ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS 5 Four alumni receive awards at Commencement.
LEAP OF FAITH 11 Institute legend Jeff Wood retires.
Communiqué SUMMER 2015
Launching the Center for Social Impact Learning
proliferation studies at the Institute. “My two graduate assistants and I were the entire staff at the beginning,” he recalled. Today the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (cns) is the largest nongovernmental organization in the world devoted to combating the spread of weapons of mass destruction, with more than 35 staff located in Monterey, Washington, D.C., and Vienna, Austria. By working with governments and
the center for Social Impact Learning (csil) at the Middlebury Institute celebrated its official launch on March 25 with a full day of events focused around the center’s goal of stimulating interest—especially among the millennial generation—in the emerging fields of social entrepreneurship and impact investing. The center aims to achieve this goal through academics, experiential learning opportunities, and action-based research. Its flagship programs include the Frontier Market Scouts fellowship program, for young professionals and graduate students seeking careers in social-enterprise management and impact investing, and the Ambassador Corps program, a field internship program providing hands-on professional experience for undergraduates working with social entrepreneurship organizations in developing countries. The launch celebration kicked off with a pop-up market comprised of 20 social enterprise kiosks, followed by a diverse program of presentations, poetry, and music. The keynote address by Daniel Epstein, founder and ceo of the Unreasonable Group and director at the Girl Effect Accelerator, was prefaced by remarks from Ron and Marty Cordes of the Cordes Foundation, csil Director Jerry Hildebrand, and former MIIS president Sunder Ramaswamy. The audience also enjoyed a musical performance by Maame Afon maips ’05, stories about the founding of the Frontier
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Graduating students enjoyed comments from UN High Representative Angela Kane and other distinguished guests at Spring Commencement 2015. See story on page 3.
Turning 25 The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies marks a milestone for change. twenty-five years ago, in the waning days of the Cold War, Professor William C. Potter of the Monterey Institute of International Studies recognized the moment of historic change as both an opportunity and a threat. The easing of tensions between superpowers offered the opportunity to shrink nuclear arsenals but also heightened the risk of nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands. Potter’s response was to propose the establishment of a new center for non-