MIT's Michel DeGraff on Expanding Access to Education in Haiti
Sep 01, 2011   By Megan Driscoll  Dr. Michel DeGraff MIT Haiti
Initiative  Dr. Michel DeGraff was born and raised in Haiti and
came to the United States to study computer science and math.
After turning his attention to linguistics, and more recently to
language-related issues in education, Dr. DeGraff began
exploring the effects of language choice on the Haitian school
system and how promoting Haitian Creole as language of
instruction could help more students gain access to quality
education in Haiti. How did you become interested in studying
and teaching linguistics?  Dr. Michel DeGraff: It's an
unscripted story. In college I never thought about linguistics
as a career. I earned my bachelor's degree at the City College
of New York in math and computer science. Then I had an
internship at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. At Bell
Labs, I was writing computer programs for linguists and
researchers studying artificial intelligence - the goal w