ANDREW GIOANNETTI

Forty years ago, Denzil Streete was just a dreamer, a young bibliophile destined to explore the world outside the confines of Morvant, Laventille.

Today, Streete is the senior associate dean and director of the Office of Graduate Education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the most prestigious institutes in and outside the US. He took up the role last week. His mandate includes the oversight of some 100 graduate programmes, catering to approximately 7,000 graduate students.

MIT, in a statement, said Streete brings vast experience to an important role “as a leader in critical aspects of graduate student life and learning, including admissions and recruitment, diversity, academic success, and graduate student support.”

Newsday spoke with Streete, who was in the process of moving to the Boston area of Massachusetts.

He said, “(It’s) an honour to have the opportunity to shape the environment that will allow groundbreaking research and exploration that in the future will impact society in fundamental ways.

“Over the years many of MIT’s former PhD students (have gone) on to win Nobel prizes.”

[caption id="attachment_1037228" align="alignnone" width="589"] Dr Denzel Streete, centre, with parents Sandra Streete and Anthony Streete, at his PhD graduation in 2016 from Columbia University. -[/caption]

Ian Waitz, vice chancellor for undergraduate and graduate education, described Streete in the statement as “a natural collaborator and passionate advocate for students.”

Waitz said, “This will serve us well as we navigate some very complex issues, like graduate student unionisation and the impacts of the recent (Supreme Court) decision on the use of race in admissions.”

The US Supreme Court controversially ruled in June to ban the consideration of race as a factor for university admissions in a practice known as affirmative action.

Streete told Newsday, “My goal has always been to create educational structures that provide opportunity to students like my former self.

“So I have been particularly focused on diversity in PhD programmes at the elite institutions, making sure that the student from an underrepresented and underprivileged background has just as much opportunity to access these institutions and contribute to the creation of knowledge as anyone else.

Streete holds his PhD in comparative and international education, specialising in the economics of education from Columbia University and has an undergraduate degree in economics from St Francis University.

After graduating from Queen's Royal College, Port of Spain, Streete migrated to Brooklyn, New York, to attend St Francis College, before pursuing his PhD at Columbia University.

He then moved within state to Syracuse University to take up his first teaching job.

His next big career move was to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he worked as assistant dean for graduate student development and diversity, before joining the University of California, Berkeley, as assistant vice-provost