Pack Light, Wear Many Hats
Next week, I board a flight to Italy to serve as resident director for a faculty-led study abroad program on Comparative Health Disparities in Southern Italy and Rural America. This return to field-based international education after several years feels familiar and thrilling. While I travel internationally often, this trip is different. I will be in the field not just as an administrator, but as a fellow traveler and guide alongside our students and faculty.
We will start in Naples, Sorrento, and Rome, places I've never visited, and we will end in Florence, a city I love so much and return to every chance I get. Rome, where ancient Roman baths sit alongside modern hospitals, allows students to trace the evolution of public health thinking from imperial wellness policies to contemporary universal healthcare systems. We also get to visit Pompeii, a place that, like ancient Egypt, has held a certain mythos in my imagination since childhood (anyone else?). For a program examining health disparities, Pompeii offers insights into how social class, urban planning, and access to resources shaped survival and mortality in ancient times. Florence, where Renaissance humanism still permeates the streets, offers an ideal backdrop for examining how historical approaches to health and human dignity inform contemporary disparities. I am so looking forward to experiencing it again, this time through the eyes of our students as they reflect on these connections.
These kinds of programs are often invisible in their complexity. They take months of careful planning, coordination, and courage. I want to take a moment to recognize just how much is required of faculty members who choose to lead a group of students abroad. They are asked to be teachers, but also mentors, problem-solvers, first responders, travel coordinators, cultural interpreters, and, at times, surrogate parents. Beyond these practical roles, they must synthesize complex theoretical frameworks while managing real-time cultural navigation and student development. They are entrusted with the well-being and learning outcomes of students in unfamiliar environments, all while navigating those environments themselves. This represents a significant professional undertaking that extends far beyond traditional teaching responsibilities.
Often, it is not something they do alone. Our partnership with SAI, who worked with the faculty member on this custom program, has been critical. True co-creation in this context means collaborative curriculum design, shared risk assessment, and iterative program refinement based on both academic objectives and practical realities. This differs substantially from simply purchasing a pre-packaged program. SAI's team understands what it takes to deliver high-impact, academically rigorous, and culturally immersive experiences. Their experience on the ground, attention to logistics, and ability to adapt in real time are precisely what make programs like this possible.
As part of this program, I am administering the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) before and after the experience and integrating reflective assignments. As a Qualified Administrator, I'll be supporting our students and faculty in understanding their own intercultural development trajectories. This assessment allows us to move beyond anecdotes and gut feelings from post-program surveys. We can measure actual growth in intercultural competence, see how students' mindsets shift, and offer support that is tailored, intentional, and evidence-based. The pre/post assessment data we generate will also contribute to the broader field's understanding of how intercultural competence develops in short-term, intensive programs and will inform our training and recommendations for future faculty-led programs.
Even with all the assessments and the infrastructure, the heart of a faculty-led program remains the people. Faculty members who lead study abroad programs say yes to growth, not only for the students, but for themselves. They say yes to uncertainty. They say yes to learning through experience. They say yes to modeling what it looks like to be curious, humble, and adaptable in a complex world.
Too often, we take this labor for granted. Faculty leaders are expected to calmly navigate medical emergencies, family crises, missed flights, and cultural misunderstandings. They manage the energy of a group while juggling jet lag and grading. They work long days and are on-call at night. Still, most of them will say it is one of the most rewarding things they do. I commend them for continuing to offer programs, continuing to offer their expertise, and continuing to recognize the value of global education and be a voice for its importance when they are on campus.
As international educators, we know the transformative power of study abroad, but transformation does not happen by accident. It happens because someone shows up. It happens because someone plans. It happens because someone takes the risk. Next week, we have faculty (and we have me) who are showing up, and I am honored and excited to walk alongside our students on this journey. Italy awaits, and with it, the opportunity to witness once again how transformative education happens when we step outside familiar boundaries together.