Master of Arts in
Intercultural Service, Leadership & Management (Part-Time Hybrid)

Design a customized, interdisciplinary, partially global, partially online master's degree. Build the leadership and other professional skills needed to meet your personal career goals.

At a Glance

For programs beginning in 2025

Credits

33 minimum

Format

Part-Time Hybrid

Application Deadline for U.S. & permanent residents

January 31, 2025, rolling thereafter until April 1, 2025

International students

November 1, 2024

Duration

2 Years

Residencies

United States

Critical Global Issue of Study


All CGI Icon

Students may focus on any
critical global issue, depending
on their chosen curriculum.

Please note that SIT will make every effort to maintain its programs as described. To respond to emergent situations, however, SIT may have to change or cancel programs.

WHY A HYBRID MASTER'S IN INTERCULTURAL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT?

SIT’s MA in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management enables you to learn the knowledge and develop the skills you need to address critical global issues in development, identity, geopolitics, justice, environment, health, education, and social justice.

Self-design your own experiential learning, earning your master’s degree online with a brief residency in Vermont and working closely with a faculty advisor to address your career objectives. The Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management master’s degree from SIT allows you to hone your leadership skills across interpersonal, team, communityand global arenas. 

Undertake 10 to 15 hours a week of SIT’s carefully developed, immersive online coursework, in collaboration with other students in your cohort. Your studies may include in-depth explorations of leadership and change; international education and training; sustainable development; gender equity; humanitarian assistance, language education; and policy advocacy.

During this two-year program you will determine a focus for your degree and your future professional skillset as you take courses online and in a variety of international locations with SIT professors around the world, attend experiential learning summer residencies on our Vermont campus, and pursue your own research and fieldwork. 

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of this unique degree and your ability to make individual choices within it, the range of skills you will develop will be based entirely on your learning plan, which is created with your career goals in mind.

As part of the program, you will reflect on your past and current work experiences and will complete an independent research paper or project, all designed to provide you with on-the-job experience and the ability to expand your professional network.

Whether you are exploring, building on, or just starting a new profession, this one-of-a-kind master’s degree prepares you for a challenging and rewarding career in fields such as international education; refugee resettlement; humanitarian assistance; research and policymaking; or sustainable development.

Career Paths

  • Cultural sustainability specialist

  • Development coordinator at NGO or nonprofit

  • Refugee resettlement case manager

  • Immigration outreach coordinator

  • Community health worker

  • Prevention educator or facilitator

  • Director or manager of human resources

  • Program director, manager, or specialist

Visit the SIT blog to read more about SIT Graduate Institute alumni careers.

Program Sites

Part-Time Hybrid Format

Students in this program are able to live anywhere in the world while they pursue their master’s degree online and in person. Depending on the courses they choose, students may have the opportunity to spend time on our Vermont campus or, if they pursue a field course, elsewhere in the world.

  • Courses take place almost entirely online
  • One short summer residency in Vermont
  • Additional field courses in other locations. Recent field courses have taken place in Oaxaca, Mexico and Kathmandu, Nepal.
  • Practicum can be in current job or location of your choice

Brattleboro, Vermont

Vermont is at the forefront of sustainability, education, and regeneration. New England is a haven for start-ups, transition towns, community-owned forests, artisanal food and beverage companies, sustainable farming, eco-architecture, green energy, and many environmental and social-justice organizations. SIT’s beautiful southern Vermont campus offers woodland trails, hiking, running, and cycling, as well as a private library, study rooms with mountain views, and an entertainment space where students often gather at the end of the day to socialize. You will also be a few miles from downtown Brattleboro, which offers an array of shops, restaurants, and eateries.

Please note that in order to take advantage of dynamic learning opportunities, program excursions may occasionally vary.

Academics

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the program, students will be able to:

  • Incorporate theories of intercultural service, leadership, and management into one’s professional work.
  • Design and carry out an intentional plan of study and professional development.
  • Design and implement original research, including the writing of a final paper.

Read more about Program Learning Outcomes.



Coursework

With SIT's experiential curriculum, you will learn how to put theory into practice.


Please expand the sections below to see detailed course information.


This is SIT

  • We value active togetherness, reciprocity, and respect as the essential ingredients for building a sustainable community.
  • With open minds, empathy, and courage, we facilitate intercultural understanding and respect for the commonalities and differences between people.
  • We champion social inclusion & justice in all that we are and all that we do, from ensuring our community and our programs amplify the voices, agency, and dignity of all people to deliberately instilling the principles and practices of inclusion in all of our work.
  • We are committed to human and environmental well-being through sustainability and contributing to a better world for all living and future generations.

SEMESTER DETAILS

The courses below reflect a wide range of options for each student, who will earn a maximum of 8 credits per semesterCourses with an asterisk require the student to travel to our campus in Vermont, or an international location. Please check SIT’s Catalog to verify prerequisite requirements. Specific courses offered each term may vary.

