Beyond the Plan: Aligning Education Abroad with Institutional Strategy (feat. Rick Batchelor)

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But it's also thinking about how we are continuous learners,
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how we're curious, how we can think critically, some of these really key
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skills that complement specific knowledge that you build
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during your 4 years within your different majors. And so I think
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that, you know, when we're thinking about career readiness, we're
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thinking about employability, we're thinking about how study
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abroad connects to these pieces, I really do believe that it's
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thinking about how it can provide a set of complementary skills,
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how it can build, again, that curiosity, that critical thinking.
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And those are some of the biggest things I think that can prepare you versus
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a specific set of knowledge.
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Hello, everyone. Welcome to this episode of WorldStrides
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Podcast, Changing Lives Through Education Abroad, a series
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of conversations with international education's most interesting thought leaders
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and discussions on emerging trends, best practices, and innovation happening in our field.
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I'm your host, Seth MacInnis, and I am so excited about this week's episode.
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Today, we're talking about strategic planning. Now, before you reach
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for another podcast, stick with me, 'cause this is gonna be good. This
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conversation is really about something much bigger than just planning, how we make
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sure education abroad is connected to the most important work happening across our
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institutions. Joining me today is my friend Rick Batchelor,
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Director of Learning Abroad at the University of Utah, where he has helped lead an
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ambitious strategic planning process for global engagement and learning abroad. And
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what I find particularly compelling about Utah's approach
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is where that process began. Rather than starting with a question,
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what does our education abroad office want to accomplish? Rick and his colleagues
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looked outward first. What is the university trying to accomplish?
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Where are the opportunities around student success, retention, belonging,
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career readiness, and institutional impact? And how can global
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experiences help move those priorities forward? We'll get into what that process
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actually looked like at Utah, from listening across campus and building a broad
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coalition of stakeholders to translating institutional goals into meaningful action.
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We'll also talk about how strategy can shape everything from faculty-led
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programming and internships to first-year experiences,
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exchanges, and relationships with international and affiliate partners. And
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importantly, we'll explore what happens after the strategic plan is written. How
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do you turn those big ideas into everyday action? How do you measure whether they're
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working? And in a moment when resources across higher ed are
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increasingly constrained, how can a clear strategy
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help education abroad leaders make the case for the people,
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partnerships, and investment necessary to grow our impact?
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There's a lot to dig in today, folks, whether your institution is in the middle
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of a strategic planning process, contemplating one, or simply
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trying to better articulate why education abroad matters to the
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broader mission of your university. So sit back and relax, my friends, and
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prepare for what's sure to be a sparkling conversation. Let's get
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into it. Rick Batchelor, thank you for being here, my friend. Thank
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you, Zach. I'm happy to be here. Looking forward to this conversation.
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Likewise. To get us started, could you please tell us a little bit about
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your professional journey in international education and how your
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work has evolved during your time at the University of Utah?
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Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think the, the start of my professional
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journey begins with time in the Federated States of Micronesia.
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That may not be for everyone, right? But it is really unique to my own
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journey where I spent 3 years in Kosrae,
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Micronesia. And while I was there, I was first
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a teacher. I was teaching several different subject areas, but
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then that eventually translated into a role where I was an
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in-country resident director for 2 years, working with
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volunteer teachers, working with the Department of Education, working with
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host families, and really kind of like working across the island. to
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support the educational system in Kosharai. And so that
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sparked my interest. And like while I was there, I was thinking long-term
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about, you know, what are some of these future opportunities that would really
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interest me, whether it is in nonprofit work, government work,
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in higher education. And that eventually led me to the University of Oregon where I
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had the opportunity to pursue a master's degree and work at their study abroad
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office simultaneously. And that really concretized
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my interest in engaging in international education and
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study abroad work, and eventually found my way to the University of Utah
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in 2016. And so when I was at the University of Utah, I began as
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a coordinator. And over time, you know, it was one of those things where, you
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know, I was thinking, I was like, okay, 2 to 3 years I'll be at
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the University of Utah. And here a decade later, I'm loving it.
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It's a phenomenal place to work. It is a phenomenal team that we
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have here in the Learning Abroad Office. And eventually that
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translated into a position where I was able to take on the director
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role. And so that evolution between coordinator and director, being 10
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years in the office, we saw a lot of different changes. Obviously, there are a
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lot of larger global changes that were happening over those 10
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years, as well as a lot of institutional changes. And so we were thinking
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about how to adapt and
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translate some of the work we were doing to what students were looking
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to achieve in study abroad when I stepped into that role. And so
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that was right around 2023. But these past
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3 years have been really foundational for formulating
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plans, really engaging with students, engaging with the broader
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campus community, and really thinking about how we engage on a global
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scale, kind of bring our programs to life. Thank you for sharing that, Rick.
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Strategic planning is one of those phrases we hear frequently in higher
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ed, but it can mean very different things depending on the
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institution or the office. What does strategic planning
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mean to you, Rick Batchelor? So when I think about strategic planning, I
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think about it being a North Star. One of the things
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that is a little-known fact about me is I spent some time sailing on tall
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ships. And during that time, I was interested in just constellations, the
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Supreme Dark Zone, when I was out sailing for that year after I
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graduated college. And thinking about how does that
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translate to working in a study abroad office, the North
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Star is what guides us. It's thinking about what are we trying to achieve collectively?
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How are we supporting the institution? And really that
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provides that meaning and purpose on a day-to-day basis.
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You might be the first sailor we've ever had on the podcast. Let's get
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them. I love that story and I love how you tied that to the, to
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the North Star. You know, a strategic plan could easily become a
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document that gets written, celebrated, and then sits on a shelf.
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What makes a strategic plan genuinely useful in guiding the
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everyday decisions and priorities of an education abroad office? Right. Yeah,
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I mean, I think that is true that, you know, every now and then, right,
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you put the effort into drafting a strategic plan,
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working with stakeholders across campus, or as well as internally to your office.
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And then maybe, yeah, it takes a backseat. Maybe there's other priorities that come up.
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Maybe it just gets lost in just the kind of the chaos, the day-to-day
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work that we're trying to do. But really, you know, when I think
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about what makes a strategic plan generally useful is
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that, you know, when we were developing this, like one of the key factors
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is how it lead to evidence-based decision-making? That is
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something that is kind of at the forefront of my mind when I'm thinking about
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the work that we're doing, and that really, yes, informs
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our direction. And so that's thinking about how are we collecting any
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quantitative, qualitative data to formulate our plan,
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pivot perhaps where necessary, and really work towards that
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overall mission and objectives that we stated in that strategic plan. So on
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that day-to-day basis, we're thinking about what it is we're
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trying to build, You know, that evidence, that data that really does
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inform us and move us forward, it's, it's quite important. I think at the
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same time too, when we're thinking about, you know, what makes it generally
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useful in kind of the everyday discussions that we might have with students or
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faculty across campus, department chairs and university leadership,
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is that there is really a humbling aspect to it, right? It reminds
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you of the work that we're doing. We're working with those students who are really
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new to this experience and even faculty that might be new
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to You know, what does global look like at your institution?
