Exposure to dynamics and cultures that reveal and challenge students' settler-colonial mindset is essential-not only for disrupting dominant narratives but also for interrogating foundational assumptions about how concepts like power and leadership operate. To cultivate this awareness, encountering other ways of being, particularly those rooted in cultures that enact shared leadership as lived praxis, requires sustained reflection on the self, the institution, and society. This article examines the impact of a doctoral study abroad course in New Zealand that explored the concepts of decolonization and leadership through students' narratives.

This article examines the importance of studying abroad to create opportunities for leadership learning. It also gives an overview of utilizing critical perspectives as well as leadership competencies developed during study abroad programs. By implementing the leadership competencies from the domains of learning and reasoning, self-awareness and development, interpersonal interaction, communication, group dynamics, and civic responsibility, the article demonstrates the effectiveness of designing experiences using a model of international leadership developed by the author. It also discusses examples of the model in action.

Despite overlap in intended learning outcomes between education abroad (also known as study abroad) and leadership education, and comparable research agendas, findings about the relationship between education abroad and leadership, or the impact of education abroad on leadership competencies, is limited.However, existing research on education abroad shows how many intentionally designed programmatic outcomes match well with those documented by leadership educators and vice versa, offering fresh insight into the impact on leadership from education abroad. This article addresses how leadership development can be an educational outcome of an education abroad experience, even if the program is not a leadership course.

In higher education, international service learning (ISL) began gaining significant traction in the late 1980s and has continued to grow in popularity as a pedagogical tool. This article examines the documented challenges and benefits of ISL, drawing on reflections from alumni of Westminster University's May Term Study Experience (MTSE), Global Citizenship: Service Learning in Thailand. Alumni reflections were qualitatively analyzed to identify key themes, including clarification of personal values, cross-cultural collaboration, and a commitment to lifelong global learning. The program's most recent faculty contributors offer autoethnographic insights and recommendations for educators on how to support ISL in ways that center host communities rather than visitors.

Study centers are an important context for international education. These established sites provide American students opportunities to learn and live in a different culture. Study centers play a crucial role in creating leadership learning opportunities for students who are studying at these international locations. This article shares how an established study center in Florence, Italy has developed rich leadership development opportunities for students using the leadership learning framework. From student orientation to taking courses to language exchange programs, this article shares how this one study center has intentionally developed numerous leadership learning opportunities for students.

This article illustrates how collegiate leadership study abroad experiences are enhanced with critical frameworks. The authors offer strategies to apply critical lenses such as liberatory, culturally relevant, and anti-racist approaches to study abroad curricular and co-curricular design. The authors emphasize the essential role of embedding critical frameworks within leadership study abroad programs enabling students to interpret their experiences meaningfully and make intentional, informed decisions that foster change-both during their time abroad and upon returning to their home communities.

This article presents a descriptive case study of a leadership study abroad course in rural Zimbabwe, developed through a unique partnership between Oklahoma State University's Hargis Leadership Institute and OSU alumna Dr. Tererai Trent, a globally recognized humanitarian and leader. The course integrates pre-departure preparation, in-country immersion, and post-travel reflection, centering cultural humility, ethical leadership, and decolonial practice. Drawing on student journals, faculty field notes, and program documents, the case highlights how anchor moments and local leadership voices foster transformative learning. A student co-author's narrative illustrates how the course reframed leadership as relational rather than positional, emphasizing empathy, relational leadership, and cross-cultural awareness. This case contributes to study abroad and leadership education literature by offering pragmatic strategies for designing courses in the Global South that prioritize dignity, reciprocity, and leadership development. Recommendations for leadership educators and study abroad practitioners seeking to create ethically grounded, high-impact leadership study abroad experiences are included.

This article explores the role of university-affiliated study centers abroad in fostering leadership development among undergraduate students. Drawing on experiential and transformational learning theories, we highlight how structured academic environments combined with cultural immersion can enhance key leadership competencies such as adaptability, intercultural communication, and critical thinking. Through personal narratives from students who studied at Florida State University's Florence study center, we illustrate how leadership theory was integrated with real-world learning experiences. The study center's role as both a physical and developmental hub is examined, alongside the benefits and limitations of such environments. Recommendations are provided for how higher education institutions can more intentionally design study abroad programs to maximize leadership learning, including the integration of reflective practices, peer-led initiatives, and community engagement projects.

Short-term study abroad programs have become increasingly popular in US higher education, as they offer powerful development opportunities for undergraduate students. This mixed methods study examined the impact of three faculty-led short-term summer study abroad courses in a leadership studies curriculum. Through the lens of Seemiller's student leadership competencies, survey data from six student cohorts revealed growth in key competency clusters, particularly personal behavior, self-awareness and development, civic responsibility, and learning and reasoning. Short-term study abroad helped students develop leadership skills such as functioning independently, responding to ambiguity, emotional intelligence, and social responsibility. These leadership competencies help augment students' college experiences, as well as provide them with enhanced career readiness. These findings support the integration of study abroad into leadership development curricula and suggest the use of competency-based frameworks for intentional program design.

This article explores the conceptualization, design, and implementation of the University of Michigan's inaugural Leadership and Technology Global Course in Cape Town, South Africa. This 3-week study abroad experience centered the perspectives of gender-minoritized leaders in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to demonstrate the importance of diversity, inclusion, and cultural competency for effective leadership practice. The values of Ubuntu (i.e., interconnectedness, community, compassion/empathy, responsibility, reconciliation/healing) frame the themes that emerged each week of the course and illuminate leadership best practices. With the voices of the 12 participants foregrounded, this article presents counternarratives, to disrupt both leadership and study abroad stories most often told.