Experiential Learning and Community Engagement

Living with and in communities, and learning how to enter and exit them, is an essential part of 21st-century citizenship and productive engagement in the public square. By engaging with the communities where they live and work, college students have unique opportunities to learn how community structures and social systems contribute to conflict and how they can help resolve it.

Information about Internships and Experiences 

The Experiential Learning Centers provide several opportunities for community-based engagement in conflict transformation during the academic year and over the summer, both individually and in cohorts.

• The Center for Community Engagement shares CT program details on their website here. Below are a summary of programs:
  • Cross Cultural Community Engagement Grants offer year-round funding for projects pursued with a community partner for the public good with a component of cross-cultural learning (rolling deadlines).
  • The Privilege & Poverty Academic Cluster supports cohort-based summer internships that address income inequalities:
    • Vermont-based internships collaborate with human services in Addison County (January applications).
    • National internships are available through our partnership with the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP). They have new CT-focused internships and are developing a conflict transformation curriculum for interns across multiple institutions (late fall applications).
  • Middlebury Alternative Break Programs support place-based student learning and taking action on complex social issues over February break (early fall participant deadline, spring leader deadline).
  • History in Translation hosts an inter-institutional cohort for an immersive learning trip each summer to explore and study our history and its lived impacts from diverse perspectives (spring deadline).
  • Service Translation is an international collaboration with students from Middlebury and International Christian University (Mitaka, Japan) team-translating oral histories and other historical documents related to the experiences of Japanese Americans impacted by Executive Order 9066. 
  • Projects for Peace, a global program that partners with 90+ institutions to identify and support peacebuilders and changemakers, is headquartered within the Middlebury CCE. CT funds an Alumni Award and CT-related projects and partners.
• The Center for Careers and Internships shares CT internship details here, and offers two other programs during the school year:
  • Apply for CT internship funding for winter and summer internships, individually and in cohorts. Partners for cohort-based internships are diiVE in South Africa and Team4Tech in Uganda (fall and spring deadlines).
  • CT-themed Career Treks help students explore CT career pathways through site visits, alumni connections, and job shadowing (hosted over breaks).
  • Learn more about and listen to CCI’s MIDDVantage series here to explore the many dimensions of CT through interviews with professional practitioners in various roles and organizations globally.
• The Innovation Hub supports two summer CT programs:
  • Middlebury College students apply for Projects for Peace through the Innovation Hub each winter. Students (individually or in small groups) receive $10,000 for a summer project that promotes peacebuilding. 
  • Middlebury Social Impact Corps is a partnership-based program that connects students to social change through unique experiential learning opportunities. A select cohort of Middlebury College (Interns) and MIIS graduate students (Scholars) are matched with a community partner focused on impact within a local/regional context (spring applications).

Students who engage across our experiential programs convene together to build understanding of conflict transformation, build CT skills, and reflect on their learning and next steps. The 2023 Summer Convening featured insights from Joseph Kaifala and Beth Berila. For 2024, students in summer experiences will gather on May 3 on campus for a predeparture gathering. More details on summer and fall convenings announced soon.

Contact

Kailee Brickner-McDonald, Director, Center for Community Engagement