Peyton Bryant ’27 always knew she would work in her university library, even before she knew she wanted to attend MIT.
“The library was the first view of the wider world for me,” she says. Growing up, Bryant would visit her public library at least three times a week, something her family established as a priority. Her mother worked at her own university library, inspiring Bryant to follow in her footsteps.
“Libraries are the cornerstone of intellectual democracy, and I think that working in libraries is something that has always appealed to my interests,” she says. “Advocating for people learning is so important.”
That advocacy led Bryant to join the Committee on the Library System (CLS), a standing committee of the faculty that also includes students and staff. As a student representative, Bryant is tasked with liaising between the committee and the undergraduate student body. Bryant says she is fearless in asking questions and providing feedback in CLS meetings. Her contributions include suggesting CLS speak with societies around MIT to better understand the specific academic needs of each course. “They are all really involved and know exactly what people need from the Libraries,” she says.
In addition to her work in Lewis and on CLS, Bryant is involved in a number of extracurricular activities. She sings for the MIT Logarhythms and served as the president of Alpha Kappa Alpha. On the academic side, she’s a “super UROP” working in the Yaffe Lab at the Koch Institute, where she helps research cell progression and DNA damage. After graduation, Bryant plans on attending medical school and becoming a physician. But the Libraries will have a lasting impact on her.
“I am a course nine,” she explains. “I had room in my courses my senior year, so I’m going to be pursuing a literature minor. I don’t think that’s something that would have happened without the MIT Libraries.”
“If you believe in upholding the process of discovery, the process of learning, and the collaborative spirit of MIT, then you need to engage with the Libraries, because those are spaces designed exactly for that.” -Peyton Bryant