The following courses are required of all students in this program:

  • MPIM-5050 Foundations in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management (3 credits)
  • MPIM-5510 Practitioner Inquiry (3 credits)
  • MPIM-5040 Seminar in Applied Leadership (1 credit)
  • ISLM-6701 Reflective Practice 1 (1 credit)
  • ISLM-6702 Reflective Practice 2 (1 credit)
  • ISLM-6703 Reflective Practice 3 (1 credit)
  • MPIM-6604 Capstone Paper (2 credits)
  • MPIM-6709 Capstone Presentation and Seminar (1 credit)

Semester One: Summer

  • Political Economy of Sustainable Development and Environmental Change*  
  • International Environmental Policy and the Challenge of Climate Diplomacy 
  • Developing an Approach to Teaching and Learning* 
  • English Applied Linguistics, Part 1*  
  • Intercultural Communication and Ethnographic Inquiry for Language Educators, Part 1*
  • Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation for Programing in Fragile Environments 
  • Theory and Practice of Social Change  
  • Human Flourishing in the Anthropocene: From Development to Regeneration 
  • Foundations in Regenerative Leadership
  • Program Monitoring and Evaluation
  • Issues in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies
  • Humanitarian Policy, Diplomacy, and Advocacy
  • Crisis Management and Leadership in Humanitarian Response
  • Developing and Maintaining Collaborative Relationships
  • Grant Writing and Fundraising
  • Policy Advocacy
  • Agroecology and Food Systems Field Course
  • Effective Communication for Change

Semester Two: Fall

  • Theory, Practice, and Policy of International Education   
  • Regenerative Design
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning
  • Participatory Action Methods
  • Community Development and Social Change Field Course
  • Leadership, Community Organizing, and Coalition Building
  • Safety and Well-being Challenges in Emergency Contexts
  • Program Planning and Management
  • Economics for Sustainable Development and Regeneration
  • Political Economy of Sustainable Development and Environmental Change

Semester Three: Spring

  • International Education Program Planning and Design 
  • Food Sovereignty and Agroecology  
  • Development Practice
  • Agroecology and Food Systems Field Course
  • Negotiation, Mediation, and Dialogue
  • International Humanitarian and Refugee Law, Standards, and Principles
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning: Concepts and Practices
  • Seminar in Applied Leadership

Semester Four: Summer

  • International Environmental Policy and the Challenge of Climate Diplomacy* 
  • Advanced Concepts in International Education I* 
  • Program Monitoring and Evaluation Concepts
  • Issues in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies
  • Humanitarian Policy, Diplomacy, and Advocacy
  • Crisis Management and Leadership in Humanitarian Response
  • Developing and Maintaining Collaborative Relationships
  • Grant Writing and Fundraising
  • Policy Advocacy
  • Agroecology and Food Systems Field Course
  • Effective Communication for Change

Semester Five: Fall

  • Theory, Practice, and Policy of International Education 
  • Advanced Concepts in International Education II
  • Economics for Sustainable Development and Regeneration
  • Community Development and Social Change Field Course
  • Leadership, Community Organizing, and Coalition-Building
  • Safety and Well-being Challenges in Emergency Contexts
  • Program Planning and Management
  • Economics for Sustainable Development and Regeneration
  • Global Virtual Practicum in Sustainable Development
  • Political Economy of Sustainable Development and Environmental Change

Semester Six: Spring

  • Capstone Paper 
  • Capstone Presentation and Seminar 
  • Communication, Media, and Art for Social Transformation
  • Negotiation, Mediation, and Dialogue
  • International Humanitarian and Refugee Law, Standards, and Principles
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning: Concepts and Practices
  • Special Topics in Sustainable Development
  • Development Practice

*Courses with residency requirements 

Faculty & Staff

Intercultural Service, Leadership & Management (Part-Time Hybrid)

Bruce W. Dayton, PhD
Associate Professor, PhD in International Relations • Chair and Associate Professor, MA in Diplomacy and International Relations • Chair and Associate Professor, MA in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management • Associate Professor, MA in International Education • Associate Professor, MA in Sustainable Development Practice
Sora Friedman, PhD
Chair and Professor, MA in International Education • Professor, Doctorate in Global Education
Alla Korzh, EdD
Chair and Associate Professor, Doctorate in Global Education • Associate Professor, MA in International Education
Alyson Dagang, PhD
Chair and Affiliated Faculty, MA in Sustainable Development Practice • Affiliated Faculty, MA in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management
David Shallenberger, PhD
Affiliated Faculty, Doctorate in Global Education • Affiliated Faculty, MA in International Education • Affiliated Faculty, MA in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management
Maira Tungatarova, MA
Graduate Admissions Officer

Discover the Possibilities