How Educational Travel Builds Confidence Through Connection

Saying yes to the kind of trip that makes your stomach flutter can be the start of a brand-new life. We sit down with Jewel Rozanski, a former public high school Spanish teacher who turned her passion for educational travel into Cultured Travel, creating immersive small-group tours built around history, culture, and real human connection. With a background in educational psychology, Jewel brings a teacher’s eye for how people learn best, and a traveler’s respect for the moments you cannot script.

We talk about what actually makes travel transformative: stepping into a new place, hearing first-person stories, and letting your assumptions get challenged in the safest way possible. Jewel shares how conversations with locals and guides can change you more than any checklist of landmarks, including powerful reflections on recent history in Belfast. We also dig into group travel misconceptions, and why her approach caps group size, protects free time, and offers a flexible “tag along with me” option so first-time travelers feel supported without feeling managed.

You’ll also get practical travel planning insight, from why group flights can be a money trap to how smart transportation choices reduce stress in destinations that might feel like culture shock. Plus, we make the case for domestic travel in the United States, with places like New Orleans and Savannah delivering deep cultural immersion without crossing an ocean.

If you’ve been craving a trip that teaches you something real, press play, then subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a quick review so more travelers can find us.

More info at https://culturedtravel.org/

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"Wherever We May Roam: Finding Your Travel Style" - On Amazon

Transcript

Welcome And Travel Style Mindset

Jim 0:00

Saying yes to the opportunities that challenge us most can completely change the course of our lives. Welcome to Wherever We May Roam, the new phase of Travel to Jim and Rita. This podcast is about discovering your own travel style to explore the world. I'm Jim Santos, and along with my wife Rita, we've spent more than 16 years traveling. Sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes for a few months, and sometimes a whole lot longer. And what we've learned is this: there's no right or wrong way to travel. Some people take extended getaways, some roam part-time, some work from the road, and some make travel a full-time lifestyle. This podcast is about helping you figure out what works for you and how to make it happen in the real world. So, whether you're planning your next trip or thinking about something bigger, we're glad you're here. Let's get started.

Jewel Rozanski And Travel Roots

Jim 1:00

Welcome everybody to Wherever We May Roam. I'm Jim Santos, along with my wife and travel companion Rita, and we're excited today to welcome a very special guest. Jewel Rozanski spent 14 years as a public high school Spanish teacher before following a passion to spread her love of travel as a transformative experience. With a master's degree in educational psychology, she now creates immersive educational journeys that bring history, culture, and meaningful human connections to life. Today, through CulturedTravel.org, Jewel helps would-be travelers discover how curiosity, authentic connections, and stepping outside their comfort zones can transform the way they learn, lead, and see the world. Jewel, welcome to Wherever We May Roam.

Jewel 1:44

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Jim 1:46

Let's start at the very beginning here. How exactly does a high school Spanish teacher in Pennsylvania become interested in educational travel? Were you exposed to travel much when you were growing up?

Jewel 1:57

Yeah, so fortunately for me, my parents really valued educational travel, and we have family all over the East Coast. So we spent a lot of our summers visiting battlefields and museums and different things like that. So travel was always important to me. And then I studied abroad in college. I went to Merida, Mexico and spent some time there, and then decided to start taking students on trips when I was teaching. So that's sort of how it all started.

Jim 2:32

Well, it sounds like you mentioned the battlefields. It sounds like history was always a part of that for you as well.

Jewel 2:37

Yes, yes. My parents were both very, very much into history, and so it certainly rubbed off on me as well.

Jim 2:44

You say you took your students on trips. Uh, was that arranged through the school?

Jewel 2:48

In a sense, I usually went with tour companies and sometimes I would design my own trips, but for all of the international tours, I would go with with big tour companies and take the kids to different places. Mexico was the first place I went. Luckily, I wanted to make sure I went somewhere where I knew people. So we went to the Yucatan where I had studied abroad and certainly came in handy. Yes, yes. And and I'm like, if I'm gonna have any emergencies, I need to be able to have someone who can help me navigate it, and I want to be somewhere where I can handle things if I need to. So started there, and then I took took a group to Costa Rica, and then we did Spain, and then we did Italy, and we did Puerto Rico and Peru and several other places still while I was teaching.

