that, my answer would be too long to fit in the article.

6. What’s next for you, and how did MISTI influence your path?

After graduation, I’ll be joining Bain & Company, where I’ll continue exploring new problems through constantly changing casework while having the flexibility to travel—a rhythm aligned with MISTI. I’m especially excited to work on teams with people from diverse backgrounds, culturally and professionally. MISTI helped me build the tools to thrive in that kind of cross-disciplinary environment. More than anything, MISTI made me fall in love with the idea of global leadership. I’m still figuring out exactly what that looks like for me long-term, but I know I want to keep working across borders and sectors to make a broader impact. If MISTI gave me anything, it’s a kind of fearlessness to follow my curiosity, explore my ambitions, and stand proudly open to whatever comes next.