Creating the Global Liberal Arts College
Middlebury
30°15'19"N 120°10'08"E Hangzhou, China, is one of 30 sites in 12 countries that make up Middlebury’s C.V. Starr Schools Abroad, where students literally live the language.
Middlebury
37째52'49"N 4째46'08"W
More than 60 percent of Middlebury students study abroad. Last year they went to 40 countries, including Spain, where the Schools Abroad have a site in C처rdoba.
Middlebury
43°58'38"N 73°02'04"W The Bread Loaf campus is home to the School of English, the largest master’s program in English literature in the country, and to the 82-year-old Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
Middlebury
36°36'01"N 121°53'37"W Middlebury’s West Coast affiliate, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, complements the College’s programs and provides a window on Asia.
Middlebury
44°00'55"N 73°10'04"W
Some 1,300 students take advantage of the Summer Language Schools’ total-immersion experience each year, studying any of 10 target languages.
Middlebury
44°00'55"N 73°10'04"W
Middlebury is one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges, renowned for its humanintensive teaching, international education, and environmental studies and stewardship.
Middlebury
44째00'55"N 73째10'04"W Collaborative student-faculty research is an essential educational tool, and discoveries in the lab and the field often benefit the world beyond the College.
Middlebury’s history, its location, its philosophy of education based on intense student-teacher interaction, and its willingness to try things that others haven’t attempted make this a truly unique college. If someone set out to replicate Middlebury today, it simply wouldn’t be possible. And in a world that requires a global perspective—where environmental issues and international relations are dominant concerns—this institution really is poised to become
the global liberal arts college. Ronald D. Liebowitz President, Middlebury College
Creating the Liberal Arts College for the 21st Century
T
he role of the liberal arts college in the 21st century is to empower students to make a positive difference in our increasingly complex and
interconnected world. A Middlebury education is a passport to global
action, whether a student chooses to be an international financier, to work for a nonprofit organization, to conduct research on the oceans, or to teach a language in a public school. Taken together, our programs and our alumni enable the College to have a significant impact in the world. Middlebury is committed to enhancing the opportunities available to its students in order to best prepare them for the challenges of this century. To that end, the College must raise $500 million over five years. At the completion of the Middlebury Initiative, we will see a College that is even stronger academically and financially, more accessible to a wide range of exceptional students, and considerably more visible and influential in this country and abroad. The Initiative will provide many opportunities for alumni and friends to have a profound impact on the College and its students for generations to come.
★ Liberal Arts in Action
This is Middlebury Map Legend
★ Middlebury College Monterey Institute of International Studies Bread Loaf School of English site C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad site Study Abroad programs visited by Middlebury students ’06–’07 Home countries of Middlebury students ’06–’07
Liberal Arts in Action
Liberal Arts in Action
Liberal Arts in Action
[Liberal Arts in Action]
Name: Carolyn Barnwell ’07 Hometown: Concord, New Hampshire Major: Environmental studies and
sociology/anthropology Mentor: Jon Isham, Luce Professor of International Environmental Economics Current location: Fiji
Global issue: Impact of climate change on
island communities
Recommended reading: Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert Initiative Priority: Financial aid
Ensuring Access and Opportunity: $180 million Middlebury’s life-changing, world-shaping education is possible only when students from every background are “Coming to Middlebury able to participate. Financial aid enables the College to draw exceptional scholars from different socioecoopened my eyes to global issues. nomic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds; from every I became interested in the links state; and from around the world. Free of overwhelmbetween environmental quality, ing debt, students are able to experiment and take intellectual risks. Funding scholarships, reducing human rights, and international loans, and providing paid internships and research development, and I started looking for fellowships are Middlebury’s top priorities.
ways to work across international Financial aid made it possible for Carolyn to attend boundaries to solve problems Middlebury, but it did something more. She says it that affect everyone.” encouraged her to believe in her own potential, “because people I didn’t even know were investing in —Carolyn Barnwell ’07 my education.” Your gift provides the same encouragement to other students like Carolyn.
