In 2024, SIT celebrated 60 years at the leading edge of international education that addresses the world’s critical global issues. Please join us as we look back on a year of notable moments, new initiatives, experiential learning and research, and great impact among the students, people, and programs of School for International Training.
Our Academic Programs
From immersive undergraduate programs through graduate and doctoral degrees, SIT provides exceptional experiential education at home and abroad.
In 2024, SIT ran 121 programs in 48 countries. On every program, in every location, learners experienced SIT’s commitment to our values of community, intercultural understanding, social justice, and sustainability.
"This program gives you the opportunity to truly feel the cross-cultural experience. The experiential learning in this program is unmatched."
–Shivam R, India: Public Health, Gender, & Sexuality
"SIT has allowed me to engage with various projects that interest me and serve as great ways to gain a significant amount of experience — from lab work and fieldwork to graph creation, running statistical tests, and formal academic writing."
–Christian Boudreaux, who did three SIT study abroad programs in Ecuador, Tanzania, and most recently, Australia: Rainforest, Reef, and Cultural Ecology this fall.
Celebrating 60 Years
Celebrating its 60th anniversary, SIT held a series of events spotlighting the institution’s unique history and its dynamic future as a 21st-century global university. Students, alumni, faculty, staff, and board members gathered at 19 events in six countries. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, an SIT alum, and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint both spoke at an event in Washington, DC, and former U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy was the featured guest at a conference that explored the intersection of local and global initiatives in Vermont.
Commencement
This August, SIT welcomed 49 new graduates to its extensive global network of alumni serving as changemakers around the world. Eight graduates received their EdD in global education—SIT’s first cohort of doctoral students.
"We aim to create a space where we can envision a better world—a world where each of us lifts our hand to help and sets our mind to the solutions. You became a member of that community when you started with SIT. It is your hand that must be there to help. Your mind that we look to, to provide solutions."
– SIT President Dr. Sophia Howlett to the 2024 graduating class
Return to Study Abroad
In celebration of our 60th anniversary, SIT ran two Return to Study Abroad programs—unique adult educational travel programs for SIT alumni and friends. Participants traveled to Argentina and South Africa.
Professional Engagement Programs
SIT offers several kinds of Professional Engagement Programs for faculty and study abroad professionals, including skills-building training seminars, academically focused seminars, certificate programs, and customized seminars. Through this year's professional engagement program in Cameroon, in partnership with Dickinson College, participants examined themes of decoloniality, sustainability, and epistemic justice.
Group Site Visits
Every year, study abroad staff and faculty from around the country visit SIT programs. This year, trips took place in Tanzania and Samoa. As they explored non-traditional locations for SIT’s academically rigorous, culturally immersive learning, they gained a deeper understanding of what students experience during a semester with SIT.
Refugee Resettlement
“If the U.S. thinks they can only do things alone, then they make a terrible mistake. SIT has been so good to bring in people from around the world and to educate us,” said former U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who was the featured guest at a conference that explored the intersection of local and global initiatives in Vermont. Prior to the conference, he and his wife, Marcelle, met privately with a group of refugees who are part of World Learning and SIT’s New Vermonter Education Program.
SIT was honored to be recognized for excellence in marketing for our "Africa: See for Yourself" campaign by GoAbroad and The PIE. SIT also received a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant to implement a fully-funded summer workshop on African perspectives and climate change in Tanzania for high school and college faculty.
School for International Training was established in 1964 as a training center for the first Peace Corps volunteers. Today, SIT is a U.S.-accredited global university offering undergraduate study abroad programs including the comparative International Honors Program, graduate and doctoral degrees, and certificates. SIT prepares students to be effective changemakers and global citizens through experiential education focused on the world's most critical global issues.