Global Experience Required to Graduate: How USD's School of Leadership and Education Sciences Built One of America's Most Mission-Integrated Graduate Outcomes Models

by Imed Bouchrika, PhD

Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist

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When evaluating graduate programs, prospective students often view study abroad opportunities as an optional bonus—a line item in a university catalog that working adults typically bypass. The University of San Diego’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES) takes a structurally different approach. At SOLES, participating in an international experience is a mandatory graduation requirement. 

By implementing a mechanism requiring master’s and doctoral students to study abroad, the school establishes a uniquely mission-integrated model for educational outcomes. Rather than serving as educational tourism, this requirement functions as a structured checkpoint that connects academic theory to global career readiness.

Key Findings

• Curricular Integration Over Elective Travel: USD SOLES embeds global study directly into its degree requirements across master’s and doctoral tracks, addressing documented employer concerns regarding deficits in real-world application and intercultural perspective.
• Discipline-Specific Field Laboratories: Administered through the school's Global Center, these short-term intensive courses—alongside domestic cross-border alternatives—function as practical coursework tied to specific fields, including organizational leadership in Spain, marriage and family therapy in Northern Europe, counseling in Latin America and the Caribbean, and pedagogy in South Africa.
• Institutional Support for Working Adults: To mitigate professional and logistical disruption, experiential courses run primarily as one- to two-week sessions during intersessions and summer terms, supported by reduced tuition rates, federal aid eligibility, and dedicated internal awards such as the Cordeiro Global Fund.

The Intercultural Competency Requirement

While many graduate schools frame international travel as an avenue for personal growth, SOLES positions its global requirement as a structural response to a documented market gap. According to a recent employer skills survey conducted by the research firm Workplace Intelligence, corporate leaders consistently point to a severe deficit in graduate readiness. When asked why recent graduates struggle to integrate into the workforce, employers identified a lack of real-world experience (60%) and the absence of a global mindset (57%) as the leading causes.

What separates the SOLES model from standard practices is how it addresses this gap. The vast majority of U.S. graduate programs relegate study abroad to an optional summer elective, inherently treating it as an academic luxury. USD SOLES, conversely, has built its curriculum around the standard that intercultural fluency is a necessary metric for a master's or doctoral degree.

By enforcing this requirement, the university addresses this market gap by making intercultural fluency a verified component of the degree. Whether graduates are preparing for careers in clinical mental health,  school counseling, or marital and family therapy, organizational, education, or corporate leadership, or classroom teaching, the experience equips graduates to lead and make a meaningful impact. SOLES graduates enter the job market with proof that they have successfully applied their academic frameworks outside of a familiar, domestic context.

Global Competency in Action: The Academic Laboratory

The SOLES global requirement operates through the school's Global Center, which facilitates over 20 short-term courses across six continents. Rather than generalized study abroad tours, these one- to two-week intensives are highly specialized academic laboratories tied directly to specific degree outcomes.

A review of the 2025–2026 course catalog illustrates how this mandate integrates across different disciplines:

• Organizational Strategy (Spain): Students in the MA in Leadership Studies program evaluate the Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa. Because this organization relies on Basque cultural values and cooperative labor models outside traditional U.S. corporate frameworks, students must rethink standard Western management theories. They observe firsthand how employee ownership and collective decision-making operate in practice.
• Marriage and Family Therapy (Denmark & The Netherlands): MFT candidates travel to Copenhagen and Amsterdam to practice clinical interviewing and treatment. Working within Scandinavian healthcare systems and social safety nets requires these students to adjust their standard treatment models, directly improving their ability to counsel diverse populations in the U.S.
• School and Clinical Counseling (Chile & Jamaica): Candidates in School Counseling and Clinical Mental Health tracks study in distinct international settings. In Chile, they evaluate how foreign K-12 systems handle comprehensive student support. In Jamaica, they look at career counseling and mental health services in the context of high national unemployment and unique economic challenges. This exposure broadens their practical counseling toolkit.
• K-12 Pedagogy (South Africa): Education and teaching cohorts travel to South Africa to compare American and South African schooling. By partnering with local educators in Cape Town and Johannesburg on service-learning projects, candidates evaluate how factors like trauma, language, and socioeconomics impact student learning. This translates directly into stronger, culturally responsive teaching methods.

