With warmer weather approaching and a steady lifting of coronavirus restrictions, we wanted to take this opportunity and update you about some of the things the MIT-Denmark program has done in this unusual year.

At MISTI, learning to adapt to new situations is ingrained in our core fabric. Despite the changes of the last year, MIT-Denmark has continued to build connections and support our students’ interest in learning about Denmark by developing alternative programming and preparing for the next stage of the program. We co-developed a new course to highlight Denmark’s leadership in the energy sector to a cohort of students interested in pursuing energy careers. We ran a series of webinars with partners in Denmark on topics including the future of housing as well as digitalization and social trust. In January, we ran our first innovation challenge, engaging cross-cultural teams of MIT and Danish university students to develop proposals for a more sustainable campus.

In response to the pandemic, we also organized remote internships for MIT students. While not the same as being in-country, these internships exposed our students to Denmark’s work culture while providing them with in-depth experience in their respective fields.

“MIT-Denmark was a great opportunity to extend what I had learned in classes to interesting real-world problems while learning about a new culture that interested me.”

-Caleb Harris ’22 (Computation and Cognition) of his Fall 2020 internship at Mindpool

While we had to implement new methodologies over the past year, the goal of MIT-Denmark remains the same: to bring Denmark and MIT together for mutual benefit. When we embarked upon this journey, we could not have anticipated the high demand for these experiences from both members of the MIT community and our host institutions in Denmark. Even with the challenges of the last year, we received over 100 student applications for internships this summer, and we expect demand will only increase following the pandemic.

We hope you will help make this work possible by supporting MIT-Denmark. In addition to making an outright gift, you may pledge your support via MIT’s giving website or by phone at 617-253-8270. Further, you may wish to see if your employer participates in gift matching.

We also invite you to engage with us through our future programming or by reaching out to help us plan for the future. You can keep up with our activities via this website or our newsletter, which you can sign up for below.

When you help fund these critical opportunities, you empower students to collaborate and solve problems that make an impact around the globe—and help the MIT community deeply connect to Denmark.

Thank you for your consideration and support.