Our Story
The MIT Refugee Action Hub (ReACT) was founded in 2017 in response to MIT SOLVE’s call for innovative solutions to refugee education. Faculty Director Prof. Admir Masic and Vice Chancellor Ian Waitz, led the creation of a center at MIT to design and deploy new learning opportunities for displaced populations around the world.
“During the war in Yugoslavia my family lost everything, and I became a teenage refugee. I had access to a great deal of humanitarian support, but what changed my life was access to education,” Masic says reflecting on his own displacement experience.
They developed the Computer and Data Science (CDS) program and the possibility to access the MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Development Policy. Accessible, free of cost, education pathways offered to refugee learners wherever they live.
In 2018, MIT ReACT launched a pilot of the CDS program with a two-week intensive bootcamp in Amman, Jordan, in partnership with Al Hussein Technical University. 18 Syrian, Palestinian, and Jordanian learners formed the inaugural cohort, engaging in a blended model centered on academics, human skills, employment, and networks.
That same year, ReACT also sponsored 8 refugee learners in MITx’s MicroMasters in Data, Economics, and Development Policy, offering full scholarships, in-person workshops, and paid internships through a refugee-focused blended track.
ReACT joined MIT Open Learning, aligning with its Agile Continuous Education framework, a pedagogical framework of learning providing education in a flexible, cost-effective, and time-efficient manner, by combining a broader range of online, on-site, and at-work learning experiences and modalities.
Selected from over 1,000 applicants across 42 countries, MIT ReACT’s second CDS cohort launched with an in-person workshop in Amman, Jordan, welcoming 30 learners from the Middle East, Kenya, and Rwanda.
MIT ReACT continued to broaden its reach, collaborating and forming relationships with NGOs, thought leaders, and mission driven businesses. Through this growing network, learners thrived, obtaining paid internships with reputable, multinational companies like Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Samsung, and Microsoft.
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced education around the world to shift into virtual spaces, ReACT’s approach to facilitating learning in crisis was tested. In response to this challenge, the program became an entirely virtual experience, enabling us to offer transformative programming to refugees and migrants anywhere in the world.
Supported by a grant from the Western Union Foundation, the third CDS cohort expanded to 50 learners from 22 countries across Europe, the United States, and Latin America. Learners also participated in the first virtual MIT Innovation Leadership Bootcamp, collaborating globally to develop entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges.
In 2022, ReACT launched its 4th CDS cohort, enrolling 135 learners in its largest and most diverse class to that date. By this point, ReACT had established seven global hubs across Jordan, Uganda, Afghanistan, Greece, Uruguay, the United States, and Colombia, representing learners from 29 countries.
We co-launched the first edition of the Migration Summit, a month-long global virtual event which explored the theme “Education and Workforce Development in Displacement” with more than 900 participants and over 50 organizations from all around the world.
As ReACT celebrated its 5th year anniversary, we launched the fifth cohort in the Certificate Program in Computer and Data Science. Inspired by MIT ReACT’s proven model, we launched a more expansive program with Emerging Talent, a broader initiative with scalable educational programs designed specifically to meet the needs of learners from vulnerable communities.
We ran the second Migration Summit which focused on the theme “Co-creating Pathways to Learning, Livelihood, and Dignity” through virtual and in-person events hosted by participating individuals and partners around the world. With over 220 speakers engaging across 80 virtual sessions and in-person events in locations around the world, the summit fostered connections between diverse communities of displaced learners, universities, corporations, social enterprises, foundations, researchers, and others.
The 2024 Summit was marked by a strategic shift, from volume to depth, focusing on targeted
communication efforts and community engagement around “Unlocking and Engaging Talent: Pathways to Dignified Work”. Through a global communications campaign, grants supporting local events, the Summit highlighted the often-overlooked potential within displaced communities.
The Summit’s legacy directly fueled programmatic growth. In fall 2024, Emerging Talent received a record-breaking 8,700 applications, its largest pool to date. This scale enabled a more intentional and rigorous selection process and we launched the first Emerging Talent Foundations Track — a two-month introductory program designed to equip 320 participants with essential technical and soft skills. Following this orientation, 175 outstanding learners from 45 countries were selected for the full 2024–25 CDS program graduating in December 2025.
Graduates in our Certificate in Computer and Data Science
Admission Rate
Graduation Rate
Employment Rate 1 year after graduation