Students are often asked, “How was your experience?” after a high-impact practice like study away. It can be hard to answer, since the good, the bad, and the ugly can all coexist, but it can be even harder to take that reflection and turn it into meaning and action. In this blog post, I want to reflect on ways that educators can plan study away with the intention of making it a transformative experience that supports intercultural development and meaningful reflection. 

What is Intercultural Development? 

The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) is an assessment of cultural competence (IDI n.d.). There are numerous benefits to studying internationally, one being that students often become more globally aware. This comes with exposure and being placed in unfamiliar situations (Lilley 2024). The IDI was created as a theory-based tool to measure cultural mindset, track development from a monocultural to an intercultural worldview, and guide training for inclusion (Tamer, Liu and Santee 2023).  

Study away institutions have a responsibility to create conditions that allow students to develop their intercultural competence and demonstrate growth. Students can be well-traveled, well-versed in how to navigate foreign places, and have many incredible experiences under their belt, but without space to reflect, they may struggle to recognize how those experiences shaped their development and how to articulate that growth moving forward. (Manning, Frieders, and Bikos 2020). Fortunately, scholars and practitioners are giving more attention to this experiential gap. For example, the authors of Mentoring Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts explore how intentional mentorship and targeted reflection at the intersection of two high-impact practices can lead to development and improved IDI scores (Whitehead et al. 2024). 

Why Reflection Matters 

Having study away advisors and international staff who understand the importance of and can facilitate active reflection is key to helping students develop intercultural competence. In an examination of a faculty-led study away program in India, facilitators found that intentional course design, strong partnerships and expectations with the host country, and opportunities for reflection can make a short-term experience more impactful (Cureton et al. 2026). Rather than treating cultural differences as something students simply encounter, these elements encourage students to examine those differences and consider what they mean for their own perspectives and learning. Structured coursework and regular debriefs can therefore help students move beyond simply experiencing a new culture to making meaning from that experience. 

This idea was found the further back I researched. Almost 20 years ago, Vande Berg described a shift in study away toward what he calls the “Student Learning” paradigm (Vande Berg 2007). Rather than assuming students will automatically learn simply because they are immersed in another culture, this paradigm emphasizes the educator’s role in intentionally supporting student learning before, during, and after the experience. Vande Berg argues that intervention cannot be limited to a single orientation session; students need continued opportunities to revisit their learning goals, reflect on their experiences, and adjust their actions throughout the program. 

For students, one way to create that intentionality is through metacognitive reflection, or thinking about their own thinking and assumptions. Reflection gives students space to consider who they were before their study away experience, how their perspectives changed throughout it, and who they want to be when they return home. The FIRE Toolkit similarly encourages reflection before, during, and after an engaged learning experience, just as Vande Berg emphasized (Moore and Miller 2024). One of the most valuable aspects of this process is that students document their assumptions and hopes before they leave, giving them something concrete to return to afterward. Instead of simply remembering what happened, students can compare who they expected to be with who they became and can begin to recognize where meaningful growth occurred. 

Personal Development 

In my experience, all the photos, shared memories, and journals can help me relive my time away, but it took intentional time to reflect on my before, during, and after self to analyze where growth had happened and where I wanted to go from there. Some of this reflection was because of my own desire to make meaning, but many times it was because I had incredible advisors and professors at Belmont University.

I was asked to speak in classes about the benefit of study away, I was given opportunities to meet with visiting providers, and while away, I was assigned coursework that encouraged me to engage deeply with the host country I was in. From conducting interviews in foreign languages to presenting alongside local students, my coursework was intentionally designed to push me beyond observing my surroundings and toward engaging with them firsthand. These assignments required me not only to experience a new culture, but to think critically about what I was experiencing and how it challenged my existing perspectives. 

I saw this concept reinforced while reading Power of Partnership (Mercer-Mapstone and Abbot 2020). Anne Bruder, while working at Bryn Mawr College, had students write about the process of an activity after completing it as a class, giving them the space and freedom to consider themselves within the activity, the group dynamic, and the overall structure. Students could write about wherever their minds took them.  

