GoBeyond Student Travel

Adventure! I always wanted to do something unusual and outside of the box that would provide me with both a learning experience and the opportunity to meet new people. I knew there was a world outside of the small bubble that I lived in, and I wanted to go and explore that. 

What inspired you to travel abroad?

After college, I spent around five years bouncing from seasonal camp jobs in the U.S. to personal travels abroad. My two primary passions at the time were working with youth in non-traditional educational settings and traveling, especially to developing countries. At some point, it occurred to me that I might combine these two passions into a career. I hopped online and found Lifeworks International (now GoBeyond Student Travel) via a simple Google search.  I didn’t realize at the time, but that simple act would set the stage for much of my personal and professional present-day life. I applied to the program and was lucky enough to be hired as a summer service-adventure guide for the Ecuador and Galapagos program in 2007. At the time, I was also pursuing a Masters in Experiential Education. I needed an internship for graduation and ended up at the Lifeworks office in 2008.  I grew into my current role quickly after that, and now the rest is history!

What inspired you to travel abroad?

Working with GoBeyond was an easy extension of the work I was already doing as an environmental and experiential educator. Having the ability to move into an international capacity while working to inspire the next generation of environmental advocates was always a dream of mine, so when a friend suggested I look into GoBeyond I was thrilled. My first program with GoBeyond was the Ecuador and Galapagos Islands journey called “Protecting Darwin’s Discoveries”—from that first adventure I knew that this was where I wanted to be and that I wanted to continue traveling in this way.