Lauren Cain

MA in Sustainable Communities from Northern Arizona University
BS in Elementary Education & Science Education from Northern Arizona University

Arizona Teacher Certification, WFR Certification, RYT Yoga Instructor

Lauren has worked with Dragons since 2017, instructing a Nepal semester and a summer course in Guatemala. This will be her first year serving as one of the On-Site Directors for the Bridge Year Princeton Program in India. Lauren has spent the last ten years in the field of outdoor and international education, working for leading organizations including National Geographic Student Expeditions, Outward Bound, The Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning, and Carpe Diem Education. Lauren’s love for travel was born from a set of highly adventurous educator parents who moved her family to Australia when she was in elementary school. Their passion for diverse cultures and life-long learning instilled in Lauren a deep desire to see the world and to be an educator. She truly believes in the transformative power of travel and the effect it can have on making us global citizens of the world.

Lauren obtained a bachelor’s degree in science education, and taught earth science and biology for a few years in the public school systems in the U.S., after which she returned to graduate school and earned a MA in Sustainable Communities. Her research focused on the development of an ecological consciousness through alternative educational institutions and outdoor education. She worked closely with place-based school garden programs for youth and created an ecocentric educational curriculum. She enjoys incorporating science and sustainability topics into all of the programs she runs.

Lauren first visited India in 2012 to complete a Hatha yoga teacher certification and fell in love with this part of the world. Most of her professional work brought her back to the Himalayas in Nepal, where she worked with non-profit organizations focused on women’s rights and led youth on cultural expeditions. She is overjoyed to join the BYP team and return to India this year.

When not working abroad, Lauren lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. She works for a place-based public school program that leads river and land expeditions on the Colorado Plateau for diverse populations and underserved youth. You can often find her exploring canyons, playing with her puppy, learning new songs on the guitar, and reading avidly.

“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.”
― Pico Iyer