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And so I think it's really a great opportunity to think about how we can
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collaborate, how we can help mentor, how we can help guide the different
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folks that we work with across campus. And so I think there is really that
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kind of humbling aspect, and it just really does make you hopeful about the work
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that we do. I love that. Thanks for sharing. One of the central
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ideas we want to explore today, and one of the things that
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stands out to me most about the way that you and your colleagues approach
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planning at the University of Utah, is the importance of aligning the goals
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of an education abroad office with that of the institution. Why is that
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alignment so important? The, the way that I kind of think about
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this is that it is embedded really in the fabric of the
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university. And so when we're thinking about
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alignment, we're communicating the broader message that the university is trying
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to promote and the broader message that the president is trying to promote. So when
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we're embedded in that, global isn't viewed as
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some add-on, but as something that is actually interwoven
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into different aspects of of the university
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experience and the education that students are having. You know, one of the things that
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we talk often about at the University of Utah is providing, you
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know, an exceptional educational experience for our students. And that comes in a
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variety of ways, right? And learning abroad, global is one
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of those areas. And global does touch on, you know, arguably
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like every area of campus. And so I think that that
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aspect of embedding it into the fabric of the university is really key.
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At the University of Utah, which I have learned is
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called the U on your campus from you, your work connects with the
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university's broader Impact 2030 goals.
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How did you begin translating priorities like retention, student
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success, employability, and institutional impact into goals
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for the Office of Global Engagement and Learning Abroad? Yeah, I mean, I think
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the, the one thing too, also to recognize is that these have always been there,
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right? I think that in many ways, when we're talking about student
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success, or talking about retention or employability, these aren't
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new topics. I think maybe some of these topics have come to the
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forefront as of late, given kind of the discussion, the
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conversation around the value of higher education.
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But these have always been there. But I do think there is value
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in defining these and stating these as it relates to,
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you know, what you're trying to achieve in your office and at your
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institution. So I think even sometimes that simple
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process of defining what does retention mean, or what does student
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success mean, or what does employability mean as it relates to the work that you're
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doing, is really one of those first steps. And so these are just
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broader conversations that institutions are having.
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And so we're not really operating anyway in some sort of vacuum, but
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really like interconnected way, I would say, of approaching this topic.
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And I also want to say too, as it relates to student success,
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employability, institutional impact for goals of OGE and learning abroad, is
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that there's a lot of standalone value in learning abroad as an experience. It
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is unique. unique to each student that's participating in it, and they have
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unique goals within it. And so while we have structures and
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frameworks that tie into these objectives,
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there's also, say, the unique experience that one student
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may have, which holds a lot of value, even if it isn't necessarily
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tied to, say, employability. Mm-hmm. And so I
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think that, you know, these are really key conversations to have.
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And I do think that they've kind of existed really in the background of study
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abroad in many offices, but it's also bringing it to light more and bring into
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the forefront so it can help guide us. Those of us in
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education abroad inherently understand the value of an international experience.
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Of course, that's why we do what we do. But we know that university leadership
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are typically looking at a much broader set of priorities.
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How can we as a field get better at explaining the why
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behind education abroad in ways that resonate with institutional leaders?
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It's a fantastic question. And When I
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think about this, the first thought that I have is some conversations that
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I had with one of our vice provosts several years ago, actually, when we were
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going through our Office for Global Engagement strategic planning
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process. And it was focused on the
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democratization of data across the university. Nice. So you can think about
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large universities and the data that maybe
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one office holds, another office holds, several different— and so there's A
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lot of data that we have across the university that can be
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talking about student success or can be talking about retention can be
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really key indicators. And the
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value of kind of like the democratization of data is basically kind of getting at
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the fact is like, how can we collect and share this data,
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find some more sophisticated way of
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using this data to support students and really centering it in students?
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I think this is one of the key things that's really important when we're talking
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about how we can advocate for the value
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of education abroad, study abroad, to university leadership
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is having data tell a story that really resonates with
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leadership. You've seen connections between
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high-impact international experiences like study abroad and
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outcomes like belonging, student satisfaction, retention, and professional
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development. How can those outcomes help reposition
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education abroad as part of an institution's Broader
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student success strategy? Right. Yeah, this is a big question.
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This is the big one. This is a really big one, right? So I think
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a good example that addresses the
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importance of student success and a student
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success strategy is some of the work that the University of Utah has been
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conducting over the past several years. And I think this may not be unique
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to the University of Utah, but this is something that we have
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leaned into sophisticated systems to
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help improve student success outcomes, right?
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And so I think the easiest way to kind of describe this would be through
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our NavigateU system. And this was an
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effort that spearheaded again several years ago where we were looking at ways in which
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the university could really speak to each other and
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communicate with each other in an efficient way. By that, I
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mean, when we're thinking about learning abroad, learning
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abroad in many ways, and I think back to one of my
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former colleagues talked about how study abroad offices are like mini
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universities in many ways, right? We work with financial aid and
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kind of talk to students about financial aid. We work closely with the registrar's office.
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We might be involved in transfer credit processes. We're working closely
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with our incoming accounting offices, the bursar office,
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obviously with academic departments. And so, like, we're— A mini university within
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a larger university. And I think that is really emblematic of the
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fact that at large public institutions, you know, we
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want to find pathways that communication is
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clear, it's streamlined, and it supports students in
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their journey at the, at that institution. And so the
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NavigateU platform was a way in which academic advisors
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could speak to each other. It was a way for learning abroad to make
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referrals or advisors to make referrals back to us. And it really actually touches
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across all of campus in many ways. And so we think about the different
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student service units that exist at any one campus and
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tying that into academic affairs operations, we can
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see that one, the web gets quite expansive. And with an
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expansive web like that, we have to find systems to be able to communicate
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well with, well with each other. And so I think like when we
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kind of think about the broader student success strategy
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is thinking about some of these sophisticated systems to help streamline that.
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One of the other ways I would say we think about how
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outcomes can help reposition education abroad as a part of the
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broader strategy is thinking about experiential learning opportunities. You know, this is
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kind of the bread and butter of study abroad in many ways. We think about
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it from the traditional study programs that we deliver, community
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engagement opportunities that we deliver. Internships,
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research opportunities. And so one of our programs
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that we are launching this spring is going to be our First-Year Global
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Quest program. It's a single semester program, but it
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has a break component in it. And during that
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time, students will be exposed to different areas that connect
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back to campus. And so, for example, when we're looking at this opportunity, we
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want to expose students to a research lab experience and seeing how the research
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that folks are doing abroad connects to advocacy work that they're doing.
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Or we're looking at ways in which they are solving real-life problems with
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a company. And so, these kind of like short exposures are
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important because the long-term strategy is how
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can these spark an interest in students that when they
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return back to campus, they're thinking like, hey, I know about this
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UROP program, which is our Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.
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I had this experience abroad in Costa Rica. I was learning a little bit more
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about research opportunities in applicability of that. Now I wanna try and
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engage. And so it's kind of connecting those dots, I think, is another
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way of thinking about this and how that really does support student success
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at a, at an institution. It's been such a pleasure, Rick, to, to work with
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you and your team on the, on the, on the Global Quest program. Take us
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behind the scenes of Utah's strategic planning process, if you could, my
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friend. Where did you start and how did you move from understanding your
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baseline to identifying where you wanted global engagement to go?
