The mission of OUSA, the Oglethorpe University Students Abroad program, is to provide academic and experiential opportunities and guidance for all students in study abroad.  This department dedicates itself to a global reach for study which introduces, illuminates, integrates, exposes, and ultimately enriches our students in their quest for cultural understanding. 

Our programs attempt to integrate the traditional classroom experiences with travel, language use, and direct encounters with international customs, history, and people. 

Furthermore, we provide a study abroad program framework through a growing global network of partnerships, agreements, and for-credit, short-term trips—all of which serve as viable, significant investments of time and study.  OUSA subscribes to the idea that study abroad remains a meaningful, balanced, and enlightening approach for the synthesis of theory and praxis, for both academic and personal explorations.

OUSA aligns itself with the overall Oglethorpe University mission by providing a rigorous format and platform for structuring specific study abroad itineraries and excursions, enabling students to make a living and make a life, here and abroad.

The department strives to insure students balance their academic and experiential experiences and excursions, insisting upon careful construction of study abroad agendas.  The study abroad program also enables students to initiate and build their own intellectual foundations for assessing and evaluating the cultures they wish to study  or live in; the program focuses on researching universities and colleges abroad that make a sensible and feasible "fit" with Oglethorpe University and its liberal arts mission.