He went abroad three times. He was never fully present. He built Wandering With Pride so the next student could be.

The founder's story

Why Wandering With Pride?

When I was ten, in 1995, my family saved for years to take a month-long trip through seven countries in Europe. It was a grueling pace because we didn't know if we'd ever get to come back. My mom took us to Dachau because she'd seen it when she studied abroad at sixteen. That trip changed my life.

At sixteen, I did my first study abroad, the same program my mother had done. My parents covered the basics, but I remember having a finite budget for everything. In college, I studied abroad again, entirely self-funded. Without a host family, every meal was a calculation. In grad school, I went to Rwanda for a research program and scraped together money for vaccines, travel medicine, and flights.

Being gay made every trip harder. On the Rwanda trip, another attendee verbally accosted and physically threatened me for being gay. That's the part no study-abroad advisor prepares you for: not just whether you can afford to be there, but whether you'll be safe as yourself while you're there.

I was there. I was also, the entire time, counting. Every meal, every train ticket, every decision. You don't build yourself in a new place when your brain never left survival mode. That's what I want to eliminate for others.

Wandering With Pride is a scholarship program for low-income and minority LGBTQ+ students who want to study abroad. It's also a community for queer travelers at any stage, and a platform for creators who want to fund something real while building their own audience.

I've invested over $40,000 of my own money over two years to build this. We are incorporated in Washington, DC. We are 501(c)(3) verified. We publish our financials. We are still small, and we are honest about that.

What we are, without question, is serious.