What is the x-factor in study abroad? What enables some people to get the most out of a cross-cultural experience? There are external factors, like the setting, the structure of the program, the quality of instructors and curriculum; social factors like the makeup and chemistry of the group of students; the leadership, if it is faculty-led. But most people in the field are aware that there is something interior, inside each student, that determines how successful the study abroad experience is going to be. A number of people are working, in a variety of ways, on defining and describing this trait.