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Right. And I think that the, the great part of this entire
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process was that we were kind of, I would
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say, you know, peeling back the curtain in many ways, or pulling back the
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curtain probably is a better way of saying it, and seeing like internally,
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let's take that time to do a SWOT analysis, right? Let's make
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sure we look at what are our strengths, what are our opportunities, what are our
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weaknesses, what are our threats, right? How can we take a look
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internally before we even engage outside of our office.
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And so like that process took many months and
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it took difficult conversations, it took transparency.
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And the value behind that though was that it
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began to shape what we were looking to develop as a
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strategic plan, putting together those initial
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ideas and the framework there before
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we actually, again, worked with folks outside of our office.
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And so that led into developing a framework, which I'll talk about in a little
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bit, but it did also lead to how can we have a
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steering committee that is comprised
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of leadership from across campus? And then how can those
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individual working groups that were
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guided by individuals on that steering committee could
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involve folks from all across campus, staff, faculty,
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department chairs. And so we started working in a method where we looked
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internally, started building out involving leadership and then
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involving folks from across campus. Eventually, that also led
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into evaluations that we were conducting, town
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halls, feedback from students, and
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that finally, I would say, would lead into those drafts that we created for
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our strategic plan, which were then revised,
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polished over time. That led to the
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initial kind of undertakings of our work. I also say too that this is an
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ongoing process, right? We refine as we go. There's new developments that happen at the
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university. New opportunities that present themselves so they can really
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create a small— I'd say there's new opportunities that
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present themselves that can be additive to this strategic plan. And
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so while the strategic plan is really going to guide us moving
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forward, we are open to seeing like as we move forward,
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what are some of these new opportunities that could present themselves that connect well?
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You mentioned the steering committee that you created, and I think that's really important. So
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I want to dig into that a bit more. I know that you brought together
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voices from across global engagement, academic units, research,
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internships, and other areas of the university. But how did you determine who needed to
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be part of that process, and why was bringing in those
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perspectives to the table important? And the way in which we determined,
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you know, who needed to be part of this process and why was bringing those
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different perspectives to the table important is that global
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touches, like we were talking about earlier, You know, arguably on like all
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facets of campus. And so it's understanding what
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global means to those different areas on campus,
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whether we're looking at specific colleges, whether we're looking
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at Research Park, whether we're looking at academic
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advisors or student service units, is like, what does global mean
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to each of those areas? And those different perspectives
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are really key so that way when we are creating that
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strategic plan. I would say that the process was important because of one in which
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we were trying to engage with folks from different areas of
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campus that could share their experiences,
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share their perspectives, that again would help inform the direction we wanted to move
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in. I know Utah used the ACE
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Internationalization Lab framework to guide some of your process
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here. How do you balance learning from established frameworks
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and best practices with building something new that generally reflects your Right.
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When we're thinking about frameworks, the framework is really only as good
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as it is to that user who's using it. And so by that, what I
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mean is that, you know, the ACE framework was the
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starting point and we looked at how
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that can shape our journey and really shape our strategic plan.
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And so there's a lot of key aspects of that framework that we
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use, but also thinking, you know, what is unique about our situation
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where we need to make these adaptations. And so
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a good example of this, right, when we're thinking about locations, like locations is
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important for the University of Utah because the University of
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Utah has a campus in South Korea. And so when to think through
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about locations, it wasn't just specific to Salt Lake
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City, right? It's specific to Salt Lake City and
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the Asia campus, where these strategic locations that we have that are
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important for this particular area that we're looking at. And
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so again, any sort of framework, I think there's a balancing act that needs to
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take place. It's a great starting point. I think there
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can be a lot of different methods that can be used. You know, I think
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about this from like a research standpoint is, you know, mixed methods has been
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something that I've always been interested in, you know, looking at the quantitative, qualitative aspect,
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you know, when you're investigating a particular problem or question. And so I kind of
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think about that in many ways with frameworks, right, is how We can
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use and pull from different ones for our needs.
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And I think that is, you know, a great way to approach how to get
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started. One of the interesting things about listening across campus
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is discovering priorities or student demand that an
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education abroad office might not have identified on their own. How
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have your partnerships with areas like honors, undergraduate
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studies, or academic units changed the way you think about where
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opportunities exist? This is actually, I think, one of my— I think this is my
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favorite question for today. This is one where,
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you know, I have like this big board in my office. It's like big board
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brainstorming ideas you are. And sometimes I need this like big
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board, this whiteboard while I'm like hiking or skiing or doing something
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along those lines because, you know, in the back of your head, you're kind of
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thinking like, oh wait, that could be a fantastic idea. Let's kind of
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explore that a little bit more. But I do have this, you know, this big
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board in my office when And really what
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I find is it's like having conversations with folks from across
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campus just gets those kind of juices flowing, gets
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the brain working, and start thinking about how we can connect these
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dots. That's like one of the best parts of my job
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is being able to think about how we can— it's not just working
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together or working collaboratively with units, but solving these larger problems,
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these bigger problems, and also thinking about how we can help
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facilitate The ideas that they have. And so that really
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does engage me. And I think a great example
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of this that has come up recently is connected to our faculty-led
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programs. So faculty-led programs, everyone loves faculty-led programs.
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These experiences, right, are for many, many
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institutions the experiences that students gravitate
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towards for several different reasons, whether it's the connection with the
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department, a sense of belonging, connectedness.
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Again, we could go on. For a while about that. But yeah, we are
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not new to this either. We've been doing faculty-led programs for a while. We are
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leaning into the development of faculty-led programs for several reasons. But
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one of the fascinating aspects that has developed recently
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is looking at how faculty-led programs
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can connect to the broader community here in Salt Lake City.
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So we never— I would say never, but we didn't initially think
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about how expansive they'd be, but also the connections that we'd
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have at the university. And so One of the great developments that
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has happened recently is so our Senior International Officer, Randy McCrillis,
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is the Vice Provost of Global Engagement and University Connected
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Learning. These are areas that maybe
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initially don't seem connected, but actually are quite connected.
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And in particular, we've been having some robust conversations
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around what would it look like if community members are
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engaging in a faculty-led program? One of these
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examples is looking at college education, for example.
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And that would be where there could be the
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possibility of teachers who've been in the field for
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several years that are serving as mentors on a
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faculty-led program for students. And so you're kind of bridging these
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community-to-university connections. You're also kind of
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bridging student-mentor
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relationships. You also are tackling some of these big
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ideas, these big conversations that we're having around
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employability, around value of education. So
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these things are all kind of swirling in this. And so I didn't think
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that they should be kind of going down this road. It's really still
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exploratory in nature. We're looking at how we can potentially
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lean into this, but it is an area where the lines
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sometimes of what a program looks like can, or I
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say maybe the borders of what a particular
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program look like, might be kind of
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collapsing in a good way, and that they're not as rigid, and that we're thinking
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about building opportunities for students that are
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important for kind of their lifelong journey here at the University of
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Utah, but also just kind of moving forward. So I think that's like a great
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example of thinking about, again, how we can have these big
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board ideas that translate into these new types of experiences
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for our students and for what we're doing here at the University of Utah. And
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that these aren't just from happenstance. This is from— this is because of,
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I would say, the fact that we have built out our strategic plan. We've
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thought about how we're connecting across campus. And then you
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start generating these ideas and it becomes a really
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fantastic opportunity. As a fellow big whiteboard user,
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I'm looking at one of mine right now behind my computer here. I love your
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riff there on, you know, translating, translating big board ideas into,
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into practical impact. That might be the name of the episode, my friend. There we
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go. I like that. For an education abroad office that knows it needs a more
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intentional strategy, but doesn't know where to begin,
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what would you recommend the first conversations they have on campus are?
