WPI in the World

Global Projects Program

melbourne

We want every student to be part of a global project experience—including you. Beginning with the Class of 2022, all first-year students are eligible to receive a Global Scholarship of up to $5,000 to complete a project at one of WPI’s 50+ project centers across six continents.

At WPI, we know that the best way for students to understand and appreciate societal issues is to experience them firsthand. Through our Global Projects Program within The Global School, WPI science, engineering, and business students immerse themselves in new cultures and tackle unstructured, real-world problems in ways that are meaningful to local sponsors in real communities. Our diverse project centers—strategically positioned in locations ranging from large international cities to small mountainside villages—are host to interdisciplinary and major capstone projects, and humanities and arts projects.  As well, students can participate in language immersion and exchange programs.

CONTACT
Phone: 508-831-5547

Not Your Typical Study Abroad Program

Our Global Projects Program is not an ordinary study abroad experience—like everything else at WPI, it’s distinctive. Regardless of if you choose to work across the city or across the ocean, it’s the experience that takes you further—you’ll work to make a profound impact to communities and organizations, and come back a different person than you were before.

 

Global Impact

Venice

Preserving the Beauty of Venice

The Venice Project Center offers students the opportunity to complete projects focusing on everything from mobility and city history and art to technology and data management, all with the common goal of improving living conditions in Venice.

Read more in the WPI Journal
Panama

Solutions With a Social Dimension in Panama

The focus of projects ranges from sustainability and wildlife management to social and wealth inequality.

read more in the WPI journal

WPI Receives 2023 IIE Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education

Heiskell Award Recipients

The IIE Heiskell Award recognizes and showcases innovative and successful models for developing and expanding international education opportunities. WPI was selected for its commitment to the Global Projects Program and specifically the Global Projects for All initiative—spotlighting a signature component of the university’s project-based learning model.

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An Experience that Changes Students—and Their World

They say good things come to those who wait, and that’s exactly the case here. For most students, the Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP)—often completed at one of our global project centers in the U.S. or abroad—is more than a year in the making. Follow 13 students through their IQP journey fifty miles away in nearby Boston, Massachusetts, and learn how their experience has forever altered their perspectives of themselves and the world they live in. 

Boston Immersion

About the Global Projects Program

100%

of students are eligible for a Global Scholarship to complete life-changing project work

50+

global project centers on six continents

17,468

undergraduate students with off-campus project experience 

48

years of undergraduate project experiences through the Global Projects Program

1,114

students completed a Global Projects Program project in the '22-'23 academic year

Where in the World Are Our Students?

At sites as close as our home city of Worcester and at 50+ other locations in 31 countries, opportunities are available to complete any of the projects required for graduation: Humanities & Arts (HUA), Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP), and Major Qualifying Project (MQP). The selection process is competitive and project work is preceded by rigorous preparation. 

Visit Global Map

Personal and Professional Impact

It’s easy for us to say that the Global Projects Program can be life-changing, so we want you to hear it from those who lived it—a survey of over 2,500 WPI alumni revealed that their project experiences impacted them long after their time at WPI. Even more powerful was the impact of those project experiences through the Global Projects Program.
 

Lifelong Project Impact

News

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Media Coverage

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NBC Boston
Letting Nature Be Your Teacher

Associate Professor Elisabeth Stoddard of the Department of Integrative & Global Studies within The Global School spoke with NBC10 as part of their Climate 2022 coverage about the Farm Stay Project Center in Paxton, Massachusetts. Through the partnership with Turn Back Time, WPI students are helping some of the youngest learners get excited about environmental education through the university’s project-based education.

The Global School
The Global Experience Office
Department of Integrative & Global Studies
Undergraduate Admissions