Devon grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and got his start in the world of travel through a high school study abroad opportunity during the summer of his freshman year. This propelled him to explore other travel and adventure opportunities through outdoor recreation such as: backpacking, skiing, climbing and biking.
While attending University of California at Santa Barbara, Devon became a student trip leader with the UCSB Excursion Club, and discovered his passion for getting other students out in nature and beyond their comfort zones so they could learn important lessons about independence, preparedness, and empathy through shared struggles. He also spent one semester participating in a study abroad program in Argentina and Chile. After the completion of the program he remained in South America for an additional 5 months backpacking across Argentine & Chilean Patagonia, the Brazilian Coast, and the Atacama Desert.
After graduating with a degree in film and media studies with a concentration in critical cultural studies, he began working full time in the outdoor recreation industry in a variety of roles such as: Whitewater Guide, Trip Leader, and Freeride Ski Coach. These opportunities helped provide a deep understanding of the importance of experiential learning and gave him time to explore his passion for further education through independent travel. His favorite trips have been: a 3 month bike-packing expedition through Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru; a month of art history research in London and Paris, and a month-long journey with friends through Spain.
With an extensive personal background in travel and hands-on discovery, Devon came across Rustic Pathways while searching for an opportunity to leverage his travel experience and understanding of global learning objectives after leaving the seasonal outdoor recreation industry and looking for somewhere with more stability and room to grow.
He is excited to be joining Rustic Pathways and helping them partner with organizations and students to achieve their own sense of independence and global connection. So far, he has thoroughly enjoyed getting to work alongside a team that is motivated to not only provide memorable travel experiences, but to also root those experiences in thoughtful service learning initiatives that center the students in the lives and environment of local communities.
As he continues to work with Rustic Pathways he is hoping to be able to infuse more elements from his past in outdoor recreation and fuse them with the strong ethos of outdoor education that is built into Rustic Pathways. This may include helping to build out international travel experiences based around backpacking, bike-packing, rafting etc; as well as infusing important concepts such as: Leave No Trace, sustainability, problem-solving, and team building into programs that seek to achieve goals that are in line with this type of curriculum. He also can’t wait to tag along and see first-hand how much students grow on the immersive programs that Rustic Pathways offers!
Read more about the Rustic Pathways team. Learn about Rustic Pathways summer travel programs.