Posted
September 23, 2026
As St. Edward’s new Director of International Programs, Sabrina Gushue is helping Edsmen take their learning into the world through a variety of custom-designed trips.
The first time Sabrina Gushue took a group of St. Edward students to Paris, their hotel was a short walk from the Eiffel Tower. As they rounded a corner, one student stopped.
“Madame, that’s the Eiffel Tower!”
Gushue knew, of course. What stayed with her was his astonishment and delight. He had seen the landmark countless times in photographs and learned about it in her class, but neither had prepared him for the moment it rose above him.
For Gushue, his reaction was a reminder of what happens when a place becomes more than a picture. Once students arrive in a new country, they begin to find their own way through it—speaking with people, asking questions, and discovering what they could not have learned from a distance.
About International Programs
As St. Edward’s new Director of International Programs, Gushue is helping more students have those experiences. St. Edward travels to an average of eight countries each year through a program that extends well beyond sightseeing. Edsmen can live with host families and attend school abroad, take part in mission and service trips, explore a subject they are studying, work on conservation projects, or attend international celebrations and conferences.
Most trips are planned in-house, giving Gushue and colleagues the freedom to shape them around students’ studies and interests. Latin students can explore the ancient world in Italy; students interested in sustainability can study innovative farming practices in Puerto Rico; and those drawn to history and culture can travel to Ghana. Each itinerary is shaped by what St. Edward students are eager to learn and experience.
Making Connections
Byamungu Rhamadani ’27 was hesitant to join a service immersion trip to Jamaica. Once there, he lived in a village and spent time with the people he met. He found himself drawn into conversations he had not expected.
“It was beautiful to realize how much we had in common,” he said. “Compared with learning about a place in a classroom, being there felt different. I was much more engaged because I was living it.”
Gushue knows firsthand how much a new place can teach you. Born in Germany, she studied abroad in Switzerland and France during high school. At 19, she set out alone across Canada with a backpack, traveling by bus, staying in hostels, and finding her way as she went. She later moved to Ohio to teach German and joined the St. Edward faculty in 2015, where she taught French before becoming Director of International Programs.
“I had to figure things out by myself, logistically, but also emotionally,” she said.
The relationships Gushue formed through travel have lasted. A friend she met during a college exchange is still part of her life 20 years later; they recently reunited in Italy with their children. She sees similar friendships grow through St. Edward trips. Some students continue visiting their host families, who still correspond and send gifts. Many students keep up with the teenagers they met abroad through Instagram and WhatsApp, sharing pieces of their daily lives across the distance.
Henry McKenna ’28, for example, still talks with students he met while visiting a school in Cape Town on a trip to South Africa. The St. Edward students who traveled with him became close friends, too.
We shared something special. Travel makes it easier to see the world from someone else’s perspective. You learn about how other people live, and you come home with relationships you didn’t have before. -Henry McKenna '28
Gushue has seen students make another kind of connection on the trips she has led. In Montréal, she took a group to Collège Notre-Dame, where St. André Bessette, C.S.C. once served as doorkeeper. The students knew the story of the canonized Holy Cross brother from theology class. At the school, they stopped to touch the door he had opened for visitors each day.
“They had learned about the life of St. André, but standing at that door made his story real,” Gushue said. “You could see how much that connection meant.”
On another trip, a canceled flight gave Gushue’s group an unexpected Sunday in Paris. They attended Mass at a small neighborhood church, where students joined in the prayers in French. Traveling back to their hotel, they compared what they had understood of the homily and asked Gushue about the words they had missed. Their language lessons had helped them take part in the life of a community they were visiting.
Kaylan Collier ’28 had never been to the Netherlands before traveling to The Hague for a Model United Nations conference. The experience got him thinking seriously about a career in diplomacy.
“I loved being in a new place and talking about issues that affect people around the world,” he said. “It made me think, ‘I could see myself doing this someday.’”
Looking Ahead
Together, these experiences reflect St. Edward’s identity as both an IB World School and a Holy Cross school. Students are asked to consider perspectives beyond their own, build relationships, and see how faith and service are lived in different places. The work begins in the classroom; travel asks them to put it into practice.
Gushue is taking on a program developed over more than a decade by the late Michael Perrins, whose travels and relationships left a lasting mark. She worked with him on trips to France and Québec and is continuing connections he established in places including Ghana and Chile. She also brings her own experience as a language teacher, trip leader, and lifelong traveler to the role.
I’d love to see us reach every continent and offer enough different experiences that every student can find a trip that speaks to him. -Sabrina Gushue
Every new destination gives students more to study and explore. What Gushue hopes will stay with them is what they discover through the people they meet: what they have in common, what they see differently, and how much more there is to learn from one another.
Pictured above in Denmark with her family, Sabrina Gushue is passionate about experiencing all the world has to offer.
International trips are open to Edsmen in all grades. There are opportunities to visit an ever-growing list of countries, including: Belgium; Canada; Chile; Costa Rica; Ecuador; El Salvador; England; France; Germany; Ghana; Honduras; Ireland; Italy; Jamaica; The Netherlands; Puerto Rico; and South Korea. Families interested in exploring the options for this year and the years ahead should contact Mrs. Gushue.