This article illustrates the importance of preparation for professors who take students overseas. A University of Washington study-abroad program in Ghana that was cut short last summer after the medical evacuation of half of its participants highlights the potential hazards associated with programs led by individual faculty members who may lack the experience of seasoned study-abroad administrators. Such risks are of increasing concern to colleges. Short-term, faculty-organized trips are proliferating, as colleges see them as a way to expand access to, and participation in, study abroad. Risk-management experts and campus study-abroad administrators say the success of such programs often depends on the expertise of their faculty leaders and, particularly in developing countries, on the support of local partners, who provide educational opportunities, housing, or other services. They also say that risk can be greatly diminished through proper training of faculty members and careful vetting of overseas providers. Seventeen students enrolled in the for-credit program and traveled in August to a remote, rural village where they were to work with a local nongovernmental organization on projects like HIV-AIDS and malaria prevention, livestock management, and microfinance. Students said the conditions in Ghana were not what they expected.