From School Trips To Tour Company

Jim 3:37

Was there a particular event or a trip where you kind of had the epiphany that maybe I should start doing this full time?

Jewel 3:45

Yeah, I I mean I guess there sort of was, and it's not going to be any of those Spanish-related ones that you'd be expecting. Somehow I inherited the history club as well one year. Wasn't a history teacher, but inherited it nonetheless. And I planned a Gettysburg and Pennsylvania State Capitol and Flight 93 Memorial trip all on my own. And I had done other little trips like Buffalo, Pittsburgh, things like that. Right. And I just realized how much I loved organizing these things and speaking to people running different sites and tour companies and how passionate they were about what they were doing and how excited they were that I was sharing their passion with other people. So I remember thinking after I hung up the phone one time I was in my classroom planning that Gettysburg trip and just thinking, man, I love doing this.

Rita 4:38

Right. So so then did you break away from contacting other tour guides?

Jewel 4:44

Yeah, so it's it's a very interesting story of how cultured travel all came to be. So unfortunately, COVID kind of happened in there. So the last tour that I did through the school, I guess you would say, or as a teacher, ended up being that Gettysburg trip. And my business partner, his son, happened to be on that tour. And he and his family would go somewhere for about a month every year, somewhere pretty exotic. And I always appreciated the fact that he would be taking his kids to these places. So we had a conversation when he was taking his son out, and I was collecting the month's worth of work for him about how much he was gonna learn and how amazing this experience was. And it just sort of turned into um getting invited to dinner at their house and then saying, Hey, why don't you go to Istanbul with us this summer and why don't we start our own travel company?

Jim 5:42

It's a nice place to start Istanbul.

Rita 5:44

Yeah, we like Istanbul. It was wonderful. So then you started your own with your partner.

Jewel 5:51

Yeah, yep. We had 2019 was when we started, just a couple of months after that Gettysburg trip. We actually had the LLC form, and then I had our first tour planned to New Orleans for January 2020. New Orleans is my favorite place on earth, so why not go somewhere I knew really well? I enjoyed a bit myself, I have to admit. Yeah, we like it as well. Love it. I mean, I just can't get enough of that place. So um we went there, we had a small group, and then of course, as you know, COVID happened, so that put a little bit of a hold on things, and I taught the rest of 2020 and 2021, and then I I made the leap of faith to go for it full time after that.

Jim 6:37

Well, that is a big leap of faith going from a steady paycheck to your own business. Did you have any kind of safety net when you made that transition?

Jewel 6:46

Luckily, my my business partner is a really amazing and generous person. So he had had sort of said, you know, hey, if this doesn't work out, I'll help you out. But fortunately, it it did work out, so I never needed any additional help there. And then my husband is a school principal, so luckily he carries benefits in a steady paycheck. So it it definitely was was nerve-wracking to say the least. And, you know, sometimes it still is. Every time there's something crazy in the news, it's like, oh, how you know, is this gonna affect my Egypt tour, my turkey tour, or Ireland, or whatever I've got coming up. But I love it so much that it's worked out so far, and I feel like the universe knew what it wanted me to do.

Why Cultural Travel Transforms You

Jim 7:29

Uh, on your website, you talk a lot about the way the travel uh changes a person. And Rita and I strongly believe there's a transformative power uh to travel. We've seen it in ourselves. Recently, one of our granddaughters chose to spend her last year in high school as an exchange student in Denmark.

Rita 7:45

Right.

Jim 7:45

And the change in her from her siblings is just incredible. Tell us about some of the changes that you've witnessed in your groups.

