Our mission is to enhance the capacity and commitment of individuals, institutions, and communities to create a more sustainable, peaceful, and just world. World Learning Inc. encompasses a global nonprofit organization and an accredited academic institution that deliver on this mission through a diverse portfolio of programs across three branches—The Experiment in International Living, School for International Training, and World Learning. These unique yet interconnected brands support the emergence of everyday citizens as leaders driving positive change at home and around the world.
In 1932, sociologist Donald Watt launched an “experiment,” sending young people abroad to learn how to live together by living together. Now in our 90th year and with more than 70,000 alumni, we carry forward that mission as the nation’s most experienced provider of intercultural exchange programs for high school students. In the spirit of Dr. Watt, we continue to innovate today by adding immersive internships, college credit-bearing programs, and international virtual youth exchanges through The Experiment Digital.
Founded in 1964 as a training center for outbound Peace Corps volunteers, SIT is an accredited higher education institution with undergraduate and graduate programs centered on the most critical global issues of our time. SIT Study Abroad offers more than 80 immersive, experiential programs for undergraduates on all seven continents, including comparative International Honors Programs that each span multiple continents. SIT Graduate Institute provides professional certificates, master’s degrees, and a doctorate through hybrid and immersive global formats.
In 1970, we drew on our decades of global experience to form an international development and exchange nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people and strengthening institutions. Today, World Learning teams around the world work to build brighter futures for individuals and communities through six core areas of expertise: people-to-people exchanges, global education, institutional strengthening, youth workforce and entrepreneurship, civic engagement, and TESOL English teacher training.
Welcome to our 2021 Impact Report—a brief snapshot of the impact World Learning and SIT have had through hundreds of programs delivered online and in person around the world over the past year.
As we prepare to celebrate our 90th year, our mission to create a more peaceful, sustainable, and just world has never been more relevant or more important. Across World Learning and SIT, these past 18 months have posed some of our greatest challenges, but with this anniversary comes an opportunity for reflection—a chance to honor our past, acknowledge the present, and look with confidence toward the future.
Each challenge faced by The Experiment, World Learning, and SIT over our 90-year history has been a learning opportunity that has expanded our worldviews and the way we approach our work. Today, our learning environments, whether digital or real-world, have grown with deeper thinking, closer bonds, and broader perspectives that connect our program participants and classrooms with the world.
A peaceful and just world is a sustainable world. At World Learning and SIT, we demonstrate our commitment to sustainability through programs and partnerships that weave together environmental and social justice. We come to this both as guides and learners, dedicated to listening and learning across cultures and disciplines to address an existential challenge of our time.
Since we began this bold, cross-cultural “experiment” 90 years ago, diversity, equity, and inclusion have been the guiding principles that have steered our programming and partnerships at The Experiment, World Learning, and SIT. As we continue to reflect and strengthen these values in the programs we carry out around the world, we also rededicate ourselves to elevating diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion among the people, processes, and systems.
At World Learning Inc., we are transforming agency, access, and power. We do this to honor the leadership of the past and build the leadership for a sustainable future, ensuring that those who are helping to fulfill our mission have the tools they need to be successful.
One World, Learning means building on the strength of all our programs—through World Learning, The Experiment, and School for International Training—to make the world better today and for generations to come. How do we do that? Through your support.
World Learning’s programs empower students to form meaningful connections with communities worldwide. Your generous support will not only help fund ongoing innovations—it will create a lasting impact globally.
A popular refrain of The Experiment founder Dr. Donald Watt was: “Expect the unexpected.” Those words are certainly as true today as they were 90 years ago when we first began. I can’t help but think that Dr. Watt would be proud of the way we have come together—yes, over the past nine decades, but especially during these past 18 months—to learn from one another how to confront the unexpected.
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Including our Consolidated Statements of Financial Position and Statement of Activities
