If you’ve stumbled across the term “Global Teaching Labs” while researching MIT programs, study abroad options, or ways to teach STEM overseas, you’re looking at one of the more interesting things a college student can do with a January.
Global Teaching Labs, usually shortened to GTL, is a program run through MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives, better known as MISTI. Each January, during MIT’s Independent Activities Period, hundreds of MIT students fly to schools around the world and teach. Not shadow a teacher. Not observe a classroom. Actually stand in front of high school and university students and run lessons in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Here’s what the program actually looks like, who gets in, and what students say once they’re on the ground.
What Global Teaching Labs Actually Is
MISTI describes the goal simply: you learn by teaching. Students spend three to four weeks abroad, mostly in the last three weeks of January, teaching STEM subjects to high school and sometimes university level students. Some programs stretch beyond STEM into entrepreneurship, debate, robotics competitions, and even filmmaking, depending on the country.
The program was founded by Serenella Sferza, who also co-directs the MIT-Italy program, and it grew out of MISTI’s larger mission of placing MIT students in internships and research roles overseas. According to MIT News, Global Teaching Labs has reached over 10,000 foreign high school students through combined teaching, internship, and research placements since it started.
For context, MISTI as a whole places over 700 MIT students in internships, research, and teaching roles abroad each year. GTL is the piece that was built specifically around classroom teaching.
How the Application Process Works
The timeline runs on roughly the same schedule every year, though exact dates shift slightly:
- August: MISTI posts the list of participating countries and subjects for the coming January.
- September: Applications open. In recent cycles, the deadline has landed around September 17.
- September to October: MISTI reviews applications and contacts selected students for interviews.
- November to December: Accepted students attend five to six mandatory pre-departure training sessions covering teaching methods, classroom management, and the culture of their host country.
- January: Most programs run during the final three weeks of the month, overlapping with MIT’s IAP calendar.
- February: Returning students attend a required reentry session.
You apply through the MISTI portal, and you can rank a first and second choice country. MISTI is upfront that a second choice program isn’t guaranteed just because your first choice didn’t select you, though program managers do try to share applications between countries when it makes sense.
First year MIT students are only eligible for a limited set of programs, so if you’re a freshman, check the current list before you build your application around a specific country.
Where You Can Actually Go
The country list changes year to year, but recent programs give a sense of the range. Some examples from the 2026 cycle, based on MISTI’s own program pages:
| Country | Subject Focus |
| Italy | All STEM subjects, plus debate |
| Germany | STEM with an emphasis on chemistry and biology |
| Mexico | STEM, big data, entrepreneurship, plus dedicated spots for female identifying students teaching coding and Math Olympiad prep |
| Armenia | STEM, design, business, climate and sustainability, AI, filmmaking and photography |
| Kazakhstan | STEM, leadership, climate and sustainability, robotics competitions |
| South Africa and Botswana | Quantum mechanics theory and application |
| Cyprus | Robotics, EECS, mechanical engineering, math, physics (juniors and above only) |
Cyprus is a good example of how the program keeps expanding. According to the Cyprus Mail, Cyprus joined the MISTI network for the first time in January 2026, with MIT students teaching hands on robotics across four institutions in Paphos, Nicosia, and Limassol over three weeks, working alongside Cypriot university students as co instructors.
Wales is another newer addition. The MISTI Global Teaching Labs program there runs with support from the Welsh Government’s education department, a slightly different funding setup than most GTL countries.
Programs marked with an asterisk on MISTI’s site have fewer than 10 placements, so competition for those spots tends to be tighter.
Who Can Apply
Eligibility depends partly on the country, but the general shape looks like this:
Open to: MIT undergraduate and graduate students, with some programs also considering PhD students who want teaching experience abroad.
Not typically required: fluency in the host country’s language, though some programs (MISTI Italy, for example) ask undergraduates to complete at least one Italian class, in person or through an online option like Wellesley’s Italian courses on edX, before departure.
Usually required: a completed MISTI application, an interview if you’re shortlisted, and attendance at fall training sessions if you’re selected.
For MIT MENA programs specifically, MISTI lists a minimum 4.0 GPA (on MIT’s own scale) as a requirement, so standards can vary meaningfully depending on the region.
What It Costs
This is the part that surprises people outside MIT. GTL is built to be cost neutral for participants. MISTI donors, host schools, or a combination of both cover airfare and housing, and students typically get a small stipend for meals and transportation once they land. In Italy specifically, the program covers round trip flights from Boston, and host schools provide a stipend plus, often, free room and board through a host family.
You’re not paying tuition for this, and you’re not expected to fund your own flight. That’s a real distinction from a lot of study abroad programs, which can carry program fees on top of travel costs.
What the Experience Is Actually Like
MIT Admissions has published a handful of student accounts from GTL that give a better sense of daily life than any program description can.
One student described arriving at Shoqan School in Kazakhstan and being welcomed with traditional music played on a dombra, a stringed instrument, alongside a table of local desserts including baursak, a fried dough pastry, and quart, a salted dairy snack. Another wrote about teaching in Spain and how much of the experience came down to living with a host family and forming friendships with people from her own school she’d never crossed paths with at MIT.
A third student, reflecting on MISTI Italy, described a GTL placement that got delayed twice, once for COVID and once due to a mixup with academic leave, before finally happening. That’s a fair reminder that logistics don’t always run cleanly, even at a program this established.
Sami Alsheikh, an MIT junior in electrical engineering, taught at Yeomyung, an alternative school in Seoul for North Korean defectors, through an earlier GTL cohort. Alejandro Gomez taught engineering at Ort Gilboa High School in Tel Aviv and later called the cross cultural piece as important as the teaching itself.
The pattern across these accounts is consistent: the teaching is the entry point, but the host families, the food, and the friendships with local co teachers tend to be what students remember most.
Is Global Teaching Labs Worth It?
If you’re weighing this against a summer internship or a research position, the honest answer depends on what you want out of it. GTL won’t build a resume line the way a technical internship might. What it does build, based on student accounts, is comfort teaching complex material to people with a completely different educational background than you, plus real experience communicating across a language and culture gap.
For students considering a career that involves any kind of public speaking, mentorship, or international work, that’s not a small thing. MISTI itself frames the program around communication and leadership skills that are hard to get from a lab bench.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is Global Teaching Labs?
Most programs run three to four weeks, timed to the last three weeks of MIT’s January Independent Activities Period.
Do I need to speak the local language?
Not always, though some countries recommend or require basic language preparation beforehand. Check the specific country page on MISTI’s site.
Is Global Teaching Labs paid?
Not paid in the traditional sense, but the program covers airfare and housing, and students typically receive a stipend for food and transportation.
Can first year students apply?
Yes, but only to a limited set of programs. MISTI publishes the first year eligible list alongside the full country list each August.
How competitive is it?
MISTI describes GTL as attracting several hundred highly accomplished applicants each cycle, with programs marked as limited placement (fewer than 10 spots) being harder to get into.
The Bottom Line
Global Teaching Labs is a specific, well built program: MIT students teaching STEM abroad for a few weeks each January, with costs covered and a structured training process behind it. If you’re an MIT student weighing whether to apply, the deadlines are consistent enough that you can plan around them, and the country list keeps growing, with Cyprus and Wales as the most recent additions. If you’re researching it from outside MIT, hoping something similar exists at your own school, GTL is worth using as a model for what a well run, cost neutral teach abroad program can look like.
Read More About: Glena Goranson
