A small, academically rigorous liberal arts college tucked away in Vermont, Middlebury College surpasses all expectations. Its students are among the most engaged activists, volunteers, and civic-minded citizens in the nation, cultivating a sense of community wherever they go to study or work- literally around the world.
Middlebury College challenges students to participate fully in a vibrant and diverse academic community. The College's Vermont location offers an inspirational setting for learning and reflection, reinforcing it's commitment to integrating environmental stewardship into both curriculum and practices on campus.

Yet the College also reaches far beyond the Green Mountains, offering a rich array of undergraduate and graduate programs that connect our community to other places, countries, and cultures. Mddlebury strives to engage students' capacity for rigorous analysis and independent thought within a wide range of disciplines and endeavors, and to cultivate the intellectual, creative, physical, ethical, and social qualities essential for leadership in a rapidly changing global community. Through the pursuit of knowledge unconstrained by national or disciplinary boundaries, students who come to Middlebury learn to engage the world.

The Alliance for Civic Engagement is the nexus of campus activism. The office works with faculty to develop new and creative ways of using coursework to create visible change in the community. Students can go there to find ways to foster mutual understanding of diverse cultures in rural schools, organize a voter registration drive, or serve as volunteer firefighters and EMTs. ACE staffers are actively involved in reducing local poverty and routinely help students secure local and national internships in nonprofit service organizations. Students who want to make a difference at the global level immerse themselves in the College's renowned language and interdisciplinary international studies programs, which are rooted in the philosophy that to effect change one must be able to see the world from different points of view, embodied by language and unconstrained by rigid disciplinary boundaries. Sixty percent of students prepare themselves for lives as global citizens by studying abroad. After graduation, many Middlebury alumni live and work abroad, and the College consistently ranks among the top small schools sending graduates to the Peace Corps.

Middlebury is second to none in its commitment to the environment. The College was the first to offer an undergraduate major in environmental studies, which compels students to look at the environment from scientific, political, and humanistic perspectives. The College's Environmental and Sustainability Policy was written in 1995. As a College, Middlebury is committed to achieving it's sustainability goals through how and what is taught, how it operates, open dialogue, carefully considered risk, and learning from successes and failures. Specific objectives include:
• achieving and maintaining carbon neutrality by 2016 through conservation and efficient use of energy, renewable resources, and, as a last resort, purchasing carbon offsets;
• assessing and improving environmental, economic and social performance with tools that provide a useful measure of progress toward ecological resilience, economic prosperity, and social equity;
• integrating environmental concerns and sustainable development principles into all planning and design decisions, which includes evaluating entire life cycles of products (e.g. the energy, source, and type of materials used in manufacturing and use);

Faculty encourage students to research sustainable approaches to life on and off campus. Students respond with solutions, like a comprehensive portfolio of initiatives for making significant reductions in our emissions of carbon dioxide, or a wind turbine that feeds renewable electricity to the recycling facility, or the recent decision to switch the fuel usedto heat, cool and power the campus from oil to wood from local forests managed so as to provide a sustainable supply of "carbon neutral" woodchips. The College supplies "Green Grants" one of which funded six students' transcontinental tour in a biodiesel bus.

Middlebury College practices an environmental ethic in all of its undertakings. The College's commitment to environmentally responsible and sustainable practices is apparent at every turn -- from the College's commitment to become carbon neutral by 2016; to the natural landscape design of the campus and the College’s recycling center, powered by a wind turbine; to the newly refurbished Franklin Environmental Center ; to the full bike racks outside every building; to the dining-hall waste that is composted and then reinvested in the College’s landscape and greenhouse.

Middlebury places a strong emphasis on local and organic food. Dining Services works directly with farmers and local produce distributors to increase the amount of local produce used in the dining halls, recognizing the potential income they can offer farmers by steering more of the College's produce purchases toward local growers. They also work with the college organic garden to purchase seasonal fruits and vegetables. Middlebury is one of 11 American universities and colleges that are part of the new Terra Madre University Network which is linked with the Slow Food University Network

In all areas of life, Middlebury College teaches skills and strategies for leadership and activism. Its academic calendar provides a month of intensive study in one subject that might culminate in a trip to rebuild New Orleans, or give students the extra time they need to plan fundraisers for children in developing countries the following spring. Students put on events to raise awareness of AIDS, racism, homophobia, dilapidated prisons, and the rights of indigenous people, problems that could be forgotten in the idyllic setting if not for the activity of the student body. From all corners of the globe, students come to Middlebury to engage the world.