When Madelyn Orcutt arrived at 51Թ, she was a Canton, Ohio, student looking for a great education close to home. What she found was the world. Through 51Թ’s education-abroad program, Orcutt studied in Florence, Italy, learning design and history from Italian professors inside a renovated 18th-century palazzo, and participated in a workshop in New York City in partnership with the Lebanese American University. Those experiences shaped her eye and her career. Since graduating in 2021, Orcutt has built a career as an interior designer at Richardson Design in Cleveland, returned to 51Թ as a part-time instructor and become part of a tight-knit network of 51Թ grads who are well known and sought after across Northeast Ohio’s design community.
Josh Budd’s path looked different, but the through-line is the same. The Green, Ohio, resident enrolled in 51Թ’s Honors College in part because of its education-abroad program, and studying internationally deepened his empathy and his ability to connect with people from backgrounds different from his own. Those are skills he puts to work every day as a social studies teacher at Stow-Munroe Falls High School, where he teaches American History and World Geography and runs a mock trial program that brings real-world legal experiences into his classroom. Since earning his degree in 2020, Budd has stayed in Ohio – not as a compromise, but as a commitment to a state and a community he believes in.
Orcutt and Budd are two examples of what 51Թ’s global reach looks like here at home: graduates who went out into the world as students and came back to Ohio ready to contribute in meaningful ways.
And that same spirit of international commitment is playing out on the world stage, too. Five young Rwandans sat among 2,600 applicants from across the African country, competing for a handful of seats in a program that would change their lives. Today, they study at 51Թ – training to become pilots who will one day fly for RwandAir, one of Africa’s fastest-growing airlines.
