Category Archives: Global Action

Eve Adler Department of Classics

The endowing of the classics department, named in honor of former classics professor Eve Adler—the first department at Middlebury to be endowed—ensures that the study of the classics remains foundational to a Middlebury liberal arts education.

This endowment, provided by an anonymous donor, will provide a second endowed professorship for the study of classics; cover the department’s operating budget; fund the professional development of our classics faculty; host scholars for lectures, symposia, and residencies; and also provide exceptional learning opportunities for students as deemed appropriate by our classics faculty. These include studying intensive Latin and Greek during the summer, participating on archaeological digs in Greece, plus other opportunities yet to be identified and proposed. Learn more »

Greenberg-Starr Department of Chinese

The endowing of the Chinese department recognizes the excellence of the department and its faculty’s commitment to the teaching of the Mandarin language and Chinese literature.

The Chinese department endowment will provide a second endowed professorship, funding to support the department’s operating budget, support for library and media materials for teaching, funds to support Chinese majors who wish to attend Middlebury’s summer intensive Chinese School, and funds for professional development for colleagues in the Chinese department. Learn more »

Lois ’51 and J. Harvey Watson Department of French

The endowing of the French department by Lois ’51 and Harvey Watson will ensure the continued excellence in foreign language and culture study for future Middlebury students. We are grateful for the Watsons’ generosity and confidence in the Middlebury faculty.

The endowment will fund a second endowed professorship for the department, funding to support the department’s operating budget, funds to enrich our students’ study of France and the French-speaking world, and funds for the professional development of our French department faculty. Learn more »

The Bread Loaf Campus and Lands

Nearly a century ago, the visionary Vermont environmentalist Joseph Battell bequeathed to Middlebury College the large tract of land that is home to the Bread Loaf campus. Bordering the Green Mountain National Forest and encompassing numerous areas of ecological and natural interest, the Bread Loaf campus and surrounding forests have long provided the Middlebury community with spaces for outdoor recreation and environmental education.

With the support of Trustee Louis Bacon ’79, a leading conservation philanthropist, Middlebury can ensure that many of those same lands—approximately 2,100 acres—in the Green Mountains are conserved, protected, and remain with the College in perpetuity with their own endowment. Learn more »

Betty A. Jones MA ’86 School of French

The naming of the Middlebury French School—the Betty Ashbury Jones ’86  School of French—is in recognition of Betty’s staunch and unyielding support for the French School, for the Language Schools, and for the greater Middlebury. We are indebted to Betty’s unparalleled support for language study at Middlebury and are honored to have her name on the School from which she graduated and which she loves. Learn more »

The Digital Liberal Arts Initiative is a campus-wide opportunity for faculty to explore the digital methods that are changing scholarship in the humanities and arts—to discover new modes of collaboration, to learn new skills for research and pedagogy, and to discuss and debate what digital technologies mean for our teaching and scholarship.

The Middlebury School of the Environment, now in its second year, is a six-week intensive summer program, taught by some of the finest faculty and mentors in the field, providing practical experience and leadership training for undergraduates.

The Programs on Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts (PCI), established in 2007, help make intellectual risk taking and creative problem solving second nature to Middlebury students. With financial support through grants and competitions, and designated workspaces around campus for individual and group projects, PCI provides opportunities for students to explore ideas in a nonacademic setting.

The Center for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE) builds on Middlebury’s commitment to educating students in the tradition of the liberal arts. Our students learn to be effective agents of social change by reflecting on who they are, connecting with others, analyzing systemic challenges, and engaging the world around them. The center is Middlebury’s hub for a growing global network of schools, NGOs, government agencies, businesses, and foundations that share our commitment to social change.

The Center for Careers and Internships has significantly increased its internship opportunities, creating more ways than ever for students to gain hands-on and real-world experience before graduating.

Sustainability at Middlebury is integrated daily into all facets of its academics, operations, and planning. From its leadership in establishing the oldest undergraduate environmental studies program in the country to the state-of-the-art biomass plant, which the initiative helped to fund, sustainability is an integral part of how we teach, work, and play.