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It's internal. I really do believe it's internal.
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And that was— so we discussed this a little bit
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earlier about what did the process look like
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for developing a strategic plan? But
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it is taking time to reflect
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on the work that we're doing, taking time to look at
461
00:28:35,825 --> 00:28:38,853
what our priorities are, taking time to develop a
462
00:28:39,304 --> 00:28:43,153
process for analyzing this. And so going through those steps, I
463
00:28:43,153 --> 00:28:46,442
really do believe that first step is going to be internally having those
464
00:28:46,474 --> 00:28:50,267
conversations with your team are going to be paramount
465
00:28:50,267 --> 00:28:54,109
to the future success of whatever strategic plan that you develop.
466
00:28:54,632 --> 00:28:58,286
And then from there, that's when, when you're
467
00:28:58,318 --> 00:29:01,924
ready, when you have spent that time and put in the work, then I
468
00:29:02,085 --> 00:29:05,755
think it is engaging with university leadership. And
469
00:29:05,851 --> 00:29:08,848
so that I think is going to be one of the, the best
470
00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:12,663
recommendations I can make around how to get started. Once
471
00:29:12,743 --> 00:29:16,301
you had your strategy in place at the U, how did it begin
472
00:29:16,413 --> 00:29:20,243
changing the actual work of learning abroad from your faculty-led
473
00:29:20,275 --> 00:29:23,849
programmings and internships to first-year experiences and other opportunities?
474
00:29:24,268 --> 00:29:28,044
These really dovetailed well. And so it's not by coincidence, right, is
475
00:29:28,077 --> 00:29:30,755
that with our— with the development of our strategic plan
476
00:29:32,417 --> 00:29:36,021
led us down a path when we're looking at how do we reorganize our office.
477
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:40,311
And so a great example of this is looking at how
478
00:29:40,472 --> 00:29:44,251
we shifted the way in which we advise students, work with faculty,
479
00:29:44,332 --> 00:29:48,164
work with staff across campus. And I think, you know, there's pros and cons of,
480
00:29:48,293 --> 00:29:52,029
you know, several different models at a study abroad office, whether it is
481
00:29:52,208 --> 00:29:56,022
by country, by program type, by academic Right.
482
00:29:56,278 --> 00:29:59,114
There's going to be those pros and cons to each
483
00:29:59,723 --> 00:30:02,879
approach to it. What we decided to do was
484
00:30:03,856 --> 00:30:07,157
focus on program type. And so
485
00:30:07,862 --> 00:30:11,611
the reason for this is that because
486
00:30:12,188 --> 00:30:15,520
faculty-led programs was one of the first areas that we were tackling and
487
00:30:15,552 --> 00:30:19,109
developing, we felt it was important to
488
00:30:19,109 --> 00:30:22,842
develop a team that would support those faculty directly. I think that is
489
00:30:22,938 --> 00:30:25,840
the work that they would be doing. And so
490
00:30:27,495 --> 00:30:31,335
I would say that, you know, in addition to that, when
491
00:30:31,351 --> 00:30:34,677
we're looking at the other areas of our team, it was looking at how do
492
00:30:34,790 --> 00:30:38,567
we build out and create better experiences for our
493
00:30:38,567 --> 00:30:41,615
students that are looking at exchange opportunities. It'd be quite nuanced,
494
00:30:42,488 --> 00:30:45,941
a different type of experience for our students. How are we also looking
495
00:30:46,119 --> 00:30:49,685
at the relationships that we develop with our external
496
00:30:49,685 --> 00:30:53,431
partners? And so we have a person dedicated to our affiliate
497
00:30:53,431 --> 00:30:55,111
experiences. And so it's looking at what are we trying to achieve?
498
00:30:57,402 --> 00:31:00,897
And what is our strategic plan, or how is our strategic plan
499
00:31:00,993 --> 00:31:04,471
guiding us? And does that require any sort of shift,
500
00:31:04,936 --> 00:31:08,543
any sort of change internally in terms of how we
501
00:31:08,543 --> 00:31:12,262
function to really support the goals of that strategic plan?
502
00:31:12,390 --> 00:31:15,692
And so we did. We were doing those things simultaneously.
503
00:31:16,302 --> 00:31:20,085
And I do believe a big part of the success, if
504
00:31:20,085 --> 00:31:23,579
we're looking, say, at our faculty-led program, was building that narrative on
505
00:31:23,611 --> 00:31:26,897
campus that we are looking to connect with
506
00:31:26,897 --> 00:31:30,426
faculty, to connect with departments and colleges, colleges and work
507
00:31:30,426 --> 00:31:34,118
together. And so we have a team that's dedicated to supporting you
508
00:31:34,519 --> 00:31:38,355
because this, this experience, you know, as a faculty member,
509
00:31:38,436 --> 00:31:41,389
there's a lot that goes into it. And so you want to know that you
510
00:31:41,405 --> 00:31:45,081
can turn to someone who is an expert in the field that
511
00:31:45,113 --> 00:31:48,114
can guide you through those steps. And that is their prime focus.
512
00:31:48,644 --> 00:31:52,464
Faculty-led programs are one of our favorite topics here on the show, and an
513
00:31:52,513 --> 00:31:56,349
important part of building capacity at UTOP, particularly because of their
514
00:31:56,349 --> 00:31:59,828
potential connection To belonging, retention, and student success.
515
00:32:00,502 --> 00:32:04,108
How are you working with colleges and departments at Utah to think
516
00:32:04,108 --> 00:32:07,908
more strategically about what these programs can accomplish? Right.
517
00:32:07,972 --> 00:32:11,579
And I also want to give out a shout out to our faculty that are
518
00:32:11,579 --> 00:32:15,346
doing amazing work, that are working with us, also recognizing that faculty across
519
00:32:15,346 --> 00:32:19,161
campus are doing amazing work. They have a lot of different responsibilities.
