Round Trip Stories
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© Tracy Vilanova and Melissa Ens
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Through weekly guest interviews, hosts Melissa Ens and Tracy Vilanova offer gifts of understanding for those who have recently returned from living abroad, reflection for those who have been back for years, and insight for those who have never left their home country. These stories help us all understand the world and ourselves just a little better.
www.roundtripstories.com
www.roundtripstories.com
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Welcome back to Part 2 of our interview with J. K. Amerson López, author of the book Embassy Kid. Kelly grew up in a U.S. diplomat family in the 1950’s and 1960’s in Latin America, Italy, and Spain. In this episode, Kelly tells stories that take place after the ones in her book. In the early 70’s, she “aged out” of her diplomat family and returned to the U.S. for university. Now a young adult, she explored college, dance, and living in several different states from Colorado to New York for ten years until she found solid ground. Her dance teaching and Spanish language connected her to her communities and eventually her Puerto Rican-American husband.Embassykid.comSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Our guest today is J. K. Amerson López, author of the book Embassy Kid. Kelly grew up in a U.S. diplomat family in the 1950’s and 1960’s in Latin America, Italy, and Spain. In this episode, Kelly shares stories from her book and her childhood growing up in the warmth of Caracas and Bogota immersed in Spanish and the adventure of exploring Italy with her family unit. She learned to be a professional American overseas, but when she returned to the U.S. for middle and high school, the same skill set was underappreciated.EmbassyKid.comSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Welcome back to Part 2 of our interview with Christen Morrow Ara, a U.S. advocate for youth with disabilities and their families, divisional coordinator for Young Life Capernaum, and mother of four. During five years in Peru, Christen found life- giving work in helping to establish and train others to care for the intellectually disabled. Shortly after she married her Peruvian husband, a frightening accident gave her time to think of the next steps in her life, family, and work, which eventually meant moving back to California. This would be her return but her husband’s first move to the U.S.YoungLife Next Gen LeaderBook: Being Latino in Christ by Orlando CrespoBook: Beyond Color Blind by Sarah ShinSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Our guest today is Chisten Morrow Ara, a U.S. advocate for youth with disabilities and their families, divisional coordinator for Young Life Capernaum, and mother of four. From a young age, Christen felt a connection and friendship to children with disabilities, and that passion was incorporated into her ministry and into her desire to help establish such support in Peru. She moved there for five full years which included taking care of a baby, finding her husband, and calling her Peruvian community her own.Young Life CapernaumJoni & Friends: Wheels for the WorldSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Welcome back to Part 2 of our interview with Professor Phil, teacher educator and mentor who moved to China to work with international schools. Phil worked for 16 years in teacher training and leadership development with his international school consortium now called LifePlus. As he approached the age where he might not be offered a visa to stay in China, he and his wife returned to the U.S. on a recruiting trip and to also consider moving back. That was the time the coronavirus was starting to spread in China, so they decided to stay in the U.S. without having said good bye to their home in Beijing.https://lifeplusworldwide.com/See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Our guest today is Professor Phil, teacher educator and mentor who moved to China to work with international schools. At 50 years old, it was finally the right timing for him and his wife and youngest son to make the move that had been in their hearts for decades. He left his U.S. professor post to become the director of teacher development for a multi-site international school consortium.https://lifeplusworldwide.com/ See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Welcome back to Part 2 of our interview with Carolina Baiza, eco-hotel owner and sustainability entrepreneur from El Salvador. After fifteen years of traveling to study in Europe and then representing El Salvador in trade and world fairs, she decided to settle down and stay put in her home country. Listen to how Carolina took what she learned from her networks abroad and grew the sustainability model for her Arbol de Fuego hotel, where she also grew deeper roots in her community. Learn more here about Carolina’s Eco-Hotel in El Salvador: Árbol de Fuego.See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Our guest today is Carolina Baiza, eco-hotel and sustainability entrepreneur