When she was a toddler, MIT senior Olivia Honeycutt would spend summers on her grandparents’ farm in rural Alabama outside Birmingham. The sensible and cultural differences between farm and city life became more pronounced by comparison. “Life and the way in which we lived it slowed down on the farm,” she says. “It was a pleasant change of pace.”
Today, Honeycutt, a double major in computation and cognition and linguistics, still finds herself moving between several worlds which are concurrently connected and distinctly different. Her research interests lie on the intersection of human considering and awareness, language learning and acquisition, technology, and social group interaction and impact.
Honeycutt’s interest in language and the ways it could actually shape how we expect and live grew alongside lifelong investments in math and science. She learned French from her relationships with Haitian family friends, and American Sign Language due to one other friend’s deaf sibling. She was fascinated with how speakers from those groups communicated and the way the brain can reorganize itself when confronted with an absence of auditory input.
“There are such a lot of things which are different about sign language and spoken language,” she says. “Speaking in multiple languages and dialects while managing the emotional and cultural nuances multilingualism presents can shift your experience of the world and of yourself.” Operating in these areas creates research opportunities in disciplines as diverse as neurology, large language models (LLMs), psychology, and public policy.
“There’s fascinating work underway in neurolinguistics,” Honeycutt notes, “together with trying to higher understand the differences between neural networks, AI, and the way each processes information.” She’s wanted to review these for a very long time, she says. “When people should manage language deficits like aphasia, for instance, and also you’re immersed in several areas of investigation to search out answers, you get to learn cool things like how the brain ‘does’ language.”
An MIT approach to review
Honeycutt selected MIT, partly, since the computation and cognition major was “not something I could find elsewhere.” Her affinity for math and English, alongside a desire to pursue the type of computer science work that “centered people,” increased the likelihood that she could proceed in her preferred areas of investigation with the support of the Institute’s faculty and other students.
She found class 9.59J (Laboratory in Psycholinguistics), taught by professor of brain and cognitive sciences Ted Gibson, to be especially enlightening. “It laid the inspiration for my work,” she says.
Her decision to major in linguistics together with computation and cognition meant she could connect her interests in brain function and technology with a data-driven approach to language study and processing. “Majoring in linguistics highlighted the ability of scientific rigor to arrange and analyze an enormous amount of chaotic, human-centric data,” she says. Her coursework reinforced the worth of her decision.
Honeycutt lauds the liberty MIT’s deal with interdisciplinary study provides. “Researchers are exploring differences between human and LLM language models and processing, and numerous that work is going on at MIT,” she says. “MIT provides a rigorous flexibility that enables me to indulge multiple academic interests.”
It’s this flexibility that Honeycutt values most. “It’s the one reason I’m on the trail I’ve chosen,” she continues, one which includes a deal with language acquisition, education policy, LLMs’ computational possibilities and limitations, and education reform.
Honeycutt’s research continued on a series of MISTI trips in 2025. She traveled to South Africa in the summertime, where she worked on the South African Human Rights Commission’s “Right to Read” campaign. She explored connections between language processing and brain function and supported research to assist in developing laws to assist increase literacy amongst South Africans.
“Linguistic diversity presents significant challenges in South Africa,” she asserts. “One in every of the impacts of colonization on indigenous Africans, for instance, is that children are sometimes pushed out of colleges because they will’t use the languages they’re learning — like Afrikaans — with their families at home.”
In fall 2025, she took a MISTI trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, where she studied sociolinguistics. She learned the worth of considering alternative approaches to the brand of linguistics offered at MIT. “MIT’s approach to linguistics centers words and approaches its study like a math problem, while sociolinguistics includes vital cultural context,” she says. Connecting the 2 made for a more complete, holistic approach to the work.
Honeycutt values a balanced approach to her studies, creating time for extracurricular activities that allow her to each investigate her research goals and create community. “I accomplished a policy internship in Washington, D.C. in 2024,” she recalls.
She’s a member of Theta Delta Chi, a fraternity comprising a various group of undergraduates from quite a lot of academic backgrounds. She plays women’s club soccer and is an officer with the MIT Undergraduate Association. As a co-chair of the Community Service committee, she’s leading efforts to create connections with students living off campus.
Honeycutt also volunteers with the Community Charter School of Cambridge, working to enhance outcomes for underachieving students. As a volunteer, she’s capable of pilot a number of the education ideas being developed in her coursework. “I would like to assist underperforming students in the identical way some institutions aid high-performing students,” she says.
The human element
Language shapes the ways its users view the world, in response to Honeycutt. “I’m thinking about how language can constrain thought,” she says. Language mastery can be a worthwhile tool in gauging emotional intelligence. “It’s vital that individuals acquire and understand language in class,” she argues. “People must have access to a language that enables them to effectively communicate what they’re considering.”
Having words for emotions might help people process them, Honeycutt believes. This is essential in areas like translation and psychology, where nuance might be vital. She also believes that reading and language acquisition are essential tools in developing effective self-awareness. Language is a medium for thought and provides guardrails to enhance understanding.
“Access to a big vocabulary, including words for emotions, can increase your emotional intelligence,” she says.
With a solid academic foundation focused on cognition, language, and AI in place, Honeycutt plans to pursue studies in law and policy after graduation. Which means law school and public policy programs, perhaps at an establishment that gives a dual degree track.
“I would like to increase opportunities to underserved students,” she says. “Problems in policy spaces are difficult, partly, because they defy easy categorization and involve multiple stakeholders.” Education, Honeycutt says, “is a fun problem to try to resolve.” She desires to support efforts to enact lasting change by improving literacy, ensuring linguistic diversity, and centering science and research when crafting and implementing effective laws that advantages learners, institutions, families, and communities.
There’s no single study in a field that can answer all of the questions, Honeycutt argues. By combining the science of brain function with the social and mathematical facets of linguistics, she will be able to proceed investigating language, its usage, and impacts on people and their lives. We will’t solve education challenges, improve AI and access to AI-enabled tools, and further the study of linguistics without institutional and community support.
“Support research,” Honeycutt says. “Don’t surrender on trying to resolve these problems.”