520
00:32:19,754 --> 00:32:23,569
And so we understand that. And so it is, you know, it is
521
00:32:23,681 --> 00:32:27,513
key work that we, that we do when working with faculty to create
522
00:32:27,513 --> 00:32:31,215
these experiences and help facilitate these experiences. And so when we're
523
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,405
working with colleges and departments to think more strategically,
524
00:32:35,143 --> 00:32:38,557
one of the great ways in which I kind of communicate this is that
525
00:32:39,070 --> 00:32:42,853
these programs can be real signature experiences for
526
00:32:42,998 --> 00:32:46,701
a department. And a great example of this, one of
527
00:32:47,486 --> 00:32:51,333
my favorite programs is our Theater, Fine Arts, and Humanities in Londonsburg. I think it's
528
00:32:51,333 --> 00:32:55,100
partly because I love theater, I love musicals. And so it's one of those things
529
00:32:55,100 --> 00:32:58,723
where I'm just jealous of the students that are participating in those experiences each year
530
00:32:58,948 --> 00:33:02,715
and being guided by a faculty member Who's been doing it for over
531
00:33:02,715 --> 00:33:05,167
25 years, an
532
00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:08,197
expert in Shakespeare,
533
00:33:09,592 --> 00:33:13,086
and who's been going to London this entire time. So it's a
534
00:33:13,134 --> 00:33:16,292
phenomenal experience. But the reason why I want to mention this is that
535
00:33:16,725 --> 00:33:20,172
students who arrive on campus that are interested in theater
536
00:33:20,268 --> 00:33:24,019
know about this. So if you think about it as a
537
00:33:24,019 --> 00:33:27,385
recruitment tool to the university or recruitment tool to the department,
538
00:33:27,802 --> 00:33:31,329
study abroad programs can be those signature experiences where students
539
00:33:31,345 --> 00:33:34,522
know that, hey, I might want to go to the University of Utah, be a
540
00:33:34,522 --> 00:33:38,104
theater major because of this experience. And so I
541
00:33:38,232 --> 00:33:42,055
think when we're thinking about strategically, the power of
542
00:33:42,392 --> 00:33:45,910
our programs is that they can be difference makers. They can really
543
00:33:46,022 --> 00:33:49,556
be a differentiator for a department. They can be, again, that
544
00:33:49,556 --> 00:33:52,993
signature experience and something that students are really looking forward to.
545
00:33:53,491 --> 00:33:57,330
And so that's why I would say, you know, when you're working with colleges and
546
00:33:57,330 --> 00:34:01,009
departments across campus is thinking about what is it we're trying to achieve?
547
00:34:02,006 --> 00:34:05,510
How are we educating our students? How are we building out these global
548
00:34:05,962 --> 00:34:09,691
perspectives? How are we internationalizing our curriculum? All these kind of things
549
00:34:09,691 --> 00:34:13,071
that we all think about, but also thinking about, hey,
550
00:34:13,459 --> 00:34:17,180
this is something recognizable, something that's powerful about the
551
00:34:17,180 --> 00:34:19,315
university, the department, and that college.
552
00:34:21,670 --> 00:34:25,366
Career readiness and employability are major institutional priorities
553
00:34:25,463 --> 00:34:28,742
at Utah, as they are just about everywhere these days, it seems.
554
00:34:29,883 --> 00:34:33,360
What How are you thinking about
555
00:34:33,472 --> 00:34:37,260
internships, professional development, and other international experiences as part of
556
00:34:37,260 --> 00:34:40,292
preparing students at your institution for what comes after
557
00:34:40,292 --> 00:34:43,999
graduation? Right. And,
558
00:34:44,722 --> 00:34:48,252
you know, we all are collectively. We, in different
559
00:34:48,252 --> 00:34:51,846
areas across campus, we're thinking about this, how we're preparing our students.
560
00:34:53,050 --> 00:34:56,677
One of the things that I think about, and I think back
561
00:34:56,677 --> 00:35:00,255
to my own education, my own journey through college,
562
00:35:00,512 --> 00:35:03,639
is that one of the things that's most
563
00:35:03,655 --> 00:35:06,989
important, I would say, like, yes, I built specific knowledge.
564
00:35:07,983 --> 00:35:11,318
Yes, I've had different experiences
565
00:35:11,430 --> 00:35:15,005
globally as well as domestically that were important for my education at that time.
566
00:35:15,437 --> 00:35:18,259
But the biggest thing I would say is how
567
00:35:19,188 --> 00:35:22,731
it taught me to think critically. That is one of the biggest things that I
568
00:35:22,731 --> 00:35:26,306
kind of took away from my undergraduate experience. And so when we're thinking about
569
00:35:26,963 --> 00:35:30,570
what comes next after graduation, yes, I think
570
00:35:30,570 --> 00:35:34,145
we're all aware of how are we entering the workforce? How we enter the
571
00:35:34,177 --> 00:35:37,837
workforce with skills that have prepared us through
572
00:35:37,949 --> 00:35:41,753
our time here at the university, but it's also
573
00:35:41,833 --> 00:35:44,995
thinking about how we are continuous learners,
574
00:35:45,492 --> 00:35:49,216
how we're curious, how we can think critically, some of these really key
575
00:35:49,216 --> 00:35:53,052
skills that complement specific knowledge that you build
576
00:35:53,694 --> 00:35:57,321
during your 4 years within your different majors. And so I think
577
00:35:57,369 --> 00:36:01,204
that when we're thinking about career readiness,
578
00:36:01,220 --> 00:36:04,894
we're thinking about employability, we're thinking about how study
579
00:36:04,926 --> 00:36:08,584
abroad connects to these pieces, I really do believe that it's
580
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:12,435
thinking about how it can provide a set of complementary skills,
581
00:36:12,996 --> 00:36:16,542
how it can build, again, that curiosity, that critical
582
00:36:16,542 --> 00:36:20,104
thinking. And those are some of the biggest things I think that can prepare you
583
00:36:20,168 --> 00:36:23,794
versus a specific set of knowledge. Yes, that's really important. I
584
00:36:23,858 --> 00:36:26,856
think different fields, and I'm not going I'm not going to discount that in any
585
00:36:26,856 --> 00:36:30,576
sort of way. And I, I just think about more of like the
586
00:36:31,369 --> 00:36:35,024
complementary pieces that we can develop that are really critical.
587
00:36:37,132 --> 00:36:40,830
You and the team at Utah are also exploring opportunities to introduce
588
00:36:40,879 --> 00:36:44,541
learning abroad from the moment students arrive at the university
589
00:36:44,750 --> 00:36:48,518
through first-year experiences. Why is reaching students that
590
00:36:48,695 --> 00:36:52,229
early important to your larger strategy? Absolutely. And we are,
591
00:36:52,679 --> 00:36:56,372
we are trying to reach students in high school, talk to them about the University
592
00:36:56,372 --> 00:36:59,519
of Utah, about learning abroad. You know, these are
593
00:36:59,984 --> 00:37:03,485
key moments for us to kind of plant those seeds. And
594
00:37:03,661 --> 00:37:07,226
it, the reason is that we believe in the power of a
595
00:37:07,274 --> 00:37:10,791
global education, right? This is something, and we were talking earlier about how global
596
00:37:10,887 --> 00:37:14,211
touches on arguably every area of campus. You know, it's
597
00:37:14,435 --> 00:37:17,708
interwoven into curriculum. And so when I think
598
00:37:17,724 --> 00:37:20,770
about the importance of an early experience,
599
00:37:21,315 --> 00:37:25,066
what I really want to convey is that experiences
600
00:37:25,259 --> 00:37:29,074
that we're developing and the strategy that we are working towards
601
00:37:29,571 --> 00:37:33,129
is a layered strategy, is that how do the different
602
00:37:33,354 --> 00:37:37,137
opportunities, the different experiences that we build and
603
00:37:37,137 --> 00:37:40,872
provide for students act in a complementary fashion? And so if we're
604
00:37:40,888 --> 00:37:44,591
looking at Global Quest as a first-year experience where students
605
00:37:44,639 --> 00:37:48,230
during that first semester, they'll be here in Salt Lake City and they can
606
00:37:48,262 --> 00:37:52,108
go on our Global Quest experience in the spring semester, that might
607
00:37:52,108 --> 00:37:55,810
be their first time abroad. And the importance of that is going to be
608
00:37:55,810 --> 00:37:59,465
exposure. So if you're doing a week-long Global
609
00:37:59,481 --> 00:38:03,183
Quest experience, maybe you're not ready for a full semester experience.