The Reality Check: Logistics, Costs, and Equity

Requiring international travel at the graduate level introduces an immediate logistical and financial hurdle, particularly for working adults. To make the requirement viable, SOLES relies primarily on short-term intersession, winter, and summer formats, typically lasting one to two weeks, which minimizes time away from domestic jobs and families.

Accessibility and Domestic Pathways

Recognizing that international travel can create professional, financial, or personal challenges, SOLES has developed multiple pathways to make the requirement manageable. In addition to study abroad opportunities, specific programs offer robust domestic alternatives. For example, the Learning & Teaching Department offers EDTE 548I/547I—a domestic pathway that combines community immersion, cross-border education, and intercultural learning. These options allow students to engage with global perspectives while accommodating their specific circumstances.

The Financial Framework

For those traveling abroad, prospective students must factor the experience into their total cost of attendance. Rather than fixed program totals, students can expect the following financial structure:

• Reduced Tuition & Variable Costs: The university offers a reduced tuition rate for these programs. On-site program costs—which may include accommodations, meals, and specific academic excursions—vary dynamically by destination.
• Typical Exclusions: Students are generally responsible for out-of-pocket expenses, including international airfare, local transportation, visa fees, and personal incidentals.

Because these global study courses are an official part of the university's academic curriculum, they qualify for standard federal financial aid. However, to prevent this academic mandate from becoming an exclusionary barrier, SOLES maintains a robust portfolio of internal, donor-backed scholarships.

To support equity, the school offers the Global Studies Scholar Award, which prioritizes funding for BIPOC students and those with limited prior travel experience. To ensure diversity initiatives like this are consistently backed, SOLES utilizes the endowed Cordeiro Global Fund. Supplemented by the university's Diversity Scholarship accounts, this establishes a dedicated $15,000 annual pool designed to support 10 to 12 students each academic year. The impact of this funding extends beyond the individual; recipients share their takeaways with the broader campus during the annual SOLES Diversity, Inclusion, Social Justice Excellence Showcase.

Beyond these core equity initiatives, the school maintains a robust portfolio of department-specific aid to offset tuition and travel costs for various cohorts. This includes high-impact regional awards (like the Elizabeth Jones Binational Scholarship), dedicated clinical support funds (such as the MFT Alumni Endowed Scholarship), and targeted educator grants for future teachers.

Accountability and Campus Integration

To ensure this mandatory investment yields measurable returns, SOLES relies heavily on data transparency and institutional accountability. The university does not simply send students abroad and assume competency is gained; the outcomes are actively measured.

The structural return on investment (ROI) is managed through a few key institutional mechanisms:

• Outcomes Tracking: The SOLES Office of Accreditation and Assessment actively monitors the impact of these initiatives to ensure they translate into career readiness. (Editor's Note: Kathryn Kelly to insert the most recent alumni survey data from the university, specifically contextualizing how global experience impacts job placement success). Beyond placement numbers, the office ensures these global and domestic pathways meet rigorous programmatic benchmarks, verifying that the intercultural competencies gained align with modern job-market expectations.
• Campus Integration: The academic design is intended to enable students to bring their global insights back to the San Diego campus. Returning students frequently utilize platforms like the
• Regulatory Alignment: By ensuring these international courses fulfill rigorous programmatic requirements (such as CACREP standards for counseling students), the school ensures the global requirement acts as a direct stepping stone to state licensure and professional certification.

A Category-Defining Graduate Model

For prospective graduate students, evaluating a degree program requires weighing the logistical cost of attendance against the reality of the job market. SOLES’ decision to require global experience adds a layer of financial and logistical complexity to the graduate journey. However, market data suggests that this friction serves a distinct purpose.

By engaging in unfamiliar cultural and professional environments, SOLES students develop the adaptability, cultural awareness, and global perspective needed to lead effectively across diverse settings. These experiences move learning beyond the classroom and strengthen intercultural competencies that are increasingly valued by employers.