Dragons Alumni – Where Are They Now?

In celebration of our 30th year anniversary, we have been catching up with our Dragons Alumni. It’s thrilling to hear back from so many people after three, eight, and even 24 years from their student program. They’ve gone on to do amazing things — from accomplished academics to titans of the tech world to teachers to raising families…and even a few current Dragons instructors! We are inspired by their experiences and humbled to learn how traveling with Dragons can have incredible benefits that unfold and blossom over a lifetime. We hope you enjoy their stories.

Lauren (Gavin) Rebagliati  Nepal/Tibet Summer 1999, Thailand/Laos Summer 2000

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
I pursued a degree in Anthropology with focus in South Asia. This would have never happened without the experiences and exposure I had during my time with Dragons. My trips remain some of the richest, transforming experiences of my life.

What are you up to now?
I currently work in corporate technology which may sound a million miles removed from Dragons, however, I work with colleagues around the world and I’m better able to connect, reflect, and empathize with their many different life experiences.

Andrian Torres  Thailand Summer 1999

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
I was a 17 year old kid entering my senior year of high school and the opportunity to spend the summer in Thailand was something that never crossed my mind. Admittedly, participating in the trip wasn’t something I personally sought out. I was part of a program that supported “at-risk” youth from inner cities and this particular trip was the program chosen for me. I didn’t know then but the opportunity to learn the vibrant culture of Thailand through a homestay with a local family, Buddhist monastery and trekking/camping in the rainforest was life changing. I learned the importance of access and equity, that not everyone has the privilege of being able to partake in these types of trips let alone travel to a different country. I learned a worldview and a way of life beyond what I had and it made me passionate and hungry to learn and experience more. I was given this opportunity through the Summer Search Foundation and through their altruism, my professional career has been focused on service for others.

What are you up to now?
I spent four years as a teacher right after college, dedicated a year of service as part of an AmeriCorps program, and for the past 15 years have worked for a national service education based non-profit and currently work as a People Business Partner.

Kerry Schwarz  Mongolia Summer 2002

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
Dragons created a spiritual environment for me that allowed me to prune off old growth and dead branches and encourage fresh growth within my interests and personality. Immediately I had a new skill set and knowledge – how to backpack and camp in wild places, and connect and navigate the world – that led to multiple trips and jobs that shaped my life. However, perhaps the most important times were the parts of the experience that quietly nestled themselves in the wrinkles of my brain (and the depths of my heart) that I drew upon years later – resourcefulness, adaptability, making due with limited resources, the true power and might of human determination. Dragons experiences set off a chain of events, it was the beginning of a transformation, not a stand alone experience that ended when the summer was over. My trip ultimately shaped my international marriage and intercultural inlaw relationships. It would be impossible to pull apart all the interwoven threads, but the pieces that came from Dragons were woven deep inside the tapestry of my life, and have shaped it, and provided form and shape and strength from deep within.

What are you up to now?
I milk goats and homeschool kids in the early morning 🙂

Eli Bildner  Tibet Summer 2004

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
Dragons deepened my interest in language and cross-cultural connection, ultimately leading me to live abroad in China after college — where I met my now-wife (also a Dragons alumna, as it turns out!). Amazingly, I still remember some Tibetan, and we live a half mile or so from an amazing Tibetan monastery here in El Cerrito, CA.

Grace Trueman  Indonesia Semester Fall 2011

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
In so many ways! I feel strong links between where I am now and what I learned when I was 18-years-old, exploring some of Indonesia’s 18,000 islands. I am comfortable in new and foreign situations. I love using my senses, hand gestures, and intuition to find my way in a new place. I am happiest in nature when my phone has no service — disconnected to connect. I am still connected to most of the fine folks from my trip, and feel so lucky to have had their support and friendship with me through college, early adulthood, and beyond. We have gone on backpacking trips together, visited each other during work trips, and supported each other during tough shared experiences. I think of my time in Indonesia so fondly. I think of it often! Looking back, it was probably the most wild and free I have ever been. What a gift! 💛