from El Salvador. When visiting her brother in Germany, she noticed that the El Salvador World Fair booth had no representative. She volunteered to run it and before she knew it, she earned scholarships in Germany and Italy to study how to run trade exhibitions for her country. For fifteen years Carolina ran her hotel in-country and at the same time created fair exhibitions to represent El Salvador across the world.Carolina’s Eco-Hotel in El Salvador: Árbol de fuegoSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Welcome back to Part 2 of our interview with Dr. Ken Martens Friesen, professor of history and international studies and coordinator of the global education program at Fresno Pacific University. Ken grew up in India and continued to go abroad throughout his life. In this episode, Ken shares about his return to the U.S. as a ten year old and feeling like people looked at him like an alien. Time helped him adjust to the U.S., and once he was done with university he was overseas again working in a school in Lesotho, a refugee camp in Lebanon, and as a missionary in Vietnam. Through his current university position back in the United States he is able to help others see the world through history and study abroad experiences which continually keep him connected to his growing up years and passion for helping others gain a global mindset. Ken's University PageEnergy, Economics, and Ethics by Ken Martens FriesenSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Our guest today is Dr. Ken Martens Friesen, professor of history and international studies and coordinator of the global education program at Fresno Pacific University. Ken grew up in India and continues to go abroad throughout his life. Ken’s parents were missionaries from the United States, and he attended Kodaikanal International School until the age of 10 when he moved to the U.S. In this episode, hear about Ken’s growing up years in the south Indian mountains in the 1960’s, eating curry and rice on a banana leaf with 400 classmates after sports day, and how he probably shouldn’t have purchased that monkey to take home with him on the train.Ken's University PageEnergy, Economics, and Ethics by Ken Martens FriesenSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Welcome back to Part 2 of our interview with elite water polo player athlete Branko Pekovic from Serbia. After twelve years of playing in Italy, Russia, and Kazakhstan and with many medals earned, he and his wife decided it was time to retire to Serbia and to begin to coach. With their five year old daughter and eight year old son in tow, they packed up Branko’s international water polo life. Upon return to Serbia, he wasn’t perceived quite as interesting anymore, and he needed to figure out how to manage life for his family without the perks of being a professional athlete. Listen as Branko describes how his family regained their footing, and where they are now. In this interview, things get a little shaky!https://www.stormwaterpolo.ca/content/coacheslinktr.ee/waterpolowestSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Our guest today is Branko Pekovic, an elite professional water polo athlete who grew up during difficult times in Belgrade, Yugoslavia which is now Serbia. He found a love and great success in playing water polo, so much so that he played for Serbia’s national teams and teams in Italy, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Branko shares about how water polo was his amazing job that took him to the Olympics and all over the world.https://www.stormwaterpolo.ca/content/coacheslinktr.ee/waterpolowestSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Welcome back to Part 2 of our interview with Carolyn Grant, physical therapist and transitions coach originally from South Africa. Carolyn knows deeply about transitions after moving to London for ten years and then to Texas, USA for fifteen. Along the way she developed her expertise as a physical therapist in London, but she was not able to practice after the move to Texas. This loss of identity and change was the painful catalyst to redesigning her personal and professional goals. While she raised her three daughters, she also began raising others up by mentoring them in their difficult life transitions. Carolyn is now a transition coach and offers our listeners compassion and tips. Get ready for notetaking and be sure to mind your Rs, Ps, and Ns as Carolyn shares practical steps to move through those heart wrenching stages from transition to reinvention.