This autoethnographic case study examines the ways in which high school students and teachers' behaviors, values, and attitudes were transformed during their participation on a semester-long study abroad program in Central America. The study found that an integrative pedagogical approach in which place-based content was paired with place-based experience as well as critical reflection was the most effective process by which teachers facilitated transformation in students' behaviors, values and attitudes. Additionally, an interdisciplinary approach developed by faculty-members resulted in a high degree of student transformation as well as a transformation in teachers' own behaviors, values, and attitudes. This study is valuable for administrators and course planners in grades 9-12 as well as in higher ed. in devising curricular and pedagogical approaches for study abroad programming that effectively facilitates student transformation.