Sam is an adventure enthusiast who has spent time living in both New England and Colorado. She has road tripped extensively around the continent, from Canada to Central America, which has aided in her development of our North America programs. In addition to her home continent, Sam has traveled all over Europe, Oceania, Asia, and Latin America. After numerous summers leading trips with TFT, she became a member of our Sales and Marketing team!
What is your favorite travel memory?
My favorite travel memory is the last night I spent in the backcountry on a 9-day trek in the Andean mountains of Peru. I had wanted to complete this trek for years but knew it involved an immense amount of preparation and planning. At our final campsite, not only was I overwhelmed with the feeling of accomplishment, but the beauty of my surroundings took my breath away.
A man who had lived in the area where I camped with my companion offered to cook us trout caught from the pristine alpine lake we were set up by and we took him up on the offer! We had a delicious meal in an incredible place knowing we had completed something we had longed to for years.
How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?
I started as an ambitious counselor who wanted to make Travel For Teens her full-time career. Over the course of the last nine years that I have been with this company, I have grown and learned so much about how travel positively influences today's youth and myself as well. Travel For Teens fosters growth in everyone it touches and spreads a love for authentic travel around the world.
What is the best story you've heard from a return student?
The best story I've ever heard from a returning student is that, after traveling on our Hawaii Sea Turtle Service program, he had started an environmental awareness club at his school--and he was the president! It was really special to me that this student had felt so strongly about what he learned about recycling and sustainability in Hawaii that he wanted to share it with others.
To me, that is what Travel For Teens is all about: exposing today's youth to the world and all of its different cultures, beauty, needs, and teaching them to respect these cultures, maintain this beauty, and help our world's needs.
If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?
I would go on the Hawaii program over and over again because I feel passionate about our planet and sharing my love for sustainability with them. You have the opportunity not only to work with an endangered species while on the beautiful island of Maui but you see a beach on the North Shore that is infamous for collecting hundreds of thousands of tons of micro pieces of plastics that have traveled from the beautiful beaches of Hawaii from California and Asia. It really paints a picture of where the plastic fork you leave on the beach in LA ends up.
What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?
We are unique because we allow our students to feel like a local instead of a member of a tour group. We don't travel in huge groups of 30 to chain restaurants and ride massive tour buses. We take local transportation and make food a part of our itinerary. It's important to us that our students feel like they've learned how to be a traveler at the end of their trip.
I was especially proud to be a part of this team when I was off in a small group visiting a museum a group of kids had wanted to see while a different group was at a market with a different leader. We ran into a different company who were all wearing matching backpacks following a leader with a giant pink sign in a straight line. They stuck out like a sore thumb and myself and my small group looked like a traveling family which, by that point, we were.
What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?
I think being honest and passionate about what you are selling makes all the difference in a successful company. The people that run TFT truly love what they do and believe in the product they are endorsing. This is enhanced by the natural honest the comes with truly believing in what you are giving and that leads to happy customers.
