Global Partnerships for Sustainability

Global Partnerships for Sustainability (GPS) develops long-term partnerships between Middlebury’s C.V. Starr Schools Abroad and in-country organizations working on sustainability-related issues. GPS creates opportunities for successive cohorts of students to advance the work of partner organizations and their sustainability agendas.

Through involvement in GPS, students gain significantly greater understanding and proficiency in the language and culture and contribute to a more sustainable future for their host country. The GPS is a collaborative effort between Middlebury C.V. Starr Schools Abroad and the Office of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs.

Existing and Developing Projects

GPS programs are in progress at Middlebury Schools Abroad in southern Chile; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Chizu and Tenryu, Japan.

Chile

Through joint funding from the Global Partnerships for Sustainability and the Conflict Transformation Collaborative, the Middlebury School in Chile has developed partnerships with local actors and conservation leaders through the program’s Sustainability and Society Track, a core component of which is collaborative fieldwork between Chilean and U.S. students.  This collaborative approach fosters social justice and co-creation of strategies that incorporate local knowledge to transform socioecological conflicts.  During the spring 2026 semester, the project will take place in two areas in southern Chile inhabited by Indigenous communities.  The work will be guided by the frameworks of Conflict Transformation, Biocultural Ethics, and Intersaberes.  The project includes fieldwork, participatory research, and collective reflection in both sites.  Middlebury School in Chile Assistant Director and Sustainability Lead Paulina Solís Iturra will present on this work at the Forum on Education Abroad’s annual conference in March 2026.

Japan

Students in Japan are working with Tottori University of Environmental Studies and the town of Chizu to support the development of strategies for sustainable economic development and the revitalization of aging, depopulating rural areas. A second site and partnership has been established in Tenryu, Japan, with a local tea plantation and community center focused on a similar theme. A summer internship there has also been created.

Puerto Rico

Beginning in June 2026, the Global Partnerships for Sustainability and the Middlebury School in Puerto Rico will offer two fully-funded fellowships for recent alums of the Middlebury Spanish-speaking Schools Abroad to spend the month interning with El Puente Puerto Rico, a non-profit organization in San Juan dedicated to climate justice. As a part of the fellowship, students will participate in a two-week annual summer leaders experience, la Jornada de Artivismo para la Justicia Climática, focused on issues of climate change, environmental justice, activism through the arts, and campaigns for climate action.  

Past Projects

GPS programs have also run at Middlebury Schools Abroad in Chamonix, France; Tierra del Fuego, Chile; Heqing, China; and Irkutsk, Russia.

Chile

Students at the C.V. Starr School Abroad in Chile worked with Universidad Austral de Chile and GPS partners at the Wildlife Conservation Society to support the development of the Karukinka Natural Park in Tierra del Fuego and the University of the Frontier in Temuco to study sustainability in the context of rural communities and the problems experienced by indigenous people.

China

In Kunming, China, students and partners at The Nature Conservancy of China, Shelburne Farms, and Yunnan University School of Ecology and Environmental Science collaborated on the development of wetland outreach and education capacity in Heqing, China. They also learned firsthand about efforts to protect Yunnan’s endangered snub-nosed monkeys.

France

The Global Partnerships for Sustainability program in France launched in Spring ‘22. Environmental Affairs and the Middlebury School in France partnered with the CREA Mont Blanc research center in Chamonix to offer a pilot program for students from the Poitiers site.

Over five-days in late April, four students immersed themselves in the challenges emerging from climate change in this vast alpine region. They field tested new citizen science tools CREA is developing to help assess and address these challenges.  They were joined by alum Warren Galloway ’21 who was teaching at an elementary school in France. Warren had done an earlier GPS internship with Anna Saviano ‘23 through our Sustainability Solutions Lab while at Midd to produce a story map about a CREA research paper. David Paoli, director of the School in France, and our dean of sustainability and environmental affairs Jack Byrne also participated.

The  group worked with Brad Carlson ‘10 and Hillary Gerardi ‘09 of CREA - both Midd alums and Vermonters living in France for the past 11 years. They explored alpine ecology in the northern Alps and how climate change is altering it and the human and economic consequences. They hiked and snowshoed up to a mountain hut (Refuge du Pres) where they worked for 3 days with the staff of CREA.

The students tested CREA’s new adaptive monitoring protocol for citizen scientists. They defined research questions about the surrounding environment and developed key elements of the protocol for their questions. They presented their results to a team from CREA and received critical feedback. The CREA team found the students work very helpful and incorporated their feedback in a new version of the protocol.

Russia

In Irkutsk, Russia, students took a course on Environmental Issues and NGOs of the Baikal region, in which they were introduced to some of the most burning environmental issues of the Baikal region and what makes the area unique.  The course material covered topics from eutrophication of Lake Baikal to the history of the non-profit sector.  During this course, students learned more about Russians’ attitudes towards volunteering and NGOs in general.  Students met representatives of local NGOs, took part in excursions, and organized their own community event at the center.  

More on Sustainability Abroad

For more tips, tricks, and opportunities to make your study abroad experience as sustainable as possible, check out the Sustainable Study Abroad website which includes options for sustainability-focused programs, sustainability grants, and tips for sustainable travel, amongst other great resources!

Contact

For more information about participating in the Global Partnerships for Sustainability projects at a Middlebury College C.V. Starr Schools Abroad, contact the Middlebury Sustainability and Environmental Affairs office at gogreen@middlebury.edu