“Ear of the Hippo” Blogposthttps://www.navigatetransition.com/Transitions Book by William BridgesThird Culture Kids: Growing Up Between Worlds by Pollock & Van RekenSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Our guest today is Carolyn Grant, physical therapist, writer, and transitions coach originally from South Africa. Carolyn knows deeply about transitions after moving to London for ten years and then to Texas, USA for sixteen. Along the way she developed her expertise as a physical therapist in London, was not able to practice after the move to Texas, lost her mother while being half way across the world, and reinvented herself by becoming a transition coach, all the while raising her three daughters. In this episode, Carolyn explains why she is an accidental immigrant, why she resists change at the same time as loving adventure, and why she needed to grieve.https://bethebridge.com/https://www.navigatetransition.com/See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Welcome back from summer (or winter) holidays! Melissa and Tracy launch their 5th season with a talk about how our time during vacations can be a way to connect to goals we made while abroad. What is important to us to continue as we return home? Is it service trips or events? Is it keeping connected to our international side? What does that even look like after many years of being back home? Whatever season you are in on your round trip journey and transition, whether just having landed back home and beginning new routines or discovering how to incorporate old international passions in new ways, you’ll find this episode, and podcast, to be an encouragement for you. And, we give you a preview of the amazing guests we have for season 5! From an eco-hotel owner to a professional water polo player to several educators, you won’t want to miss a single episode of these round-trip stories.See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
This is our "Third Culture Kid Advice" episode. Our guests show the variety and diversity of the TCK experience. They come from six continents and spent time as children overseas because of diplomacy, education, missions, or business. They are now in their 20's to 50's, and as adults, they have spent lots of time thinking about their TCK experiences. This episode is a compilation of our twelve TCK guests’ responses to our last interview question asking for words of wisdom for our audience. We can't wait for you to hear their combined recommendations! Our guests’ advice help us get to know the world, and ourselves, a little better.See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
This episode is Part 2 of our interview with Amanda Bates, employer branding strategist , storyteller and transitions consultant who is also the founder and creative director of theblackexpat.com, a website for black identity and international living. Amanda is also the host of “The Global Chatter” and happens to be a third culture kid who spent her growing up years in Cameroon and then returned to the U.S for university. In this episode, Amanda shares about how she at first disliked college back in the U.S., was grateful to grow up in an African country, and that her black identity did not fit into a box. Listen to when it finally got good for her and how she turned all that was hard into soft skills like counseling, guiding, and even creating her own brand to help normalize black expatriation.Families in Global TransitionSea Change MentoringHistorically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs)The Black Expat Global ChatterSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Our guest today is Amanda Bates, employer branding strategist , storyteller and transitions consultant who is also the founder and creative director of theblackexpat.com, a website for black identity and international living. Amanda is the host of “The Global Chatter” podcast and happens to be a third culture kid from the United States who spent her growing up years in Cameroon. In this episode, Amanda shares about spending her teen years in her parents’ country of birth, where her black identity was affirmed and she became aware of her American privilege. She attended international schools where her global curiosity was launched and David Pollock planted the seed that Amanda was a third culture kid.Third Culture Kids BookThe Black Expat Global ChatterSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
This is Part 2 of our interview with Marie Suazo, host of the podcast “Talks with a TCK friend” and author of Tales of a Diplomat’s Daughter. Originally from the Philippines, Marie grew up in South Korea and Egypt because she was part of a diplomat family. After college in Seoul, Korea, she moved back with her family and eventually returned to the Philippines. Not only was it difficult moving into a monocultural environment, but it was also challenging living with her family as an adult TCK.Tales of a Diplomat's Daughter@mariesuazoauthor on InstagramTalks with a TCK Friend Podcast TCK trainingSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
Our guest today is Marie Suazo, host of the podcast “Talks with a TCK friend” and author of Tales of a Diplomat’s Daughter. Originally from the Philippines, Marie grew up in South Korea and Egypt during her family’s diplomatic assignments. She loved being part of the expatriate communities in both places, and did not know any difference until she was on a rough home assignment in the Philippines for several years in her preteens. Mentioned in this episode: Tales of a Diplomat's Daughter@mariesuazoauthorTalks with a TCK Friend Podcast TCK TrainingSee photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram!
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