What inspired you to work for Omnia Abroad?
I am carefully practicing doing hangul calligraphy while in Seoul, South Korea
The idea for Omnia Abroad was born while I was on a train in Yorkshire, England. I was getting ready to move back to the United States after teaching English in St. Petersburg, Russia for a couple of years, and I had gone to England to visit a friend. While I was taking a train from Manchester back to my friend's place in Leeds, I was thinking about what I wanted to do next.
I thought about all the places I had seen and people I had met over the past few years during my time overseas, and how lots of these experiences happened because I had learned to speak Russian. I decided I wanted to help others learn languages and have these kinds of experiences too, even though I wasn't quite sure how to do that.
In the following years I had opportunities to work with both outgoing and incoming study abroad students, and I was lucky enough to be able to travel both professionally and personally. I eventually ended up at the University of Michigan's entrepreneurial studies department for several years where I worked with students who were starting their own businesses. My work with them showed me this is something that I could do, and after some serious soul-searching during the pandemic I decided to take the leap!
By the way, Omnia Abroad's origin story is featured in our logo. The hills are the green hills of Yorkshire, and the stars represent the song Constellations by Enter Shikari (which is what I was listening to on the train that day).
Why do you do what you do?
I think this is best reflected in Omnia Abroad's mission statement: to use language education to create greater understanding between people, places, and cultures. I've witnessed the doors that open when someone speaks more than one language, and I want to help others on their language-learning journey.
What is your favorite part of your job?
I've spent years and years learning languages, and now I regularly get to use them at work. The only time I had been able to use my Spanish at work had been when I worked at a shoe store in college, but that all changed when we launched our Spanish program. I used my Spanish for just about everything that went into this program, from booking flights within South America to going on student excursions, and I still correspond with our partners in Medellin entirely in Spanish.
I'm also using my Russian to build our new Russian program that will be launching in 2024. I love that I'm able to put my skills to good use like this. I can also see how much our partners appreciate it. Some of them like teaching me new things too, which is really fun.
What are some current projects you are working on?
As I mentioned, we'll hopefully be launching a Russian language program in early 2024. Omnia Abroad's first program was supposed to be in St. Petersburg, Russia, but obviously that all changed in March 2022. The Ukraine invasion and the turmoil it caused within Russia shows how important it is to study Russian.
American students likely won't be able to study safely in Russia for a very long time, but there are a lot of great places to study Russian outside of Russia. You'll have to wait and see where our program will be though!
Enjoying the gorgeous sites while hiking up the Rainbow Mountain Palccoyo in Peru.
What advice would you tell your pre-travel self?
Listen more than you speak. You may think you know how someone feels about their government, culture, native cuisine, public transportation system, etc. but you probably don't. Give others the chance to tell their story, and be curious about it.
Also, brush your teeth before leaving the airport after a long-haul flight. I can't remember who told me this, but it's shocking how something so small can make you feel so much better.
What makes Omnia Abroad special?
Omnia Abroad is the only study abroad provider focused specifically on language programs. We work with universities who are known for their language education programs, and we run our cultural program entirely in the local language. Our staff both in the U.S. and overseas are polyglots as well, so our programs are coming from a multilingual environment. Finally, we operate in less common study abroad destinations outside of Western Europe, such as Asia, South America, and Africa, where it's a little more difficult to find a language-focused study abroad program.
Why should someone choose Omnia Abroad over competitors?
Omnia Abroad is for anyone whose goal is to improve their language skills. The majority of study abroad programs keep students in an English bubble, even if they take place in a non English-speaking country. This can be really discouraging for students who want to interact with the local language.
Omnia Abroad puts language learning first, and our programs are designed to have students using their language skills both in and out of the classroom. We also have our students interact with other program participants in the local language, which feels a little weird at first, but it's still critical practice time.
What hopes do you have for the future for Omnia Abroad?
