Please give a brief background on yourself and your career.
I graduated Wellesley in 2008 with little to no idea what I wanted to do with myself. I graduated with a major in art history and a minor in cinema and media studies; I especially loved modern and contemporary art and the visual language of persuasion — it was just so interesting to me.
When I graduated, I moved to Washington, D.C., a city I fell in love with after doing the Wellesley in Washington summer internship program, where I had broadcasted news in Portuguese to the Lusophone countries of Africa with Voice of America. When I arrived in my new home, I scored an internship at the Embassy of Portugal, where I worked under the social counselor to the ambassador. I tried to get my hands into as many different issues in D.C. as possible. When I wasn’t at the embassy, I was trying out PR with Edelman, and waiting tables at Busboys and Poets, a local restaurant with a very activist-heavy, bohemian vibe. I loved it.
At a friend’s picnic, I met Ned, who used to be the director of the Peace Corps in São Tomé and Príncipe, a former Portuguese colony off the west coast of Africa. He now runs a non-profit there that continues many of the same activities that the Peace Corps did. After hearing that he often hosts volunteers in his home in exchange for their help, I put together a fundraising campaign and got myself over to São Tomé. It was there that I started working with the One Laptop per Child program, which eventually took me to Haiti and around the Caribbean. Most recently, I worked as a grant officer for Rotary International, acting as a consultant for Rotary club members wishing to do service projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, and allocating grant funding.
It was also there that I started blogging about being a woman in the world, especially in the context of global citizenship, gender norms and expectations, and access (access as a woman; access as a foreigner). Slowly my blog started to become a sort of online magazine, sharing the voice of a small group of women travelers. That was back in 2009. It was about two years ago that we realized this was really something – we were addressing a sort of gritty, incredibly relevant, and under-discussed topic when we decided to skip the “beach vacations” and focus on global mindedness in a feminist context. We started to plan events for women travelers to foster this discussion.
Today, we’re Go Girl Travel Network (travelgogirl.com), a resource and community for 10,000 female travelers. Online, our 30 internationally based writers share their experiences and tips about women’s issues and travel. Off the web, we have six meetup groups (3 in the US, 2 in Canada and one in Brazil, and growing) for travelers to get together, connect with one another, and engage with the world. It was this January that I left my job at Rotary and went full time with Go Girl Travel Network and I haven’t looked back. I’m getting my MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. This March, Go Girl hosted the first-ever Women in Travel Summit (witsummit.com) for female travel bloggers and brands. We had 183 women join us from 25 U.S. states and 8 countries. We’re expecting about 300 women next year, and are doing it in a city Wellesley knows well – Boston!
How has your career changed since you originally envisioned it at Wellesley? What other careers did you consider as a student?
Never in a million years would I have been able to guess that I’d be in business school today and running my own company. I think I wanted to do almost everything but that while at Wellesley. I thought I’d work in communications, maybe broadcasting at a radio station, working for a magazine (which I guess I sort of do now), or working in television.
On other days I thought I’d go deep into art history and work at a museum – you don’t know how many museum jobs I applied to in D.C. (only to learn that everyone and their mother was applying for those same jobs). I considered politics, but didn’t know enough about policy. I ended up settling in international development for a while, and I like to think that I still live in that world, at least a little bit. I am deeply passionate about social enterprise and mission-based businesses, using local resources to solve local problems, and creating sustainable, durable solutions for communities and supporting emerging markets.
How has Wellesley contributed to your career?
Just yesterday I was having a phone conversation with a fellow Wellesley alum who is launching a really neat app with lots of ties to the travel world. When I told her about Go Girl Travel Network and how it has grown, she laughed and said, “That is so Wellesley.” I laughed too – it really is. I know we always had jokes about “That Girl” in college, but the fact of the matter is, when we stepped into the real world, I think we all sort of realized that we were all “That Girl”. “That Girl” who was ambitious, who didn’t settle with gender norms, who was willing to get her hands dirty and question her world. Studying abroad in Portugal really opened my eyes to travel, and Wellesley really opened my eyes to the experience and perception of women not just globally, but also locally.
I am probably one of the biggest advocates of Wellesley there is. The experience of being at Wellesley is great. But it’s the moment you leave campus and break into the “world” that you realize how truly unique those four years were, and how grateful you are to have had them.
What is a typical work day or work week like for you?
I work from home, which I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving. My mornings are the best part of my day, especially being in very cold Chicago, because my commute consists of going downstairs and pouring myself a cup of coffee (don’t hate me). But once I sit down at my desk, I become absorbed. I spend my days talking with travel companies, planning events, building our website, and managing our team of 45 independent writers and local organizers. I will literally work 11 or 12 hours in a day and not even notice until my husband comes home and peels me off my computer screen.
I have a lot of coffee dates with women who are interested in Go Girl Travel Network, or looking for tips about entrepreneurship or blogging. I run a blogging basics series in Chicago for new bloggers. I also run digital media for Pat Ryan, Jr., a venture capitalist in Chicago who hosts a monthly event series called “Chicago Founders’ Stories” at a tech incubator called 1871. Chicago’s startup community is incredibly supportive and collaborative, and it’s growing so fast. It’s really neat to be a part of it.
What piece of advice would you offer students looking to get into your area of interest and expertise?
If you’re looking to get into startups, there are a lot of great places to start. I think Chicago is an incredible option – smaller than Silicon Valley, but still highly connected. For anyone interested in getting into travel, we run a great Twitter chat for women travelers called #girlstravel every Monday at 6pm GMT. It’s a great way to meet other women (virtually) in 30 minutes of rapid-fire tweeting.
If you’re looking to start your own business, I say this – never stop networking. Sit down for coffee with people. Go to events. Connect with everyone you can imagine. If you can’t do it in person, talk with people on the phone. Build your network and ask questions. Some of the best ideas I’ve ever come up with have happened while meeting a friend for coffee or hearing feedback about an event. I can’t tell you how important it is.
What do you wish you had known as a student?
I don’t have too many regrets, but one thing I actually wish I had done at least once during my Wellesley career is to have walked onto that beautiful golf course and played some golf. Who knew it was so expensive in the real world? I think it would have been fun to try it out. I’d say I wish I had known what I wanted to do with my life during college so I could take some classes in the field, but I actually really enjoyed the ride.
If you could come back and take one class at Wellesley what would it be?
Something in international relations. I’m so passionate about that field now, but back then I wasn’t really even aware of what Wellesley had to offer. And let’s just not talk about how ridiculously jealous I am about anyone who has gotten to be a part of the Albright Institute. It almost makes me wish I were born just a few years later so I could have caught that during my time at Wellesley!