The Middlebury Language Schools, is celebrating its 100th anniversary and now includes the School of Hebrew and School of Korean.

The Middlebury C.V. Starr Schools Abroad added 26 new sites throughout Asia, Africa, and South America.

The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey has significantly broadened the boundaries of a Middlebury education. The integrated degree program provides rich and rewarding opportunities. A student can attend a graduate program on an accelerated path and explore a more specified field to advance a potential career.

Pier LaFarge ’10.5

Co-founder and CEO of SparkFund
Major: Environmental Science

“I think that one of the core values of a liberal arts education is fostering an academic environment that gives us the formal tools to look at these large important societal systems, like economics, while also having access to the artistic and emotional tools, like literature and poetry and art, to actually see and feel and experience the stories of those systems. Middlebury gives you an opportunity to really deeply explore subjects on an academic level and look at them from different angles. And I have translated a lot of the things that I learned into building a company and into building a team.”

Andrew Locke ’11

Research Manager, Harvard University
Major: Economics and Neuroscience

“Behavioral economics is about doing a better job explaining why things are the way they are and how we can move them to the way we think they should be. I manage three offices that are running randomized control trials. So in the same way that you would test a new drug to determine effectiveness, using a treatment and control group, we do that with policy. My first exposure to behavioral economics was at Middlebury. What really turned me onto it was you could use math in a very, very concrete, explanatory way. And that was immediately exciting for me. So I think that was the real value of Middlebury in my life: it never closed any doors on what I wanted to do.”

Marty Schnure ’10.5

Cofounder, Maps for Good
Major: Geography

“Our mission with Maps for Good is to create one-of-a kind maps in digital media that promote conservation initiatives and connect people with places. Part of why I love the work I do now is that I’m right at the intersection of science, design, and social good, and that is really what I found in the geography department at Middlebury. My adviser completely changed the way I think about places, design, and how I can have an impact. I certainly wouldn’t be where I am now, if it weren’t for him.”

Rana Abdelhamid ’15

Founder, Woman’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE)
Major: International Politics and Economics
Truman and Posse Scholar

“As a political science student, I’ve been able to see how individuals can have an impact on political systems and economic systems and also how to leverage those systems to empower disenfranchised communities. I wanted to use WISE as a space where these young Muslim women can gain the skills they need to access these different political institutions and economic institutions. So when the Center for Social Entrepreneurship first started on campus, I thought it was a great opportunity for me to be able to learn more about how I can make this initiative more sustainable. After graduation I plan on enrolling into a master’s degree program and to study public policy as a Thomas R. Pickering Fellow.”

ACCESS

• 142 endowed scholarships
• Reduced loan component of every financial aid package
• Increased scholarship and fellowship support for graduate programs
• Two new Posse Scholarship cities (Chicago and Los Angeles)
• An expanded Davis United World College Scholars Program

EXPERIENTIAL

• Increased internship opportunities
• Two Department of Energy Solar Decathlon entries (2011, 2013)
• Programs on Creativity and Innovation
• Fund for Innovation
• Centers for Social Entrepreneurship and Social Impact Learning
• Enhanced Career Counseling and Internship Office

ACADEMICS

• 40 new faculty positions (19 percent growth)
• 18 endowed academic positions
• A digital liberal arts initiative
• 26 new Schools Abroad sites (in Asia, Africa, and South America)
• Two new Language Schools (Hebrew and Korean)
• Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
• School of the Environment

SUSTAINABILITY

• The biomass plant reduced our carbon footprint by 69 percent and oil consumption by 70 percent (1.4 million gallons annually)
• Carbon-free renewable natural gas source from local farm waste
• Carbon neutrality on Vermont campus in 2016
• Conserved Ripton Bread Loaf campus and surrounding 2100 acres

ATHLETICS

• The 110,000-square-foot Virtue Field House, Middlebury’s first fully donor-funded major building project, completes the long-term initiative plan for recreation and athletics facilities