| by Eva Gudbergsdottir

News Stories

For most Monterey Institute students, the short winter term in January is a great opportunity to take what they have been learning in the classroom and either develop practical skills through intense practicum courses, or go out into the real world and take their classroom lessons to the field. 

Students interested in a career in any type of development project management rave about the practical skills they acquire in the three-week long Development Project Management Practicum (DPMI), which is being offered in two locations this term, at the Monterey campus and in Cairo, Egypt in cooperation with the American University in Cairo. Environmental policy students also praise the skills they learn in the two-week Conservation Leadership Practicum designed for current and future environmental leaders. Both practicum courses are open to outside enrollment.

Fourteen students are participating in the 2011 Team Monterey in El Salvador, the fifth year of a special program located in Bajo Lempa, El Salvador and designed to enhance student competencies in project management, evaluation, language skills and multi-cultural communication. This year, Team Monterey projects include creating a business plan for ecotourism in the area, developing a replicable waste management model and helping their partners devise tools to assess food production and distribution.

Twenty-five students are currently taking part in pre-departure training for the International Professional Service Semester (IPSS) where they will be working at intra-governmental or international organizations and evaluating them. 

This year, the Monterey Institute of International Studies’ Graduate School of Policy and Management is also launching an exciting new program called Frontier Market Scouts. Ten students are currently on campus preparing to leave for Nigeria, Vietnam, Tanzania and India, where they will be working with local organizations managing a consulting portfolio of entrepreneurial businesses seeking funding. They will collaborate with 14 virtual team members located in Monterey.

Close to one hundred other students are advancing their studies by taking specialized intensive courses related to their chosen field of study. It all adds up to a very busy January for MIIS students, whether they are in Monterey or out in the field.

For More Information

Jason Warburg
jwarburg@middlebury.edu
831.647.3156

Eva Gudbergsdottir
eva@middlebury.edu
831.647.6606