As a professor of leadership in the United States (US) I designed, developed, and lead a study abroad graduate course and experience in Havana, Cuba. This is a particularly interesting context because the United States and Cuba do not have normalized relations. Further, the turbulent political and social context within the US has directly affected the daily experiences of Cubans living on the island, while the reverse is not true due to the dominating role and economy of the US across the globe.

There are countless factors that go into planning and carrying out the course, as well as the group travel experience. The specific responsibilities of the instructor include the pedagogy and curriculum of the course, both stateside and in country; the development of the class members as a supportive and cohesive team able to travel, live, and learn together; preparation for and leading the travel, residency, and in-country program experiences themselves; supporting and managing students in their personal, academic, and relational learning and well-being; and liaising with the in-country support team, presenters, and host families, as well as the requisite offices and team members at my home university.

The experience of leading this course four times now has been a constant challenge, always engaging and invigorating, highly rewarding, and at times frustrating, overwhelming, and heart-breaking. As I look toward leading this course for the fifth time in the coming year, I reflected in a critical and systematic manner on the dynamics, challenges, successes, evolutions, and lessons learned. Through those reflections and subsequent analysis, I identified resonant themes relevant to leading an experiential learning course involving extended international travel to an unfamiliar country and amidst an extreme power imbalance.

These themes cut across four domains:
(1) Course leadership;
(2) The student-leader relationship;
(3) The student experience;
(4) The socio-cultural and socio-political context. Across these domains, we see the ongoing presence and impact of power and resource imbalances; the inadequacy of our knowing and seeing; and the power of relationships and reciprocity as a human need and balm.

This paper presentation will provide a brief overview of the background and context, and then focus on pedagogical insights that can guide future experiential learning and international project designs and implementations. Considerations for leadership development, critical thinking, problem solving, and assessment of student learning will be addressed.

Keywords: International Exchange, Experiential Learning, Pedagogical Methods and Innovations.