Alana Power

Pronouns: she/her
Class Year: 2027

What is your favorite thing about MIT? My favorite thing about MIT is probably how interest-focused the student culture is. I’ve found that pretty much everyone I meet here is really passionate about what they do and I think the MIT community as a whole really fosters that.

How did FLI help you during your time as an MIT undergrad? I think coming to MIT from a first-gen background, I knew that navigating university life and career search might look somewhat different for me. I feel like knowing that, I placed a lot of my attention in my first year on exploring major possibilities and career related activities to help me figure out what I wanted my path at and after MIT to look like.

What made you want to be a FLI Student Advisory Board member? Knowing how difficult it can be to forge a path at a university, especially at one like MIT with so many options to take, I just really wanted to be a part of helping the FLI student body do so. For me, being a part of the advisory board is really about getting more in touch with and giving back to the FLI community.

What advice would you give to your first-year self? The best advice I could probably give my first-year self would be to branch out. I think first year is a really good time to not only find out what you like major-wise or research-wise, but also just to meet a lot of new people and create new experiences for yourself.

What do you do for fun outside of work/school? Outside of work and school, one of my favorite hobbies is drawing. I’ve always had a strong interest in art and I just really like to sketch and paint. I also occasionally run and bake.