Jackson Cooper

B.A. in Anthropology, Magna Cum Laude, Columbia University

Jackson grew up in Colorado among rocky mountains and fragrant pine trees. After graduating from Boulder High School, he took a gap year and worked, volunteered, and traveled in South America and Europe. During that time, he honed his Spanish skills and dabbled in Portuguese and French. He also discovered the joys of farming and rock climbing and the thrill of the open road.

As an undergraduate at Columbia University, Jackson majored in anthropology and studied Chinese and Spanish. He spent summers working on farms in Costa Rica and Colorado and on an archaeological dig in China. Jackson joined Dragons in 2013. He has led programs in China, Peru, and Bolivia, and has held various administrative roles, including Partnerships Coordinator and Staffing Director. In addition to his work with Dragons, Jackson has taught middle school English on the Navajo Nation, guided climbing and rafting trips in Montana, converted front lawns across Denver into organic vegetable gardens, and worked as a field ecologist in the mountains and grasslands around Boulder.

Jackson has always approached travel as an educational experience and found it to be at least as valuable as his formal education. His goal is for every Dragons student to have a transformational experience – learning as much as possible from their travels as they discover a new culture, a new land, and perhaps even a new self.