As a baseball junkie, TCU junior Amy Otte knows that the objective in her favorite sport is to make it home safe. But to better understand the business of baseball, the Denver native has journeyed to a place where success in the sport often means leaving home.

Otte is participating in a six-week summer study abroad program in the Dominican Republic, where beisbol is seen as both a way of life and a way out. The program uses the game known as America’s pastime as a lens through which to study Caribbean culture and ethics.

Run by CIEE, a non-governmental organization that promotes education through foreign study, the study abroad program lets Otte meet — and learn from — agents, coaches, trainers, administrators and, of course, the baseball players themselves.

“During my trip, I want to gain a better understanding of what baseball means to the country and its citizens,” says Otte, who is pursuing a double major at TCU in Spanish and accounting.

Far from simply serving as a networking opportunity, the study abroad program consists of six hours of coursework that challenges students from various U.S. universities to consider difficult moral and economic questions. For example, is it ethical to recruit prospective talent at a very young age, prompting the island teens to dream of trading lives of poverty for the posh pro-athlete lifestyle — even though most will never make it?

“I am eager to gain a firsthand look into the life of Dominican baseball players as they grow up and try to make it to the big leagues,” says Otte, who has worked for the Colorado Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate in Colorado Springs the past two summers and is president of the TCU Sports Networking Club. “Baseball is a very fitting lens through which to study Dominican culture because it is so central to life there, especially for young men.”

Otte’s cultural enrichment includes weekly excursions to baseball camps and various distinct neighborhoods of Santo Domingo. She’s also staying with a host family she hasn’t met or had contact with before arriving in the Dominican.

It could be the first of many visits to the islands for Otte, who says she would like to someday become the director of Latin American relations for a major league franchise or the director of Dominican relations for all of major league baseball.

“I believe that this experience will give me an advantage over other job seekers who are also pursuing a career in the competitive field of sports business,” she says.