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Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) today announced Global Projects For All, a university-wide initiative that will provide all students with access to an off-campus project experience.
To serve the growing demand for off-campus projects, the Global Projects Program has added 18 new project centers since 2009. This year WPI will add programs in Massachusetts, Costa Rica, Japan, and Switzerland. Last year the university expanded its reach in England, and to Ecuador, Armenia and Israel, said the institution in a press statement.
Beginning with the class of 2022, which arrives on WPI’s campus in August 2018, every full time, degree-seeking student will receive a Global Project Scholarship – a $5,000 credit – to defray the cost of an off-campus project.
WPI, which has about 4,400 undergraduates, enrolls just over 1,100 students per year. In support of this initiative, the university is actively fundraising to build a $50 million Global Projects For All endowment, which is expected to generate approximately $2.5 million per year to supplement an annual $2.5 contribution from WPI.
“Global Projects For All is about removing financial barriers so that all our students have the opportunity to participate in this signature WPI program, and experience firsthand the power they have to make a positive impact in the world,” said WPI President Laurie Leshin in a university press release. “By enabling more students to apply what they know out in the world, this initiative will also accelerate WPI’s quest to prepare and equip the next generation of STEM leaders to play vital roles in the future prosperity of our nation, and advance the well-being of others.”
In 1974, WPI launched a global component to its project-based curriculum and currently sends 72 percent of its students to 40+ project centers around the world, which are overseen by the university’s Global Projects Program.
At these centers, students work in teams to focus on issues such as energy, food, health, and urban sustainability. The Global Projects Program offers students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in tackling real problems, develop an understanding of other cultures, and see how their lives and work can make a real impact. It calls for small teams of students to work under the guidance of faculty members from multiple disciplines to address a specific problem or need.
Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI is one of the nation’s first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.
