Melissa Hartnett felt good about her Spanish writing and reading skills after years of studying in high school and college.

But it wasn’t until she studied last fall in San Jose, Costa Rica, that she felt confident speaking the language.

“I don’t have to stop and think about it,” said Hartnett, who graduated in May from Kansas University and now works in the Office of Study Abroad. “I feel completely at home with the language.”

More students like Hartnett are including study in foreign countries in their college education, according to a new report. The report, “Open Doors,” shows KU’s study-abroad rate is the fourth-highest in the country among public universities. One in four KU students who graduated in the 2002-2003 school year studied abroad.

“It is high,” said Susan Gronbeck-Tedesco, director of the Office of Study Abroad. “Students are coming to us looking for a way to differentiate themselves from other job applicants when they leave KU, and more faculty are making connections internationally, so they’re coming to us with more programs.”

KU ranked behind the universities of North Carolina, Delaware and Virginia in percentage of students who studied abroad for the year. Those universities had 34.6 percent, 32.7 percent and 31.7 percent participation, respectively.

The report, published by the Institute of International Education, ranked KU 19th nationally for total number of students enrolled in study abroad, with 1,040. That was up 12 percent from 929 a year earlier. Gronbeck-Tedesco said final numbers from the 2003-2004 school year were not yet available.

Melissa Hartnett, far right, poses with friends from the University of Costa Rica in San Jose during her study abroad semester in fall 2003. Kansas University ranked fourth among public universities for percentage of students graduating in the 2002-2003 year who studied abroad.

KU currently has 100 programs in about 50 countries. Gronbeck-Tedesco said her office was in the process of adding nine programs.

She said she would like to increase the number of students studying abroad to 2,000 annually. She said adding more programs, getting departments to integrate study abroad in the major requirements and increasing financial aid all would help toward that goal.

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“I’d rather like to get more students abroad,” she said. “I’m not so concerned about the rankings.”