The LEGO Foundation, a long-time supporter of the MIT Media Lab, has endowed a graduate student fellowship program to honor the legacy of founding Media Lab faculty member Seymour Papert. Each year, the LEGO Papert Fellowships will fund the work of three graduate students who are working at the intersection of creativity, play, learning, and new technologies.

The Media Lab will select the fellows from graduate students enrolled in its Media Arts and Sciences academic program, choosing students whose research builds upon and extends Papert’s ideas. In order to maintain strong cultural diversity, the Lab will select fellows annually from three different continents. The first LEGO Papert fellows will be named in September 2017.

LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research Mitchel Resnick, a former student and longtime collaborator of Papert, will oversee the selection process. "The new LEGO Papert Fellowships will support the Media Lab’s continuing efforts to build on Seymour’s powerful ideas, opening new learning opportunities for children around the world," says Resnick.