What are you up to now?
Right after college I moved from Vermont to San Francisco for a job, after having never been here before. It’s been 7 years and I have built a community that I am so proud of and immensely grateful for. California has always called to my family, and there are now 9 of 15 of us living out here (including my 95-year-old grandma and 1-month-old nephew). I worked for five years at Allbirds, where I grew from a customer experience specialist to Learning & Development manager. During my time there, I helped open ~20 stores around the world. I now oversee manager development at Cruise, an autonomous vehicle company bringing electric, driverless rides to urban populations.

Oliver Rock  Southeast Asia Semester Fall 2014

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
My Dragons trip allowed me to have Laotian parents for a month, sleep swaying in a hammock in the warm darkness on a night ferry, swim with my friends in the glowing waves in the bay of Thailand and eat garlic crab, to speak with my hands and face in the language of laughter to monks in Luang Prabang. A boy in China looked through my camera — his first time ever seeing one. I too saw through a new lens that year, life stretched out before me and breathed in mountain air that smelled like traveling with friends. I still have some of that air in my lungs. The moments helped me take life slower, and wake up.

What are you up to now?
I garden for work and paint portraits in Washington. I travel to Portland, OR to take fiction writing classes.

Curious to know more about Oliver’s “now” photo? Here is what he had to share:
I joined a weekly-online-life-drawing group last year and this painter running it gave members a chance to be part of an art experiment. This painter, Dave, had handmade costumes from an art show which he gave each of us. His best friend is a hockey player. Dave invited us over to an event at his place where we were scanned. Now there are digital versions of us online forever in a museum, and something else is coming—we have much speculation about what it will be!
The artist featured is David Choe.

Sage Bennett  Nepal Semester Fall 2014

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
I was 18 when I decided I wanted to take a Gap Year, and do a semester trip with Dragons. It was truly one of the best decisions of my life. I chose the Nepal program because I loved the idea of backpacking through the Himalayas, staying at an ashram, studying the roots of yoga, exploring off the beaten path. I learned so much about the Nepali culture, ate the best food, and made lifelong friends. The trip influenced the ways I travel to this day — how to be more of a traveler and less of a tourist.

What are you up to now?
I have had a windy path to where I am now in my life. I studied environmental science in college, switched my major to film, did yoga teacher training, taught yoga for a bit, and ended up working in film. I write and direct and sometimes act in films, music videos, and commercials. I love filmmaking for so many reasons: traveling, telling stories, highlighting issues, the people I meet, and capturing and sharing the beauty of this life.

Cece Palmquist Nepal Semester Fall 2015, China Semester Spring 2016

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
To be completely honest, Dragons has impacted my life in ways I cannot even begin to measure. Coming out of high school, I had a strong desire to step outside the norm and hit pause on the traditional timeline of high school to university. I felt a bit more lost than some of my peers in terms of what direction I wanted to take, what I wanted to study in college, etc. During my year with Dragons (Nepal and China semesters), I didn’t exactly “find myself” or get a 100% clearer vision of what I wanted my life to be — Instead, I accepted that I am in a way permanently “lost”, always on a journey of sorts, but 100% comfortable with wherever I am at in the present moment. 

What are you up to now?

I work in the music industry full time. I was the day to day manager for Big Gigantic the last four years and help run a music and tech startup called Catalog. Outside of this, I do some public speaking at music business conferences and universities worldwide, put on events in the outdoor industry, and am a music supervisor for outdoor films! 

Abby Miranker  South America Semester Fall 2016

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
My experience with Dragons solidified my dedication to understanding the world through arts and culture. On my Dragons program, my worldview was completely changed by traveling to parts of Latin America that were deeply different from my own lived experience. I gained experience with travel which influenced my confidence to visit new countries on my own. I’ve been fortunate to combine this interest with my passion for using art as a lens to understand socio-political trends across the world.

