Alumni Spotlight | Nicho and Jake
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Alumni Spotlight | Nicho and Jake

For most of our alumni, their Rustic experience doesn’t end just because their program is over. Our alumni return home and create clubs to help support their program’s community service initiatives, make videos about their experiences, start blogs—we even have a few alumni that have done TedTalks! These experiences stay with you, and have inspired some pretty cool projects that we want to share with the Rustic community.

For our first spotlight, we have two awesome videos made by alumni after their experiences this past summer. First up is Nicho Ader, who explored Peru on the Off the Map program. We asked Nicho how he changed after his trip and this is what he had to say:

“Before I went on Rustic Pathways I didn’t like traveling or experiencing the world. However, on my trips I learned that the world has so much to offer and it is amazing. Now I am eager to try new things and go out and see the world.”

Check out Nicho’s video from his time in Peru!

Our second awesome video is from Jake Pynn, who traveled to the Dominican Republic on the Mountain Air and Village Service program.

This is what Jake had to say when we asked him about his experience:

“This trip and experience to the Dominican Republic was one of the best things I have ever done in my life. Throughout this trip I videotaped just about every moment. When I got home I started creating a video. This video took about 10 weeks to create after going through about 36 hours worth of footage. This film happened to be one of the best I have ever created. I would now like to share my experience with other kids and inspire them to help and travel the world.”

Thanks to Nicho and Jake for sharing their videos! Keep an eye out for more alumni spotlights here on the blog and on social media.

Are you an alum that started a club, made a video, launched an initiative, or were inspired in some way after you returned from your program? Email alumni@rusticpathways.com and tell us about it!

About the Author

Lauren Anderson

Program Staffing and Training Director

Lauren joined Rustic Pathways in 2008 after graduating from Emory University. She spent her first six years in Costa Rica overseeing our operations and seasonal staff. Lauren then formed our Alumni Association where she developed programs for continuing student involvement. She now uses her extensive skill set to continue to improve the hiring and training of all program leaders across the globe. Lauren lives in Chicago, travels often, and enjoys maintaining her Spanish fluency.