Global Projects Program
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.
Global Impact
A Big Impact Down Under
The popular project center in Australia gives students the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects.
A Global Experience: No Plane Required
The Worcester Community Project Center is tackling something new: giving students a global experience in a local context through the Local Latino Projects Program.
Advancing Resiliency Projects in Puerto Rico
In Spring 2021, sensing that pandemic-fueled international travel restrictions were not going away anytime soon, Professor Emeritus Scott Jiusto and Associate Professor Gbetonmasse Somasse began looking for an alternative travel experience for students scheduled to head to the Cape Town, South Africa, Project Center they co-direct. They weren’t alone. Many global project center directors were faced with the same conundrum, recognizing that—for many students—leaving campus and traveling abroad are essential parts of the distinctive Interactive Qualifying Project experience.
A Project Center Close to Home
“Whether it’s because of on-campus responsibilities or a local job, not all students want to travel far [for their IQP],” says Lisa Stoddard, associate professor of teaching and director of the Farm Stay Project Center. “Regardless of where they go, we want all students to have the chance to experience the mainstay of a WPI education.”
Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities During a Pandemic
“We’ve all made these kinds of adjustments and sacrifices this year, but the amazing quality of these students, their versatility and resilience, is what I’m most impressed by” says Glacier National Park Project Center Director, Fred Bianchi, about the 2020 student project teams. Learn more about this formula for success.
WPI’s Global Projects Program featured in The New York Times
There’s no doubting the value of global experiences. The New York Times recently delved deep into the topic—the article highlighted WPI’s Global Projects Program, interviewing students and faculty about their time abroad, the impact of their work, and the importance of being able to adapt to and overcome different challenges.
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.
About the Global Projects Program
of students are eligible for a Global Scholarship to complete life-changing project work
global project centers on six continents
undergraduate students with off-campus project experience
years of undergraduate project experiences through the Global Projects Program
students completed an off-campus project (2018–19)
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.