So many hopes for the future! My main hope is fairly simple though: launch more programs. I would love to see Omnia Abroad offer programs in Arabic, Swahili, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, maybe even Greek, and there are so many university study abroad offices that are overwhelmed nowadays and could use the programming help. Building these programs takes time though and at this point it's just a matter of being patient and taking the time it requires to build these programs the right way.
What is Omnia Abroad's mission and how do you continue to work toward it?
Omnia’s mission is to use language education to create greater understanding between people, places, and cultures. By creating ties at the citizen level, our programs seek to show what unites the people of the world and foster a more peaceful, prosperous society. We do this both through our programs by involving our students in local life both in and out of the classroom.
We strive to provide them with experiences that take place in the local language so they can see the most authentic version of their host city. We also prioritize real-world language application in our day to day work. We put forth effort to do business in the local language, especially when it comes to working with our partners (I'm actually learning Korean so I can speak with our partners in Seoul).
I was so excited in this photo because I was traveling to Guatape in Colombia!
What do you hope participants take away from your programs?
First and foremost, I hope my students leave their program with improved language skills and the confidence to use them. Learning a language takes a lot of work, and I want our programs to be a big stepping stone toward their language-learning goals. I also hope our students have a greater appreciation for the world's diversity while also recognizing those universal experiences that unite us.
If you could participate on one of Omnia Abroad's programs, where would you go and what would you do?
This is a hard question. Since I can only read Korean, going to Seoul for our Intensive Korean program would be a great way to advance my language skills. I'm also a huge fan of Korean food and would like to improve my Korean cooking. However, I love being in Medellin, and after doing a program there I would probably be speaking Spanish with a paisa accent… so can I do both?
Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?
I mentioned this in one of my other answers, but travel is important so we can not only appreciate the world's diversity, but also appreciate universal experiences that unite us. My family came to visit me when I was working in St. Petersburg, Russia, and my dad told me that one night he and my mom went for a walk in a park by their hotel. There was a playground there, and a bunch of little kids running around playing while their parents were watching. He said it reminded him of how he used to take my brother and me to the playground when we were little.
He then realized that even though he didn't speak Russian and wasn't able to talk with anyone at the park, these people likely did a lot of the same things he did: played with their kids, had drinks with their friends, got tired after a long day of work, went to weddings and funerals. We're all human, even though that's easy to forget sometimes.
Why do you think learning a new language is important?
There's a Czech proverb (that's actually on Omnia Abroad's website) that translates to, "The more languages you speak, the more lives you live." There are so many people in the world who don't speak English, and so many connections and experiences you lose out on when you only speak one language.
Learning a new language also gives you a new way of understanding the world around you. Every language uses elements like grammar, vocabulary, and syntax differently, and this difference in how a language explains the world can affect your perception. It's the ultimate example of looking at things from someone else's perspective.
What advice do you have for individuals thinking about going abroad?
It's never too late to study abroad. There's this belief that if you don't study abroad by your junior year of undergrad you've missed your chance, but that's just not true. I've met so many people in their late 20s and 30s who went abroad, and I personally studied abroad myself when I was 31. If this is something you want to do, you absolutely can!
This is a photo of me when I was studying abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia, September 2010.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
For me, the heart of meaningful travel is curiosity. Travel should be a learning experience instead of a trophy. Each place has its own story to tell, and you miss it by reducing it to a couple of photos that look good on social media.
Taking the time to learn about the history, people, and language (even if it's just a few words or phrases) not only shows the respect that any place deserves, but also makes it a richer and more memorable experience. That curiosity also allows you to learn more about yourself, which is one of the most important parts of travel.
What hopes do you have for the future of international education?
My hope for international education is that it becomes a priority for younger students. The U.S. higher education system has come up with a lot of creative ways to integrate international education, but these same opportunities aren't available for most K-12 students.
Study after study shows that language acquisition is far easier for younger learners, but most language study doesn't start until high school. Most grade school curricula don't include world history, geography, or world culture classes either. Younger students, especially elementary-aged students, are so curious by nature, so why wouldn't they want to learn about the world beyond their backyard?