The MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI), MIT’s pioneering international education program, matches over 900 undergrads and graduate students with tailored internship, teaching, and research opportunities around the world each year.
Programs & Opportunities
- Global Innovation Internships: MISTI’s award-winning international internship program provides a one-of-a-kind, world-class experience for MIT students: the opportunity to gain real-life work experience in leading companies and labs around the world. Global Innovation Interns are placed with startups or other innovation-driven companies, or innovation-focused labs in universities or research institutions. To prepare for their experiences abroad, MISTI students complete coursework and training in the culture, history, language and politics of the host country. MISTI Global Innovation Interns also complete training on innovation ecosystems through the MIT Innovation Initiative.
- Innovation Diplomats: In addition to their internships or as a stand-alone project, students selected to be Innovation Diplomats gain a deep cultural understanding of their host country by engaging with the local innovation ecosystem. Meeting with stakeholders in government, the corporate sector, entrepreneurship, risk capital, and academia, iDiplomats analyze the policies and programs that enable (or hinder) innovation and entrepreneurship, keeping in mind the underlying cultural context.
- Global Startup Labs (GSL): Global Startup Labs provides opportunities for MIT students to promote development in emerging regions by cultivating young technology entrepreneurs. Working in teams of four (two EECS, two Sloan), MIT student instructors deliver courses on technology and entrepreneurship that enable undergraduate students at universities abroad to innovate in mobile technologies. GSL students are selected based on their technological knowledge and entrepreneurial experience. Students who have completed MIT courses on entrepreneurship and/or innovation receive priority consideration. Global Startup Labs run for 6-8 weeks, beginning in mid-June.
- Global Teaching Labs (GTL): MISTI Global Teaching Labs is an experiential teaching program in which MIT students develop and deliver STEM and entrepreneurship course modules using MIT online course materials in high school classrooms around the world. Students work in teams to synthesize and develop curricula adapted to the needs of the host classroom. While in country, students lead the classroom, deliver course material and guide participants through experiments and other hands-on projects. GTL students teaching entrepreneurship modules receive training through the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship prior to departure. Global Teaching Labs run for 3-4 weeks over IAP.
- Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (MEET): In partnership with the MIT MISTI program, MEET (Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow) brings more than twenty MIT student instructors to Jerusalem every summer. Through an innovative approach of teaching business, entrepreneurship, and computer science to a cohort of highly driven Palestinian and Israeli students, MEET connects, educates, and empowers the next generation of young Israeli and Palestinian socially minded entrepreneurs to make a positive social and political impact in the Middle East. Applications for summer instructors open in the spring every year.
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