Whether they accompany students on trips or adjust class schedules to accommodate them, faculty members are the key to Butler University’s study abroad programs’ rapid growth and popularity.
“Students value University faculty and seek their advice, and faculty actively make sure students know about study abroad opportunities,” says Jill McKinney, Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs and Director of Global Engagement. “Faculty have also made a real effort over the last five years to lessen students’ concern about class schedule disruptions.”
McKinney oversees the University’s more than 300 study abroad programs in over 50 countries. The most recent U.S. News & World Report ranked Butler in the top 25 universities nationwide for opportunities. Study abroad options are now part of every college on Butler’s campus. Forty percent of Butler students study abroad prior to graduation, compared to less than six percent of graduating students across the country (Open Doors 2023 Report). “Butler’s faculty-led study abroad courses have grown nearly sevenfold over the past 10 years, and we now have the second-most students participating in faculty-led study abroad courses in the country,” McKinney says.
These trips comprise a group of Butler students accompanied by one or two faculty members, like Marleen McCormick Pritchard, PhD, Associate Professor of International Business and Strategy in the Lacy School of Business. In 2024, she successfully led her first group of students to Lisbon, Portugal, tying the trip to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
“The shared engagement builds a strong connection between Butler’s faculty and students. They all become friends,” Pritchard says. “I still talk to the students from the Portugal trip all the time. It’s a very bonding and rewarding experience. And faculty support each other—I just had another professor tell me she announced my 2025 program in her class.”
Study abroad veteran and International Business major Alessa Rodriguez ’26 has studied in London and Portugal and plans to do so in Singapore.
I’ve looked into many other study abroad programs, and Butler offers so much more. Everyone in the Center for Global Education and all the faculty who lead the programs are happy to meet and talk with you, and every single faculty member has been so much fun on trips,” Rodriguez says.
Studying abroad is nearly always described as a life-changing experience—“transformative” was Rodriguez’s one-word description.
“I’m a different person every time I come back. Sure, there’s some nerves at first because it’s such a new experience, but you find your groove. It’s meant to help you grow, and it does. It changes your worldview,” she says.
McKinney stressed that the trips are not vacations. Excursions are part of the immersive experience.
“Study abroad is absolutely hinged on the ‘study’ part, but it’s also what we call a classroom outside of the classroom,” she says. “Students are always learning, whether it’s in their courses, on excursions, trying to navigate to places on their own, and particularly interacting with the people from the host country.”
McKinney, Pritchard, and Rodriguez agree that study abroad pushes students out of their comfort zones and that Butler students rise to the challenge.
“The best thing I’ve seen in Butler students who return from studying abroad—and I’ve seen it more than anything else—is the increased trust they have in their own capacity to deal with whatever life throws at them,” McKinney says. “The confidence they gain in going abroad is remarkable, and that’s the most transferable skill students can get from any college experience.”
Self-reliance and attitude can be hard to communicate on a resumé, so McKinney’s staff helps students create narratives for job interviews that reflect the soft skills they developed abroad.
“Students are likely to be up against lots of other job candidates. I want them to have a memorable story to share so that when a hiring committee is making their decision, someone says, ‘Do you remember the candidate from Butler who got lost in Paris and had to figure out how to navigate and interact with the local population on their own? We need problem solvers like that here,’” she says.
It’s just an example of how committed Butler’s faculty is to helping students get the most out of their time at the University.
“We see a wide range of identities, backgrounds, situations, skills, and desires among Butler students who consider study abroad, and we can customize just about every step of the process,” McKinney says. “It doesn’t matter who you are, what your academic demands are, or where you want to go in life. If you think you might be interested in studying abroad, don’t hesitate to talk to us. Getting you into a study abroad program and ensuring you get the most out of it is the ethos of my office.”