Students complete remote practicum positions around the world

Despite the full year of a global pandemic and lockdowns, practicum students successfully secured internships and field projects they could complete remotely for the spring 2021 semester. Students joined the massive “working from home” movement primed with skills to make an impact.
With many borders closed but hope on the horizon, students secured virtual opportunities within the U.S. and as far as Australia. This article celebrates many of the immersive professional learning achievements of MIIS students during the spring 2021 semester.
This spring, 62 students are completing internships, jobs, and consultancies around the country and globe through Middlebury Institute courses and programs.
In the United States, students worked with organizations as close as Monterey and as far away as Washington, DC.
Internationally, students are working virtually for organizations on five continents and in 16 countries: (Uganda, Zambia, Australia, France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, China, Japan, and Canada).
With half of the spring semester gone, we want to take a moment to congratulate all the students who have earned a virtual position in these historically tough times. The following section highlights students who have earned internships, jobs, and consultancies through Middlebury Institute Degree programs.
International Education Management (IEM) Practicum
Name |
Placement |
Location |
Sarah Biser |
Cal State Fullerton Study Abroad & Global Engagement |
Fullerton, CA |
Grace Davis |
Advance |
Lake Tahoe, CA |
Charlotte Ennen |
The Cambridge School of Weston |
Weston, MA |
Sura Fadel |
Defense Language Institute MSA Iraqi Dialect Program |
Monterey, CA |
Joshua Ferry |
Wayne State University |
Wayne, Nebraska |
Kellee Fletcher |
Cabrillo College |
Santa Cruz, CA |
Madison Lucero |
UCSC Study Abroad Office |
Santa Cruz, CA |
Angela Luedke |
UC Riverside |
Riverside, CA |
Nancy Matsukama |
CSU San Marcos Global Programs & Services |
San Marcos, CA |
Stephen Mockler |
UC Davis |
Davis, CA |
Rachel Salay |
Sitka Tribe of Alaska & Global SF |
Sitka, Alaska |
Emma Schultz |
Middlebury School Abroad Spain |
Madrid, Spain |
Jenny Velez | UC Davis Learning Center |
Davis, CA |

Applied Professional Practicum (APP)
Name |
Placement | Location |
Trang Tranh |
Port of San Diego Natural Resources Data Exploration | San Diego, CA |
Andrew White |
DRIVE Model for Understanding & Responding to Climate Migration | New York, NY (various locations) |
Katrina von Burg | California Farmlink Regenerative Agriculture Lending Program | Aptos, CA |
Amelia Xia |
ECOPA Clear Fishing Program | Lower Lempa Region, El Salvador |
Seth Small | World Wildlife Fund KAZA Transboundary Program |
Livingstone, Zambia |
Center for Nonproliferation Internship Program*
*See additional positions in MGIMO section below.
Name |
Placement |
Location |
Eleanor Krabill |
United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) | Geneva, Switzerland |
Sam Whitefield |
Biological Weapons Convention - Implementation Support Unit (BWC-ISU) | Geneva, Switzerland |
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) Dual-Degree Final Semester Internships
*Indicates CNS Internship placement
Name |
Placement |
Location |
Erica Barbarossa | Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC at MIIS) |
Monterey, CA |
Nikita Degtyarev* |
Vienna Center for Disarmament & Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) | Vienna, Austria |
Collin McDowell* |
United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) WMD | Geneva, Switzerland |
Allison Owen* |
IAEA Safeguards | Vienna, Austria |
Inna Rodina* |
Vienna Center for Disarmament & Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) | Vienna, Austria |
Sergey Semenov | PIR Center |
Moscow, Russia |
Greg Yoo* | United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) WMD |
Geneva, Switzerland |

