The Nation’s College and a College for the World
“We are for the cosmopolitanism of the globe, brought together in a small New England town and around the world at our Schools Abroad.”
Initiative Five: The Nation’s College and a College for the World
We are going to:
- Expand access to our Language Schools and the Bread Loaf School of English to public school teachers from around the nation; continue to advance our Master of Arts in Teaching program; strengthen the Bread Loaf Teacher Network; and pilot initiatives to equip high school educators with the knowledge and skills to teach in an age of artificial intelligence. Middlebury has a long history of educating educators. We will strengthen and continue that legacy by expanding access to our existing programs for public school teachers nationally, and create new initiatives to help high school educators meet today’s pedagogical challenges.
- Explore new opportunities to support the ongoing education of public service professionals in areas of Middlebury’s distinctive expertise, including environmental studies, climate solutions, conflict resolution, and global security. Public servants working in government, education, nonprofits, diplomacy, and international affairs need opportunities for continual growth and reflection throughout their careers. Leveraging Middlebury’s strengths, we will create learning opportunities for these professionals and, in doing so, extend our mission as a public-minded private institution.
- Leverage Middlebury’s Washington, D.C., office to connect students to research and internship opportunities and to alumni and practitioners across government, policy, and international affairs. Middlebury in D.C. is a centrally located hub for Washington-based alumni, researchers, and interns and a home to our Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Promoting Middlebury in D.C.’s resources and programming—including residential academic programs, mentorship opportunities, lectures, courses, meeting spaces, and other events—will strengthen the relationships between students, faculty, and staff and the community of alumni serving in government and related fields.
- Provide all interested students with the opportunity to develop the language proficiency necessary to study abroad and explore opportunities to increase access to summer language schools, language tables, and language houses. Learning a new language is essential for developing cultural competency and cognitive flexibility—fundamental skills of global citizenship. Middlebury will maintain its distinctive strength in language learning by expanding access to its language programs to all students.
- Identify two to three international sites as global hubs—convening spaces for students, faculty, and alumni that facilitate collaboration and partnerships with local universities, businesses, government entities, NGOs, civil society, and arts organizations. Leveraging our global network and footprint, we will develop a set of sites abroad to bring together members of the Middlebury community for collaborations with local and regional partners. We also will seek to develop Middlebury in D.C. as a hub to leverage existing international networks and our central location in the nation’s capital.
- Establish one to three additional global sites where students can study abroad with English as their primary medium of instruction, with particular focus on social science and STEM majors seeking global impact in their studies and future careers. To create opportunities for more students to study and work internationally, Middlebury will build on the model of its longstanding program at the University of Oxford to establish up to three new sites where students can pursue international study in English.
- Deepen links between the Schools Abroad and areas of Middlebury’s global strengths. By intentionally connecting Middlebury’s immersive international schools with our strengths in conflict transformation, economics, environmental studies, geography, global health, global security, political science, and other fields, we will expand the study-abroad experience to foster a deeper understanding of the world’s pressing challenges.
- Expand opportunities for cultural immersion by globalizing winter term, establishing short-term faculty-led courses abroad, and creating greater opportunities for faculty and students to engage with the Schools Abroad. To make international study a more regular and accessible part of a Middlebury education, Middlebury will take advantage of its distinctive monthlong winter term and its broad network of Schools Abroad. We will create more opportunities for faculty to experiment with innovative short courses that incorporate hands-on, immersive, and transformative global experiences for students.