While leading students to Thailand for an eight-week undergraduate research experience, we observed challenges in stacking the high-impact practices of study abroad and undergraduate research and became compelled by the usefulness of an Ethics of Care approach to facilitate the kind of transformation these practices can have for students. We observed students during the trip and conducted interviews with them after the trip. From those observations and interviews, we conclude that Care Ethics is particularly helpful for mitigating the risks of emotional exhaustion, for navigating dependency and vulnerability, and for re-framing student difficulties in positively transformative ways. Faculty can facilitate the advantages of high-impact practices by: treating emotions as pedagogical sources for learning; acknowledging dependencies; identifying vulnerabilities; devoting attention to how public and private spaces are framed; and cultivating care as a feminist and anti-racist practice.