International Professional Service Semester (IPSS)
Name |
Placement |
Location |
Illeana Alexander |
Meridian Institute |
Washington, DC |
Thomas Apostle |
Canada Revenue Agency |
Ottawa, Canada |
Brenna Brown |
Children’s Chance International and Care Impact Partners |
Lira, Uganda and Atlanta, GA |
Miya Burke |
Columbia Riverkeeper |
Hood River, OR |
Shannon Casey |
CARE Impact Partners and World Compass Foundation |
Atlanta, GA and El Progresso, Honduras |
Jane Eklund |
United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs CAB |
New York City, NY |
Mariana Filip |
WildAid |
San Francisco, CA |
Elizabeth Francis |
IUCN Global Marine & Polar Program |
Gland, Switzerland |
Lawrence Garber |
Building Decarbonization Coalition |
California, USA |
Stone Goethe |
Naval Postgraduate School |
Monterey, CA |
Alexander Karmin |
American Enterprise Institute |
Washington, DC |
Walden Kiker |
San Diego Unified Port District and California Farmlink |
San Diego, CA and Aptos, CA |
Anissa Monteon |
CARE Impact Partners and Via |
Washington, DC |
Eric Mora |
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History and Monterey County |
Santa Cruz & Monterey, CA |
Ellie Oliver |
Santa Lucia Conservancy |
Carmel, CA |
Anna Ondracek |
Alliance for Global Water Adaptation |
Corvallis, OR |
Cora Panturad |
Sonders Inc. |
San Francisco, CA |
Gabriel Pike |
Engie Impact and Conservation International | New York, NY and Washington, DC |
Keily Ramirez |
United Nations Development Program | Belmopan, Belize |
Oceane Ringuette |
CA State Parks: Natural Resources Division | Sacramento, CA |
Sydney Samples |
Environmental Incentives | Washington, DC |
Fatima Sayeh |
UC Irvine Study Abroad Center | Irvine, CA |
Kelsey Shoup |
Good Food Institute |
Washington, DC |
Miranda Schwabauer |
FinClusive | New York, NY |
Kiera Welch |
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) | Vienna, VA |
Rafal Wilson |
Its Commonsense Pty. Ltd. | New South Wales, Australia |
Heather Smith |
United States State Department | Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu |
Independent Practicum (IPD and MPA students)
Name |
Placement |
Location |
Sara Spencer |
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) |
New York, NY |
Translation and Localization Management (TLM) Practicum
Name | Placement(s) |
Location(s) |
Cassandra Agyemang |
Morningside Translations, WL-Assistant, and TLM Mentorship Program | New York, NY & Monterey, CA |
Lenny Chen |
TigerGraph | Redwood City, CA |
Xiaofan Chen |
Lilt, LocReady, and CampLoc | San Francisco & Monterey, CA |
Xinyang Chen |
MediaLocate and TLM Mentorship Program | Pacific Grove & Monterey, CA |
Geirrlon Dunn |
Monterey Language Services | Monterey, CA |
Bianca Duvall |
LAI, TBX, and WIPO Terminology Collaboration | Provo, UT, San Mateo, CA, & Geneva, Switzerland |
Cynthia Gong |
ByteDance | Beijing, China |
Yang He |
Translation by Design | Pacific Grove, CA |
Yuxin He |
Renren and Knight Throde | Beijing, China |
Jessy Nguyen |
LinkedIn, CampLoc, and TLM Mentorship Program | Mountain View & Monterey, CA |
Fangxi Qin |
Leiting Games and Endangered Alphabets Project | Shenzhen, China & Vermont, USA |
Sailee Rangole |
MasterWord, LocReady, MQM, and TLM Mentorship Program | Houston, TX & Monterey, CA |
Sachi Salehi |
Automation/Active Gaming Media | Osaka, Japan |
Xinyue Sun |
ByteDance | Beijing, China |
Ziqi Wang |
Pactera Technology and TLM Mentorship Program |
Dalian, China & Monterey, CA |
Ren Yi |
Aviagames and LocReady | Mountain View & Monterey, CA |
Jingyuan Zhang |
Global Talen Link and LocReady | Stoughton, MA & Monterey, CA |

TESOL Practica
*Also on IEM Practicum
Oliver Block |
University of New Orleans |
New Orleans, LA |
Grace Davis* |
English Center |
California, USA |
Miranda Doremus |
Hartnell Community College | Salinas, CA |
Aram Guptil |
Atlanta Adult Education | Atlanta, GA |
Maya Sykes |
Chicago Public Schools | Chicago, IL |
TFL Practica
Caleb Powers |
Middlebury Institute (TFL French) | Monterey, CA |
Keyue Song |
Middlebury Institute (TFL Chinese) | Monterey, CA |