CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - An MIT professor is stepping up to help one of his graduate students achieve her goals.
Taking graduate courses is no easy feat for most students but for Karen Cunningham, adding the responsibilities of being a new mother made it all the more difficult.
“I really wanted to have my first child in my twenties and I knew that I was heading into a PhD program that takes six or seven years on average,” she said.
Cunningham said she found a professor who understood and was ready to help her accomplish her dreams in Dr. Troy Littleton.
Littleton is a neuroscience professor at MIT who “has a long history of supporting parents and just generally has a history of supporting parents in the lab with whatever their needs are,” said Cunningham.
So, Littleton took it upon himself to add a new piece of equipment to his arsenal — a crib for Cunningham’s young daughter.
“The genesis of the crib sorta came from trying to figure out ways to help Katie and Karen navigate these first couple of years,” he said.
Between child care costs and the COVID-19 pandemic, Cunningham said sending her baby to daycare was difficult.
Professor Littleton said he understands because he and his wife struggled with a similar situation.
My wife and I did put off having our first child until after my MD PhD,” he said. It’s “not a reason to delay having a family.”
Littleton is getting a lot of praise for helping out but according to him, Cunningham is the real hero of this story.
“I think it’s inspired a lot of people to think about ways they can help their own students,” he said.
The two say they hope this story sparks a larger conversation about the accessibility of child care.
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