In a ceremony centered on community and perseverance, 219 new graduates of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies celebrated their achievements on Saturday with family, friends, alumni, faculty, and staff.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Alessandra “Allie” Chapman, who graduated with a degree in environmental policy and management after taking time off to work in the nonprofit arena. “I did a total career switch. I was in the military before this, but knew this was the way I wanted to go. I’m really proud of this achievement!”
Chapman wants to use her training at the Institute and her experience serving in the U.S. Air Force to focus on building support for and infrastructure around sustainable aviation tools.
“I’m employed right now at a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., but eventually I’d like to apply to Lockheed Martin or Boeing. Sustainable aviation is a very specific field, which makes it hard to get into, but that would be the dream.”
I don’t know what the future will look like, but I know that you, and other Middlebury Institute alumni, will be among the leaders building it.
Speakers at the midday ceremony on the lawn in front of historic Colton Hall in downtown Monterey included commencement speaker Yuko Matsuoka Harris MAIPS ’96, student speaker Kareem Tinto MAT ’25, Middlebury interim president Stephen Snyder, and Jeff Dayton-Johnson, vice president for academic affairs and Dean of the Institute. The Institute’s spring 2025 graduating class included 219 students from 32 homelands, from Costa Rica to Sudan and from the Philippines to Ukraine.
“I had the courage to challenge the unknown world of literary translation and publishing,” said Harris, who, inherited her first husband’s one-person publishing house after he died in the mid-1990s. Rather than shut it down, she dove in and began seeking opportunities to bring English-language works into the Japanese market. Her efforts soon landed her a contract as the Japanese publisher of an unknown, but promising, first book in a new series for children: the Harry Potter books.
“Let me wish you all that your life will be filled with love, friendship, and courage,” Harris told the graduates, “all the way from this commencement day onwards. These values are timeless. They will help you find your way in a world of uncertainties.”
Selected by his classmates, student speaker Kareem Tinto also focused on themes of friendship and perseverance.
“We’ve all shared a singular drive to become better,” he reminded the class. “Better academically, better professionally, and better as contributors to society, locally or globally.”
Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Tinto is a passionate student of languages. In addition to his native English he speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and French. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of the West Indies and came to Monterey on a Fulbright Scholarship. He next plans to pursue a PhD at Emory University in Atlanta.
“Each setback taught me how to rise,” Tinto told his classmates. “Each ‘no’ became a stepping stone. Through it all, the phrase ‘keep on pressing’ was etched in my mind—a constant reminder to keep moving forward.”
The 219 members of the Institute’s spring 2025 class earned degrees in 11 different disciplines: Conference Interpretation, Translation and Interpretation, Translation, Environmental Policy and Management, International Education Management, International Policy and Development, International Trade, Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Teaching Foreign Language, and Translation and Localization Management.
“The need for your knowledge, skills, and values has never been greater, or the opportunity so apparent,” noted Middlebury interim president Stephen Snyder. “You have already accomplished so much, and you are poised to achieve so much more.” Snyder will be succeeded on July 1 by incoming Middlebury president Ian Baucom.
Dayton-Johnson acknowledged the challenges presented by the current era of disruptive change while emphasizing the preparation graduates have received.
“The skills with which we have equipped you will enable you to contribute to the construction of what comes next. I don’t know what the future will look like, but I know that you, and other Middlebury Institute alumni, will be among the leaders building it, just as MIIS alumni have led change wherever they are over the last half century.”
In the course of his remarks, Dayton-Johnson also acknowledged several longtime faculty and staff members who are retiring, including Professors Rosa Kavenoki, Mike Gillen, Andrea Hofmann-Miller, Heekyeong Lee, Sieun Lee, Miryoung Sohn, and Lyuba Zarsky, as well as Barbara Burke, director of operations.
Professor Mike Gillen led the academic procession with his resonant bagpipes under partly cloudy skies on a mild, breezy afternoon. The ceremony began with a land acknowledgment developed by a committee of students, faculty, and staff, that was read by graduating student Chelsea Flores MAT ’25.
Like her classmate Kareem Tinto, new graduate Chapman stressed the importance of the entire Institute community supporting one another in this moment.
“The current political climate makes it more challenging for us as we move out into the world. It’s nice to know that we have a community here where we all want the best for each other and want each other to succeed. It’s not going to be easy, but we will all be there for each other.”
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The inaugural fellows created a bilingual booklet to help the community engage - in both English and Spanish - with new sidewalk murals along routes to Salinas schools. The multi-year partnership with the Transportation Agency for Monterey County lets faculty and students put their skills to work on local community projects.
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Conference Interpretation graduate Anna Suades Vall shares how the rigorous training she received and building relationships with peers has helped her launch a career as an interpreter.
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Unique weeklong intensive helps conference interpreters who aspire to reach the pinnacle of the field.