610
00:38:03,631 --> 00:38:07,173
What that is providing is that entryway, that
611
00:38:07,173 --> 00:38:10,699
entrance, that pathway. We talk a lot about access to these
612
00:38:10,699 --> 00:38:14,498
experiences. But the key thing about that is that
613
00:38:14,546 --> 00:38:18,184
we're thinking that it's not an isolated experience, that this is something that
614
00:38:18,857 --> 00:38:22,544
would connect in the future to an international
615
00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:25,926
internship, a semester or year-long exchange program,
616
00:38:26,728 --> 00:38:30,319
the opportunity to participate in one of our affiliate experiences, the
617
00:38:30,319 --> 00:38:34,070
opportunity to look at faculty-led programs in the future is like, how do these
618
00:38:34,502 --> 00:38:37,692
connect to each other? And so that's the thing that we want to make sure
619
00:38:37,692 --> 00:38:41,395
that we consider when developing any sort of new
620
00:38:41,395 --> 00:38:44,890
program, especially our first program like this is like, how are they connected? The other
621
00:38:44,922 --> 00:38:48,192
kind of piece that I would want to say around this is like the layered
622
00:38:48,192 --> 00:38:51,400
experience. Interesting. And so if we're about layering
623
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:55,240
programs is that, and this is a difficult sort of
624
00:38:55,240 --> 00:38:59,020
endeavor, right? Because when we're thinking about faculty programs, oftentimes the
625
00:38:59,020 --> 00:39:02,400
faculty programs are developed because the faculty member has
626
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:06,200
connections, research connections in a particular location, significant experience
627
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:09,500
in a particular location. There's a reason why we want to develop
628
00:39:09,500 --> 00:39:13,200
this theater in London program, right? The faculty members had that
629
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:16,900
experience. So a lot of it comes from, again, those,
630
00:39:16,900 --> 00:39:20,040
and initiates from those places. But in other ways, what we're thinking about is, okay,
631
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:25,367
Okay. So if we know this, if we know that we have some of these
632
00:39:25,464 --> 00:39:28,799
faculty-led programs in these specific areas, how can we then
633
00:39:29,007 --> 00:39:32,744
layer on top of those other experiences, whether those are international
634
00:39:32,856 --> 00:39:36,175
internships or first-year experience? And so if we're looking at, say,
635
00:39:36,929 --> 00:39:40,008
Sevilla, Spain, students are able to go there for a
636
00:39:40,008 --> 00:39:43,744
semester in their first year. Maybe
637
00:39:43,744 --> 00:39:46,855
that sparks an interest in developing Spanish language skills.
638
00:39:47,833 --> 00:39:51,666
And that could then lead to other opportunities that we have within Spain.
639
00:39:51,938 --> 00:39:55,721
It could be connected to our faculty-led program in Oviedo in the
640
00:39:55,721 --> 00:39:59,342
north during the summer, which is an intensive language program. We also have one
641
00:39:59,534 --> 00:40:03,172
for healthcare professionals. And so we want to make sure that there's
642
00:40:03,172 --> 00:40:06,761
specific reasons why we're developing programs in specific
643
00:40:06,761 --> 00:40:10,543
areas that then connect to future opportunities that they could pursue. And so that's
644
00:40:10,543 --> 00:40:14,308
a really fun part of it. It's difficult in many ways because they're
645
00:40:14,308 --> 00:40:17,833
not always connected, but it is something that we work
646
00:40:17,897 --> 00:40:21,680
towards when we're trying to develop programs. Get them
647
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:24,694
early, then get them again before they graduate. I love that. It's
648
00:40:25,737 --> 00:40:29,088
true. Utah has established ambitious goals for increasing
649
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,904
student participation in education abroad, and you've already
650
00:40:32,904 --> 00:40:36,753
seen significant year-over-year growth. So congratulations for that. But
651
00:40:36,801 --> 00:40:40,633
beyond simply counting how many students go abroad, how are you thinking
652
00:40:40,681 --> 00:40:44,530
about what success should look like and what you need to measure? Data
653
00:40:44,530 --> 00:40:47,689
tells a story, right? This is something that we've talked about previously.
654
00:40:48,586 --> 00:40:52,370
And there's a lot of power within the data and that
655
00:40:52,370 --> 00:40:56,089
we have ambitious goals. We want to make sure that, you know, from,
656
00:40:56,442 --> 00:40:59,712
you know, within learning abroad, our office, that by 2030
657
00:41:00,209 --> 00:41:03,399
we are sending 1,200 students, which is a big jump for us, right? And so
658
00:41:03,415 --> 00:41:06,685
that'll be 3% of our domestic students would have an international experience.
659
00:41:07,262 --> 00:41:11,046
And so we have these specific goals and that
660
00:41:11,190 --> 00:41:14,877
is kind of one measure of success, but success can come in
661
00:41:14,893 --> 00:41:18,163
many forms. And I always want to take a step back, right? Because I want
662
00:41:18,163 --> 00:41:21,659
to take off sometimes like the, the admin
663
00:41:21,771 --> 00:41:25,508
hat, right? And think about what we were talking a little bit about
664
00:41:25,652 --> 00:41:29,485
earlier is that the experience has value in and of
665
00:41:29,485 --> 00:41:33,189
itself. And that's something that we should never discount, right? Is that we
666
00:41:33,317 --> 00:41:37,150
have developed specific learning outcomes for our programs.
667
00:41:37,663 --> 00:41:41,512
And these are things that are really powerful for students. But
668
00:41:41,512 --> 00:41:45,040
at the same time, it may be that first experience for a
669
00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:48,889
student who goes abroad, and that is success in and of itself, is that
670
00:41:48,889 --> 00:41:52,593
yes, they're learning particular about specific areas, right? And
671
00:41:52,657 --> 00:41:56,153
that we were talking about employability, talking about these kind of like big admin
672
00:41:56,249 --> 00:41:59,761
talk sort of conversations, and students are absorbing
673
00:41:59,793 --> 00:42:03,289
that. They're retaining some of that information, but they're also thinking
674
00:42:03,321 --> 00:42:06,705
about, as a student, how am I developing?
675
00:42:07,170 --> 00:42:10,890
And that is something where I
676
00:42:11,099 --> 00:42:14,129
keep that in the back of my mind, but also at the forefront of my
677
00:42:14,145 --> 00:42:17,753
mind is thinking about how students who enter
678
00:42:17,753 --> 00:42:21,296
college at different ages, what does that journey look like for them? How
679
00:42:21,664 --> 00:42:25,047
are they developing? What are the theories that we can lean on when we're thinking
680
00:42:25,047 --> 00:42:28,782
about this and working with students that translates to their own success?
