Middlebury Institute graduates discuss where they are working today, how the Institute helped them get there, and what advice they’d give to current and future MIIS students.
My name is Yuki Ueda and I graduated with an MA in International Education Management from the Middlebury Institute in 2017. My language of study was Chinese (Mandarin), and I also know some French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. I am now a program director with VIA in San Francisco, an independent nonprofit organization that offers experiential learning programs in Asia and the United States.
In my position at VIA, I design, direct, and develop curriculum for cross-cultural experiential learning programs, manage teams with the goal of maintaining a safe and positive learning environment for students, and collaborate with institutional partners across Asia to recruit qualified students and staff. I also facilitate VIA’s first online six-month accelerator program for social impact leaders across Asia.
I learned about my current position from a posting sent by IEM alumna Melissa Golden to Professor Katherine Punteney, chair of the IEM program. Friends also saw the posting and encouraged me to apply because of my background teaching in Asia and my Japanese and Chinese language skills. I was already familiar with VIA because the organization was a learning partner for another group in my Marketing and Recruitment class.
Your friends, faculty, and career advisor can help you amplify the range of your search, but only if you are vocal about the kinds of work you enjoy.
During the interview process, I spoke with many students and faculty who had had positive experiences working with VIA. I also met with Grace O’Dell, my career advisor, who helped me think through whether this position was the best next step to advance my career in international education.
My advice for students is to tell people what you’re interested in—if they don’t know, they can’t keep their eyes open for interesting opportunities. Your friends, faculty, and career advisor can help you amplify the range of your search, but only if you are vocal about the kinds of work you enjoy. I would also encourage students not to sell yourself short. I initially didn’t think I was ready to apply for a program director position, so I didn’t read the job description closely. It wasn’t until my friend encouraged me to actually read it that I began to think I might be a good fit for the position.
MA in International Education Management
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