A structured field course, taught in the field: six themed modules in your track, a community-engaged learning project with a module host organization, and assignments that build the competencies of global change leaders. You learn on site visits and in community settings, with local professionals and community partners, rather than in a classroom.

A cohort working inside a GEI flagship initiative, not a placement. Your cohort joins one of GEI's international development initiatives, works in one interdisciplinary team with local student peers, and sees its project through to completion. Each track carries its own side of the project, from the technical to the business, health, policy, or systems side. The initiative continues after you leave. Current initiatives: School Water Systems (Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa), Mentally Fit Schools (Rwanda, South Africa), and Sustainable Agriculture (Thailand, Vietnam).

The host country language, three to four classes a week with a local language school, plus field activities from market visits to a cooking lesson with a host family. Runs alongside the Independent Study Project.

Four kickstart days on methods and ethics, then your own project on a question that matters to a local organization, supervised by a local faculty member. A weekly Capstone Seminar with your cohort, a research paper, and a final presentation of your project and your Capstone portfolio.

Your Capstone runs through the whole program. You collect the work that shows your development across your courses, from field assignments to project findings, into a digital portfolio and present it at the end of the program. The portfolio is a requirement for the certificate.