681
00:42:29,231 --> 00:42:32,004
And so I always kind of keep that in the back of my mind. Another
682
00:42:32,004 --> 00:42:35,787
thing too that I keep there as well and love to kind of just
683
00:42:35,787 --> 00:42:39,522
think about every now and then is not just what students are learning,
684
00:42:39,634 --> 00:42:43,369
but how they're learning. And so that is like a really key factor
685
00:42:43,546 --> 00:42:47,297
of study abroad and about these high-impact experiences where they're going abroad,
686
00:42:47,329 --> 00:42:50,490
having an experiential learning opportunity, Those are
687
00:42:51,245 --> 00:42:54,601
fundamentally important. And that's something that I believe strongly in,
688
00:42:55,035 --> 00:42:58,729
is that the way in which they learn while they're abroad, how they're
689
00:42:58,729 --> 00:43:02,327
engaging. And so how do we build these out? Because these are
690
00:43:02,327 --> 00:43:05,876
things that sometimes can be really intangibles that
691
00:43:06,021 --> 00:43:08,976
maybe we're not spending enough time documenting
692
00:43:09,795 --> 00:43:13,184
or researching or tracking. It's like, yes, I know that there's that, that exists all
693
00:43:13,248 --> 00:43:16,749
out there, but, you know, in any one given office, thinking about the number of
694
00:43:16,862 --> 00:43:20,571
things that you need to do, that That's usually something that just
695
00:43:20,571 --> 00:43:24,071
gets left off to the side, but it's knowing that there are some of these
696
00:43:24,103 --> 00:43:27,668
things that are taking place that are incredibly important. So student success, yes,
697
00:43:28,021 --> 00:43:31,554
in specific numbers, we can kind of quantify that, but it's
698
00:43:31,634 --> 00:43:35,311
also thinking about these other areas. And the last point I would say around
699
00:43:35,343 --> 00:43:38,201
this and something that has been a really
700
00:43:39,116 --> 00:43:42,601
important part of our work is thinking about a
701
00:43:42,793 --> 00:43:46,631
global skills program that we've developed. So it's around specific skill areas and we're looking
702
00:43:46,807 --> 00:43:50,316
at research experience for our students, career development, language
703
00:43:50,364 --> 00:43:53,900
development, but community engagement being that 5th one. So if we look at these 5
704
00:43:53,900 --> 00:43:56,879
different global skill areas, these are
705
00:43:57,672 --> 00:44:00,794
important for our students because it provides them with this kind of
706
00:44:00,827 --> 00:44:04,589
co-curricular experience, a way in which they can take a step
707
00:44:04,589 --> 00:44:08,259
back and reflect on what it is they're learning and what is the
708
00:44:08,259 --> 00:44:10,256
meaning of that learning to them.
709
00:44:12,519 --> 00:44:16,216
After that, you know, it's the testimonial piece. It is thinking
710
00:44:16,281 --> 00:44:19,262
about how to communicate that value. And so those are really kind
711
00:44:21,116 --> 00:44:24,296
of key measures of success from that more
712
00:44:24,409 --> 00:44:28,248
qualitative aspect, that reflection piece. And really
713
00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:31,219
is like, how do students translate meaning
714
00:44:31,798 --> 00:44:35,540
from their study abroad experience into
715
00:44:35,589 --> 00:44:39,411
their own words? And so I do want to actually recognize that as being
716
00:44:39,444 --> 00:44:43,267
powerful learning opportunities for students and
717
00:44:43,443 --> 00:44:47,009
also a way in which we can see success is like what they're actually
718
00:44:47,009 --> 00:44:50,526
stating and how they actually agree, like, that is phenomenal. Very nice.
719
00:44:50,847 --> 00:44:54,345
Thank you for sharing that, Rick. It's no secret that higher ed is
720
00:44:54,377 --> 00:44:57,908
facing real budget and resource constraints. How can
721
00:44:57,908 --> 00:45:01,567
having a clearly articulated strategy help an education abroad office
722
00:45:01,695 --> 00:45:05,258
make a stronger case for additional resources, staffing,
723
00:45:05,450 --> 00:45:09,222
campus support, and ultimately the capacity to serve more students?
724
00:45:10,265 --> 00:45:14,004
Absolutely right. And so there, yeah, institutions are facing different challenges. This
725
00:45:14,132 --> 00:45:17,631
is something that we all know. And, but it's also, there's opportunities. And so I
726
00:45:17,631 --> 00:45:21,046
do wanna make sure that, you know, that's something that communicates strongly is that
727
00:45:21,959 --> 00:45:25,660
as the landscape may shift, it's like, yes, some of the things
728
00:45:25,724 --> 00:45:29,521
that used to exist may not moving forward, but
729
00:45:29,521 --> 00:45:33,286
it's also these opportunities that we can then engage with.
730
00:45:33,655 --> 00:45:37,356
Obviously everyone's talking about AI. It's looking at it as an opportunity, right?
731
00:45:37,981 --> 00:45:41,762
But also as a potential threat. Sure. I'm not going to
732
00:45:41,762 --> 00:45:44,790
go down the AI route today, but
733
00:45:45,367 --> 00:45:48,987
there's decisions that institutions need to make around
734
00:45:49,116 --> 00:45:52,852
what, how to allocate resources. And
735
00:45:53,418 --> 00:45:57,267
when I approach this question, it's thinking
736
00:45:57,315 --> 00:46:00,669
about what does that budget process look like for any given
737
00:46:00,701 --> 00:46:04,388
institution? It might look a little bit different. One of the key things I think
738
00:46:04,388 --> 00:46:08,204
is important is that it's like, what is the narrative
739
00:46:08,252 --> 00:46:11,489
that supports that budget request? What is the
740
00:46:13,003 --> 00:46:16,771
plan that we've developed that supports that budget request? And so
741
00:46:16,771 --> 00:46:18,743
when we kind of go back to the purpose of this kind of conversation about
742
00:46:18,743 --> 00:46:22,250
strategic planning is that our
743
00:46:22,331 --> 00:46:25,907
specific strategic plan is tied
744
00:46:25,907 --> 00:46:29,724
directly to our budget, right? It's thinking about if we are
745
00:46:29,852 --> 00:46:33,492
looking to build out Global Quest first-year
746
00:46:33,877 --> 00:46:37,662
experiences, how can we first show, yes,
747
00:46:37,790 --> 00:46:41,206
this is a model that works, and we were able to do this over this
748
00:46:41,318 --> 00:46:45,055
past year where we've had in the past one section
749
00:46:45,312 --> 00:46:49,100
of Global Quest that's now developed into 4 sections of
750
00:46:49,100 --> 00:46:52,780
Global Quest. So you're looking at quadrupling the number of students— Amazing. —that'll be
751
00:46:52,780 --> 00:46:56,604
participating in these experiences. And that
752
00:46:56,797 --> 00:47:00,380
model and those results are then
753
00:47:00,670 --> 00:47:04,365
going to be connected directly to kind of budget requests. So this is something where
754
00:47:04,365 --> 00:47:07,675
we say we see importance of this because of some of the previous conversations about
755
00:47:07,804 --> 00:47:11,612
layering it, the interconnectedness of a First-Year Experience, the future
756
00:47:11,676 --> 00:47:15,130
international internships, and so forth. Those are kind of key powerful
757
00:47:15,130 --> 00:47:18,711
messages that can resonate with leadership when making
758
00:47:18,743 --> 00:47:22,485
decisions because there's difficult decisions that need to be made and I fully understand
759
00:47:22,517 --> 00:47:25,842
that. But that's kind of how I approach it. That's how I kind of think
760
00:47:25,970 --> 00:47:29,744
about budget requests and allocation of resources is that how
761
00:47:29,744 --> 00:47:32,908
does it all tie back to our strategic plan that we're working
762
00:47:32,956 --> 00:47:36,730
intentionally and that it
763
00:47:36,730 --> 00:47:40,392
is again supportive of what we're trying to do as an institution, As
764
00:47:40,488 --> 00:47:43,249
we begin to wrap up here, I just have one more question for you, my
765
00:47:43,249 --> 00:47:46,973
friend. When you think about education abroad in 2027 and beyond,
766
00:47:47,229 --> 00:47:50,953
what makes you hopeful? I love this question, Zach. Yeah.
