Tyler Clark

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Avid reader and lover of tacos. Tyler has been building libraries with his wife since 2015. He is passionate about how books bring hope and has seen the effects of how reading cultures impact entire communities.

What is your favorite travel memory?

My favorite memory is waking up in the morning in the mountains of Veracruz, Mexico and seeing the sunrise over the mist-covered peaks. It was the most beautiful scene I had ever seen. Add the sounds of a farm waking up and the smells of Mexico, it was amazing! I just sat there looking over the landscape happy to be alive.

How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?

I have increased my awareness in the beauty of different cultures and the many things we can learn from them. Each culture has something beautiful that we need in our lives; every individual has something we can learn from them. I have learned to listen more and talk less. Each person around the world has made me a better person.

What is the best story you've heard from a return student?

After a week of working in a village in the mountains, in which we worked alongside the locals to build a library, I was talking with one of the volunteers and he told me through tears, "I blame you for these tears and giving me the best week of my life, I will never be the same!" He went on to continue serving and doing great things in his life.

If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?

All of them are amazing, but I would have to say one of my favorite places in Malawi, Africa. The country is beautiful, but most importantly the people are some of the most welcoming and warm I have ever met. They are so eager for education and will risk their lives to obtain it. They will become a great country in the coming years if they can just receive the right tools.

What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?

We have amazing relationships with the leaders of the communities we serve, enough so many of them feel like family. Our Nepal contact is so close with my family, the next time we go out there we will do a ritual where his children will become like my own and mine his.

Our staff is passionate about our purpose and making a real generational difference as we love the people we serve.

What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?

Listening to the real needs of each community and expecting them to be joint partners in the project. We don't ever give a library we work WITH the community to build a library. Hence the library is more theirs than ours. Our staff is all volunteer and show the same level of passion as I do to make sure every child has the chance to read.