What are you up to now?
In college I studied abroad twice: first in Italy in a fine arts intensive in the summer of 2019, and again in Mérida, Mexico for six months where I was enrolled as a student at a local university and living with a homestay family. I also wrote a senior thesis on Contemporary Cuban Photography where I traveled to Cuba twice on research grants — solo! After graduating, I worked at an academic nonprofit in Cambridge MA focusing on the organization’s internship program and building international partnerships. Now, I work in fine arts as a sales coordinator for the Latin American Art Department at Christie’s in New York.

Espoir DelMain  West Africa Semester Fall 2016

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
Becoming a Dragons instructor has been a huge learning point and dream come true for me. Of course, I knew my instructors were the coolest folks in the world as a student in 2016 and stepping into instructor shoes felt like a lot at times. But, working for Dragons and witnessing, as well as sharing the experience I had with students, has been incredibly empowering. It was powerful in that it solidified what Dragons taught me as a student and that these lessons we keep learning are important. The skills I have, not only to build community and relationship across cultures and borders, but also trip leading, risk management, communications and collaboration skills I grew in have been important to me in all the work I’ve done — such as canoe guiding, organic vegetable farming and most recently baking. These skills were also especially important in my 73 days paddling down the Mississippi River last fall, an attempt to make it to the Gulf of Mexico that I had to hit pause on, in order to take care of myself. Come to think of it, I think being a Dragons student and planning for the trek and modifying it given our circumstances of pink eye was probably a first big example of how sometimes the most important thing is to look at the situation and know when and where to turn back or say no if it’s gotten to be too much.

What are you up to now?
Currently working as a Dragons Instructor. (You can view Espoir’s website here).

Trisha Mukherjee  South America Semester Fall 2016

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
As I began my Dragons semester in Bolivia and Peru, I was excited to improve my Spanish, go trekking in the Andes, and see cool bugs and plants in the Amazon. I was utterly unaware of the true gift I would receive during my program: the people. My instructors fundamentally shifted how I see the world – Ellie encouraged my interest in human rights and shaped the rest of my career, Aaron taught me how to approach life’s challenges, both big and small, and Alan broadened my horizons until I realized that my worldview was just one of many possibilities, and I could learn so much by really listening to people. The friends I made on my program are still some of my closest today. My homestay family showed me, through their daily routines, how powerful warmth and welcome could be. My ISP mentor Eliana, a feminist activist, lit a fire that still burns bright inside of me. I will always be awed by the memories of the sunset over the salt flats, the lightning storms over the Andes, and the sound of frogs in the cloud forest. But what I carry with me every day is the indescribable impact the people I met on Dragons have had on me, an impact impossible to describe in one sentence, but one I have tried to put into words, if only as a small way to say thank you.

What are you up to now?
I’m a journalist focusing on international human rights stories, specifically immigration, women’s rights, the environment, and decolonization. I also love creating stories on travel and adventure. I live in New York City and spend a lot of my free time cycling around the city, exploring various neighborhoods, and practicing yoga. Although I love NYC, I also travel often (sometimes with Dragons friends!) to practice different languages and learn a little bit more about the vast world we live in.

Charlotte Biche  Nepal Semester Fall 2018

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
Dragons impacted my personal trajectory immensely, by changing the way I see my life and the world around me, which, of course, impacted my career trajectory. It left me with this yearning to do more traveling and gain more experiences like those I’d explored in Nepal. I’m actively saving money to go back to Kathmandu and see my homestay family again. I describe my time in Nepal as some of the best and worst experiences of my life. I mean that in the best way possible. It was grueling and life altering and sublime, all at once. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, and I’m so grateful for what it taught and showed me, and how it has enriched my life permanently. I’m eternally grateful for those at Dragons who put the program together, to the instructors in Nepal who guided and supported us, to the sherpas who carried our tents and food across the Himalayas, cooked for us after the sun and set on trek when it was freezing outside, to my homestay families who always welcomed me, fed me delicious food, and took care of me, to the monks and nuns at the nunnery just outside of Kathmandu who taught and shared their perspectives with me.