767
00:47:51,034 --> 00:47:54,838
So the thing that makes me the most hopeful,
768
00:47:55,656 --> 00:47:59,156
and I kind of wanna talk about this in like 2 different ways. One
769
00:47:59,444 --> 00:48:03,104
is what makes me hopeful about the University of Utah and what does learning abroad
770
00:48:03,120 --> 00:48:06,908
and studying abroad look like here? And then writ large, what does it look like
771
00:48:06,908 --> 00:48:10,422
kind of just across the field. So if we're looking at it
772
00:48:10,502 --> 00:48:14,255
from the University of Utah lens, one of the things
773
00:48:14,271 --> 00:48:18,104
that makes me incredibly hopeful is really the array of opportunities.
774
00:48:18,473 --> 00:48:22,194
So we were talking a little bit earlier about how, you know, we're thinking
775
00:48:22,226 --> 00:48:25,931
about programs, we have exchange, we have affiliate, we have faculty-led. Exactly.
776
00:48:25,995 --> 00:48:29,764
These kind of like narrow definitions, right, of what these look like. I think
777
00:48:29,764 --> 00:48:32,860
one of the great things is like how these definitions are kind of,
778
00:48:33,213 --> 00:48:36,870
let's say, how these like definitions or how these structures
779
00:48:37,526 --> 00:48:41,180
are becoming more malleable and more flexible. And so that way we are
780
00:48:42,333 --> 00:48:46,115
opening ourselves to different ideas that may
781
00:48:46,115 --> 00:48:49,688
present themselves, these big board ideas that we have when we're hiking or these
782
00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:53,181
big board ideas that pop up in conversations with faculty or leadership
783
00:48:53,646 --> 00:48:56,802
that can shape what we do. And so I think that the
784
00:48:56,850 --> 00:48:59,991
continued flexibility of building out
785
00:48:59,991 --> 00:49:03,532
experiences for students that resonate with students
786
00:49:04,157 --> 00:49:07,893
is really important. Whether that's for our first-year experiences that we're looking at,
787
00:49:08,374 --> 00:49:11,647
whether it is looking at our year-long
788
00:49:11,663 --> 00:49:15,448
exchange programs, whether it's looking at how we're talking about
789
00:49:15,448 --> 00:49:19,282
this connection between University Connected Learning and the Office of Global Engagement
790
00:49:19,314 --> 00:49:23,084
and community members. Like, these things are ones that really do fascinate me.
791
00:49:23,549 --> 00:49:27,270
And so it's— you feel as though you're just like stepping into this for the
792
00:49:27,302 --> 00:49:30,574
first time, even though you've been doing it for years, because you
793
00:49:30,623 --> 00:49:34,327
engage in new conversations with folks from across
794
00:49:34,439 --> 00:49:38,030
campus that really do spark an interest, ignite some ideas,
795
00:49:38,142 --> 00:49:41,925
get connections flowing, and that is phenomenal. I think that
796
00:49:41,925 --> 00:49:45,644
is some of the cool things that really ties into the innovative entrepreneurial spirit
797
00:49:45,820 --> 00:49:48,738
of, you know, an institution and really here at the University of Utah. And then
798
00:49:48,738 --> 00:49:52,200
I think, you know, writ large, when I think about what makes me hopeful
799
00:49:52,329 --> 00:49:56,080
about education abroad is, is actually
800
00:49:56,096 --> 00:49:59,590
going back to an experience that I had, my team had this
801
00:49:59,703 --> 00:50:03,486
past summer when we were at the Forum on Education Abroad Accelerated Residency
802
00:50:03,550 --> 00:50:07,082
Program. This was an opportunity where we're engaging with the Standards on Good
803
00:50:07,082 --> 00:50:09,588
Practice. And we're looking at how can we
804
00:50:10,359 --> 00:50:13,957
incorporate the work, the phenomenal work that's been
805
00:50:14,070 --> 00:50:17,797
done from, you know, over the years by, you know, by
806
00:50:17,925 --> 00:50:21,700
professionals, by subject matter experts in the field. And like
807
00:50:21,845 --> 00:50:25,395
that work that they have put in and the time and energy they
808
00:50:25,475 --> 00:50:29,234
put in is going to have a direct impact, even though they don't see it,
809
00:50:29,314 --> 00:50:31,258
right? It's going to have a direct impact on the work that we do here
810
00:50:31,258 --> 00:50:33,956
at the University of Utah. as well as knowing it's gonna have a direct impact
811
00:50:34,470 --> 00:50:37,071
on the work that all the other folks who attended this
812
00:50:38,067 --> 00:50:41,792
residency will see. And so I think that is something where it makes me hopeful,
813
00:50:41,856 --> 00:50:45,116
where it's like there's a collective body of
814
00:50:45,309 --> 00:50:48,793
individuals that are dedicated to their craft,
815
00:50:48,825 --> 00:50:52,583
dedicated to this field, that are really supporting it in a variety of
816
00:50:52,615 --> 00:50:56,388
ways. And so that engagement that I see, I
817
00:50:56,388 --> 00:50:59,889
think that's phenomenal. I can't imagine a better place to end things
818
00:50:59,905 --> 00:51:03,614
than Rick Batchelor, what a joy and a pleasure. Thank you for
819
00:51:03,614 --> 00:51:06,392
this conversation today. Thank you, Zach. Thank you, everyone.
820
00:51:07,612 --> 00:51:11,048
And to our listeners, thank you for joining us for this episode of Changing Lives
821
00:51:11,112 --> 00:51:14,805
Through Education Abroad. I'm your host, Zach McInnis, and please make sure to join us
822
00:51:14,934 --> 00:51:18,225
next time as we continue to explore topics around international
823
00:51:18,306 --> 00:51:21,710
education and exchange. Thank you to my spectacular WorldStrides
824
00:51:21,758 --> 00:51:25,579
colleagues, Tyler Ward, Lindsay Keltner, Alexis Ricks, and Perla Alonso.
825
00:51:26,254 --> 00:51:29,868
Without whom this podcast would not be possible. Please subscribe to Changing
826
00:51:29,868 --> 00:51:33,257
Lives Through Education Abroad on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your
827
00:51:33,257 --> 00:51:36,871
podcasts, and share with your friends and colleagues. Let's create
828
00:51:36,999 --> 00:51:38,140
life-changing moments together.