Bruder reflected on how it was challenging to recognize that deep learning was happening—that it was unusual to not simply move through the actions, but to invest in making an experience last by considering positionality, impact, and future implications (Bruder 2020). I experienced a similar prompt in an intrapreneurship class, where we would write about the learning process and where we wanted to go with the information we learned in that class. In my experience, analyzing how I learned helped me internalize the knowledge more deeply. 

Final Thoughts 

Study away creates powerful conditions for learning, but the experience itself does not guarantee meaningful growth (Namaste and Namaste 2024). I believe educators have a responsibility not only to create these opportunities, but also to help students make meaning from them through intentional mentorship and reflection. Questions and activities that help students recognize how they changed, what they learned, what connections they made, and what they will carry forward will leave a lasting impression and create change. Although study away provides a particularly rich setting for this kind of reflection, the same principle applies across engaged learning experiences. The high impact practice may start the learning, but reflection helps students recognize where that learning can take them. 

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References 

Bruder, Anne. 2020. “Chapter 15: Sitting on Rocks, Human Knots, and Other Lessons I Learned in Partnership.” In The Power of Partnership: Students, Staff, and Faculty Revolutionizing Higher Education, edited by Lucy Mercer-Mapstone and Sophia Abbot. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning. https://doi.org/10.36284/celelon.oa2.15. 

Cureton, Ashley, Kathleen Lopez, Prince Solomon Devadass, and Zachary Sessa. 2026. “Beyond the Classroom: The Benefits and Drawbacks of Implementing a Faculty-Led, Study Abroad Program in Chennai, India.” Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad (2): 25-42. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v2iForumEATLT2.1144.   

IDI. n.d. “Intercultural Development Inventory.” Accessed September 6, 2026. https://www.idiinventory.com/. 

Lilley, Matt. 2024. “The Benefits of International Study.” Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. March 11, 2024. https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2024/03/the-benefits-of-international-study. 

Manning, Scott, Zachary Frieders, and Lynette Bikos. 2020. “When Does Global Learning Begin?” In Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, edited by Nina Namaste and Amanda Sturgill with Neal W. Sobania and Micheal Vande Berg. Routledge. 

Moore, Jessie L., and Paul C. Miller. 2024. “Facilitating Integration of and Reflection on Engaged Learning Toolkit.” Center for Engaged Learning, Elon University. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/engaged-learning/facilitating-integration-and-reflection-on-engaged-learning/. 

Namaste, Nina, and Paul Namaste. 2024. “Supporting Student Learning to Make the Most of Study Abroad.” Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 36 (3): 56–82. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v36i3.822. 

Tamer, Diana, Yifei Liu, and Jennifer Santee. 2023. “Considering the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to Assess Intercultural Competence at U.S. Pharmacy Schools.” Pharmacy 11 (1): 39. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy11010039. 

Vande Berg, Michael. 2007. “Intervening in the Learning of U.S. Students Abroad.” Journal of Studies in International Education. 11: 392-399. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315307303924. 

Whitehead, Dawn Michele, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Susan Buck Sutton, Mary F. Price, Kate Patch, and Kris Acheson. 2024. Mentored Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts AAC&U. https://www.aacu.org/publication/mentored-undergraduate-research-in-global-contexts-integrated-high-impact-practices-for-student-success.  

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How to Cite This Post 

Woodley, Claire. 2026. “Moving the Intercultural Development Needle.” Center for Engaged Learning (blog). Elon University. November 10, 2026. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/moving-the-intercultural-development-needle/. 

About the Author 

Claire Woodley is the Graduate Apprentice for the Center for Engaged Learning and a student in the Master of Arts in Higher Education at Elon University program. She supports strategic initiatives and events, assists with program assessment, and develops new resources for the Center’s multiple audiences. Her interests include study away programs, pedagogical partnerships, and other high-impact practices.