My name is Holly Lippman and I am a three time Rustic alumna! I just graduated from the University of South Florida with a major in Marketing with a concentration in Supply Chain Management and a minor in Spanish Language.

I accepted a job with the start up Givsly, in New York City. Givsly is a for-purpose company built around the belief that as the world around us evolves, so should our options to create social impact. Givsly strives to develop new ways of creating impact by thinking differently about how everyday tasks and resources can give back.

I could write an entire thesis on how my Rustic experience played such a pivotal role in my teenage years, it truly shaped me as a person.

When Rustic Pathways visited my high school, I instantly knew it was something I wanted to do. When I asked my parents if I could go to Costa Rica, they laughed at me and told me “”we’re not paying for that.” So after that I saved up all my birthday and babysitting money and I bought myself that Surf and Service trip to Costa Rica.

Without even experiencing my first Rustic trip I had already learned so much about hard work and determination.

After that first trip I was hooked, the next year I was so excited to go some where new. I decided to save up again to go on the Highlands and Islands trip in Fiji. This trip is the one that changed my life forever and truly shaped my future. I absolutely fell in love with the people from Fiji and Nasivikoso.

The next summer I was dying to go back, but it was my last summer of high school so I decided I needed to experience a new place so I signed up to go to Ghana.

It turned out that not enough people signed up to go on my trip so Rustic asked me to sign up for a different trip, I saw that as a sign and signed up for Highlands and Islands again. Let me tell you that was 100% the right choice, going back to Nasivikoso was the most special experience of my entire life and I had a new baby host sister that I had to meet!!

After all three of my trips, I knew that I wanted to continue to travel and dedicate my career to making a difference in the world. My freshman year of college I interned at an NGO in Ecuador and then studied abroad in Spain and lived with a host family.

The next summer I loved Spain so much that I decided to go back and be an au pair and live with a local family. The next summer, I interned in New York City for Givsly, the social impact company.

I know that without Rustic Pathways my story would be so different. At 22 years old these experiences from when I was 15-18 years old are still making such a huge impact on my life. I can’t wait until I have kids so I can vicariously live through them when I inspire them to go on Rustic trips!!