Read more about Carolyn at www.middleburyinitiative.org
[Liberal Arts in Action]
Name: Brian Pacheco ’08 Hometown: New York City Major: Spanish Mentor: Gloria González-Zenteno,
associate professor of Spanish
Current location: Middlebury, Vermont Global issue: High school dropout rate
of inner-city students
Outside the classroom: Makes documen-
tary films and serves as president of Alianza Latinoamericana y Caribeña, a student organization Recent winter term: Taught in a Costa Rican elementary school Recommended reading: In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez ’71 Initiative Priority: Professorships
Fostering Teaching and Mentoring: $150 million Personalized teaching and mentoring relationships between faculty and students are at the heart of a Middlebury education. Significant resources are “I plan to become a required to support an engaged and active faculty and teacher after I graduate. to ensure small classes, excellent advising, meaningful mentoring, and student involvement in independent I want to work with kids, research. To enhance the opportunities available to with immigrants, with those students, the College seeks to add 25 new faculty positions, provide funds for faculty development and who don’t have much help.” research, support mentoring, and encourage curriculum development. —Brian Pacheco ’08 Brian found a mentor in associate professor Gloria González-Zenteno. When his first Spanish class got hard, he began slacking off. Her faith in his abilities inspired Brian to improve his grades and demonstrated the difference a great teacher can make. Your gift helps to ensure that all students will find teachers who are committed to their success. Read more about Brian at www.middleburyinitiative.org
[Liberal Arts in Action]
Name: Joseph Phillips Hometown: Detroit, Michigan Current location: Moscow, Russia Global issue: Nuclear weapons and
biological warfare
Job: Military attachĂŠ, U.S. Department
of Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Major: Master’s candidate, Davis School of Russian, Middlebury College Language Schools Mentor: Karen Evans-Romaine, director of the Davis School of Russian His other languages: Polish, Serbo-Croatian Recommended reading: A History of Russia by Nicholas Riasanovsky and Mark Steinberg Initiative Priority: Programs and infrastructure
Enhancing Programs and Infrastructure: $90 million At Middlebury, education is not restricted to the classroom. “I started my military career Learning takes place in every setting: in the Commons, in a radically different era. in performance spaces, on the athletic fields, in student organizations, and in the community. Every aspect of Infantry soldiers were required life at Middlebury contributes to an environment that to distinguish Russian tanks and encourages creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurialism. We are committed to enhancing the constelmines quickly and accurately lation of programs, facilities, cocurricular activities, because we were convinced that and technological resources required to enhance eventually we would use those that environment. skills in battle. Today my job Arts programs are essential to cultural understandis to help ensure that arms control ing. “If I had moved to Moscow with only my military language training,” Joseph says, “I’d miss treaties are implemented and that half of what people were saying to me. Middlebury’s we meet in friendship, not battle.” cultural emphasis has given my Russian depth and nuance.” Your gift helps to ensure that the arts and —Joseph Phillips Master’s Candidate
other programs flourish at Middlebury.
[Liberal Arts in Action]
Name: Zohra Safi ’09 Hometown: Kabul, Afghanistan Major: Political science, women’s and
gender studies Mentor: Sujata Moorti, professor of women’s and gender studies Current location: Middlebury, Vermont
Global issue: Education and human rights of women in Afghanistan Campus activities: Founded Women and Global Peace, which is dedicated to improving women’s lives in conflict zones Life goal: To advocate for human rights and rebuild her country Initiative Priority: Institutional flexibility
Increasing Institutional Flexibility: $80 million
“My time at Middlebury has given me the opportunity and freedom to explore the things that interest me most.… I want to learn so many things here and take them back to Afghanistan with me.” —Zohra Safi ’09
Gifts to the Annual Fund support every aspect of a Middlebury education. Unrestricted Annual Fund gifts enable the College to respond rapidly to changing circumstances and to take advantage of new opportunities. They help the College stay current and responsive—able to bring an important speaker to campus; to buy musical scores, books, and other materials for the library; to create a student-faculty seminar on a critical topic; or to help a student whose financial circumstances have changed.
Zohra helped to organize a symposium on Afghanistan that brought students and faculty together with Afghan diplomats, writers, and aid workers to explore the current situation in her country. Your gift to the Annual Fund enables students to take what they are learning and implement it in tangible ways.
Read more about Zohra at www.middleburyinitiative.org
Join us on the Journey
B
old dreams cannot be realized without significant resources. To implement the Middlebury Initiative, the College must raise $500 million over a five-year period. To reach that goal will require gifts of all sizes
and the participation of all alumni, parents, and friends through major gifts,
planned gifts, foundation grants, and the Annual Fund. There have been many occasions in Middlebury’s history when the continued success of the College depended on the foresight and dedication of visionary
people who faced the challenges of a changing world and seized the opportunities that change presents. Today, it is up to us. We must secure the resources Middlebury needs to evolve and to create the global liberal arts college. We have embarked on an exciting journey. We invite you to join us.
Initiative Leadership The Initiative fund-raising effort is led by an exemplary team of alumni, parents, and friends of the College, who have dedicated their time, energy, and philanthropy to ensuring its success. Honorary Co-Chairs: James S. Davis ’66, P’08; Elizabeth and Felix G. Rohatyn ’49 Co-Chairs: Richard S. Fuld P’03, P’07; Roxanne McCormick Leighton ’67; Kimberly Collins Parizeau ’79, P’12; Kendrick R. Wilson III P’01, P’03, P’11 For more information, visit www.middleburyinitiative.org, call 802.443.3177, or write to Michael D. Schoenfeld ’73, vice president for College Advancement, Munford House, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont 05753.
It is not the Middlebury way to sit idly by, relying on others to tackle difficult issues for us. Rather, it is the Middlebury way to plunge unafraid into the debate. The result is students who are leaders: movers and shakers who take what they learn from the classroom and from each other, and implement it in tangible ways.
Astri von Arbin Ahlander ’07 Salutatorian
www.middleburyinitiative.org