What are you up to now?
I’m the EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) Program Officer at The Neuro, Montreal’s Neurological Hospital/Institute.

Ivan Garcia  Bolivia Summer 2018

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
Dragons provided me with a gateway into a world that was unbeknownst to me. Embarking on my trip to Bolivia during my sophomore summer of high school, I had rarely traveled out of the country prior. I was expecting to explore a new country, and make new friends – but I walked away with that and so much more. Within my program, I was able to connect with the local culture through my amazing homestay (who welcomed me with open arms), through my independent study project where I had the opportunity to work with a local jeweler to make my own jewelry pieces, and through the stories and people I encountered everywhere, such as on treks, bus rides, and at my homestay. I truly have Dragons to thank for their intentionality in centering the stories of real people. Whenever I travel today, I am able to engage in responsible and intentional travel, centering the ideal of being a traveler and not just a tourist.

What are you up to now?
Today, I am an organizer and communicator in the electoral space, fighting for issues such as climate justice and a society that uplifts our most vulnerable people. I will always remember learning about issues such as the Bolivian water crisis, and local contention within Bolivia from locals, who have helped me develop my own ways of thinking and allowed me the ability to contextualize important issues, such as the 2019 Bolivian Coup.

Tate Michner  Nepal Summer 2018

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
My program gave me all the direction I could have asked for. It was the first time I heard the words, “outdoor education”, which sprung a lifetime of working and teaching outdoors. Along with that I think my program gave me more perspective, growing up in a small town in Oklahoma my knowledge of the world was quite limited. My course opened the world and taught me that going away from “home” was okay… as I’m writing this I’m a coffee shop in northern Thailand. 🙂

What are you up to now?
I am currently working as an lead instructor for Colorado Outward Bound in the summer and fall seasons. In the shoulder season I pick up work as a scuba instructor, ropes specialist for contractors and construction crews, and rock guiding for courses here and there. When there is space and the funds are there I am doing a lot of traveling abroad and connecting with new communities.

Adriana Lucero  Morocco Summer 2019

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
I was 18 years old when I was given the opportunity to participate in the Dragons program. I never imagined I would get the opportunity to travel to and live in Morocco for a month. I went backpacking through the Atlas mountains, got to explore different towns and I lived with two homestay families. I often think about those families and am very grateful that they were gracious enough to open their home to me and welcome me with open arms. The homestays truly allowed me to improve my communication skills, it allowed me to understand from a first person perspective the accessibility of others, and allowed me to understand different priorities in other countries. I always knew I had a passion for helping others and was interested in intercultural learning. This program allowed me to step out of my norm and explore more about myself but most importantly helped me to have a closer connection and understanding to others.

What are you up to now?
I am currently taking a phlebotomy program and enrolled in nursing school.

Sahra Sadik  West Africa Semester Spring 2022

How did your Dragons experience impact or influence your future path?
Since high school I’ve always dreamed about studying abroad and exploring the world. Traveling is a passion of mine and Where There Be Dragons literally made my dream come true. I got to experience life and culture outside of mine in Senegal — It was so beautiful. As a black muslim living in america i got to be surrounded by muslims all around me and I felt truly at home.I was able to fast during Ramadan in a muslim country. At the beginning of the trip I wanted to be away from my family but my travels taught me that family is the best thing. Now I also have a second family with the help of Dragons. My time away reinvigorated me and gave me the passion to start doing things again. Hopefully I can become a Dragons instructor in the future!

What are you up to now?
I am currently still in school. I am looking into nursing programs that will help me get into travel nursing. I am also running for Miss Oregon international ambassador. Which is very exciting.

Are you an Alum?

Connecting with alumni is one of the most rewarding aspects of what we do. We’d love to hear what YOU have been up to, so please stay in touch. Shoot us an email ([email protected]) or give a call at 800.982.9203.