Hannah’s passion for experiential learning began during her semester abroad in Chile and has only grown since. She earned a masters degree in Higher Education with a focus on international education and students affairs, and brings a breadth of experience managing and running group travel programs. At Rustic Pathways, she supports educators in their goals to provide students with opportunities for meaningful community engagement and to foster a sense of global citizenship through our programs. Hannah lives in Chicago, where you can find her playing beach volleyball, running along the lakeshore, or on a quest to find the best dumplings in the city!
Learn more in our interview with Hannah.
What have your own international travels entailed?
I grew up in a big road-trip family. The first country that I visited outside the US was when we crossed the Canadian border in our jam-packed Astrovan. We took our roadtrip-mobile all over the US, and I was also fortunate enough to travel to Mexico and visit with family in Scotland, Ireland, Hungary, and Italy. I developed a sense of comfort in the discomfort of travel. In high school, I went on a spring break trip to visit a friend’s family in Puerto Rico and a service trip to Nicaragua, where I fell in love with the Spanish language and Latin American culture.
I decided to study Spanish in college and spent a semester abroad living with a host family in Valparaíso, Chile and studying at a local university. In short, that semester forever changed the way I view travel. When I returned home to work in the study abroad office at my university, I realized that I could make a career out of supporting students as they venture out on their own life-changing experiences abroad. That led me to a Higher Education master’s program and a graduate assistant position in the university’s international office, where I helped coordinate faculty-led study abroad programs and assisted on an exchange program back to Chile.
After graduate school and a global pandemic, I continued on in the international education field, where I have coordinated and led academic programs in Spain, Australia, Costa Rica, and Singapore, with some personal travel along the way. I don’t think I was made to stay in one place, and my personal desire to continuously learn and grow through travel resonates in my professional life, as well.
What is the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
The most fulfilling aspect of my job is connecting with educators, learning about their goals and dreams for their students, and helping to make those dreams a reality. I love being a part of the pre-departure process, fostering excitement for programs and ensuring educators, students, and families feel as prepared as possible for travel.
Why do you view travel as an essential part of every education?
From my experience, the most impactful growth and learning takes place outside of our comfort zones – when we put ourselves in environments that challenge us to step outside of what we know and see things with a new perspective.
Traveling with purpose does just that. It allows us to apply what we’ve learned while inviting us to open our eyes, minds, and hearts to experience life firsthand in a way that you cannot fully grasp from textbooks, classrooms, or media. We develop organic connections with people, cultures, food, music, landscapes, institutions, literature, history, nature… and if given the space to process these experiences fully, even the smallest connections can stick with us for the rest of our lives and grow into an essential part of who we are, how we see the world, and our place in the world.
I believe experiential learning through travel provides a holistic context to our education and helps cultivate a more engaged and empathetic global community.
What makes Rustic Pathways different from other international program providers?
At Rustic Pathways, we provide more than travel opportunities. Our commitment to developing meaningful engagement with communities is reflected in everything we do. You can see the direct impact clearly in our intentional in-country partnerships and in our approach to sustainable and community-sourced service initiatives. Educators should expect excellence from our staff and programs because we expect it from ourselves.
Read more about the Rustic Pathways team. Learn about Rustic Pathways programs.