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From Monterey to the global stage, Middlebury Institute students are putting their skills to work this spring. Through applied research and practicum courses, our students are collaborating with organizations making a tangible difference worldwide while finishing their degrees.
Where Classrooms Meet the World — January Global Courses Across Three Continents
Each January, Middlebury Institute (MIIS) students step beyond Monterey’s classrooms into immersive global courses that translate theory into lived experience. Supported by the Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation and MIIS Experiential Learning Funds, the 2026 Winter Term brought nearly forty students to South Africa, Czechia/Austria, and Bhutan — three distinct contexts united by a shared pedagogical model: experiential learning grounded in partnership, practice, and reflection.
| by Julia Tucker
Almost 50 Middlebury Institute students are practicum this semester spending their time and gaining invaluable skills in locations all over the globe from Alaska to Kenya.
| by Caitlin Fillmore
A free community event will highlight alum Michael Shaikh MAIPS ’03, who recently published The Last Sweet Bite, highlighting the food customs of cultures torn apart by conflict. Shaikh spent nearly 20 years working in areas marred by political crisis and armed conflict, mostly in Asia and the Middle East, including leading the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights investigations into the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar.
| by Caitlin Fillmore
Applied research projects in Thailand and Vietnam helped Marisa Jones get published and launch her career in international trade.
| by Mark C. Anderson
Ani Joshi leverages skills she built at the Middlebury Institute to create the only regenerative, organic, woman-owned chai company in the country.
| by Roo Luo MAIPD ‘25
This year’s Peace and Reconciliation in the Balkans global learning course coincided with the largest protests in Serbian history. International policy and development student Roo Luo shares what she thinks changemakers from across the world could learn from Serbian youth.
| by Caitlin Fillmore
Students have put their skills to work on a years-long data analysis and marketing project through a partnership between the Institute’s META Lab and the United Way of Monterey County.
| by Sierra Abukins
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.