Jewel 7:52

That that's absolutely an amazing experience for her to have, by the way. I just want to say we actually have a Spanish exchange student with us for the second summer. So she's she's here with us right now, and it is amazing. But we said hola. You know, I yeah, yeah, yeah, I will take that. You know, I started seeing it with the kids. It was honestly like seeing their eyes light up every time we would get out of the airport and onto a bus, and they're seeing signs in Spanish or in another language for the first time, and then they're getting to hear those stories from our tour guides and just really have that feeling of like, Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore, right? Because that was in rural, rural Pennsylvania, rural, you know, northwest Pennsylvania. So seeing that was amazing to me. And now traveling primarily with adults, again, just being able to have those real and authentic conversations with people who live in a place, who have lived in a place, who have experienced its recent history and who know it inside and out. You know, you just don't walk away from these things the same. You just have such a a deeper sense of purpose and self and also just what a small place we occupy in the world. And I I can't love it enough. It's it's really to me, it's the connections that people make with other people that change their lives.

Rita 9:18

Right. When we lived in Ecuador, we had our we went to a a food market, you know, that the locals use, and we had our veggie lady, egg man, shrimp guy, you know.

Jim 9:29

Camarones, camarones!

Rita 9:31

Yeah, so we had a complete network of support people who were totally Hispanic, and it was a wonderful experience.

Jim 9:40

Yeah, I think for us, experiencing the cultures is also a large part of why we like to travel.

Rita 9:45

Yeah, it is. And we go for two or three months at a time. So we do immerse ourselves in in the cultures wherever we are.

Jim 9:53

Yeah, the contrast of being in a place like Athens and then Istanbul and then Vienna and Prague.

Rita 10:00

In the six-month period, it's it's yeah, it's mind-blowing.

Jim 10:04

These places are like a short flight or a bus ride away, and you have completely different cultures. I think there are so many people in this country at least who don't have that kind of perspective.

Rita 10:13

No, right.

Jim 10:14

Now, we haven't done much in the way of group travel ourselves.

Rita 10:17

No. I I did once with the university. Yeah.

Jim 10:20

Or another way of looking at it is that we are we're a group of two.

Rita 10:22

Yeah. Yeah.

Designing Small Groups With Real Freedom

Jim 10:24

Even when we hiked the Inca Trail, we chose a private guide instead. But what are the biggest misconceptions that people have about group travel?

Jewel 10:32

I love that question because I I have several clients who are like, I don't do group travel, but I'll go somewhere with Jewel, you know. They one guy in particular, he's told so many people that I I've I've got quite a few referrals from him because he's always like, I never wanted to do group travel again. But he's like, I just always tell people I don't do groups, but I do your groups. So I think the common misconception, first of all, I did so many big, I call them like big box tours with the kids, right? They were with with EF tours and they were fine for the kids, but they were definitely designed with with budget and the bottom line in mind. And it was kind of like you have 50 people packed onto a bus, you all filed out, you got your picture in front of something, you got back on the bus, you moved on. Yeah, it just wasn't like it was cool. I still have kids to this day messaging me, like, oh, it's been, you know, 15 years since we took that trip, or you know, they they still have fond memories, but it taught me what I didn't want to do.

Rita 11:33

It acclimates them to change and to think about something different so that they can do it on their own. Yeah. You know what I mean? So so that they're not afraid. Yeah.

Jewel 11:45

It gives them the confidence to just go out, get out there and baby steps. Yes, it does.

Jim 11:50

I think the difference for us is because we did live in Ecuador for six years.

Jewel 11:54

Right.

Jim 11:54

It it kind of it kind of knocks it out of you, you know. Once you've lived in another country for that long, it's no big deal.

Rita 12:01

And and in my twenties, I rented a little tiny Peugeot and traveled through Europe for six weeks, you know. But most people won't do that, they just won't go off and do that.

Jim 12:12

Yeah, and I do understand a lot of people want to travel, but they can't they kind of don't know how to take that first step. No. Is that something that you try to approach with them?

Jewel 12:19

Yeah, so uh we like to call our groups like quasi-organized tours. Like they're very organized, and I am I am super detail-oriented, but we like to kind of break away from the stereotypes of the big, the big box groups, right? So I never will have more than 30 ever in a group, and that would include like me, or if I have a professor on the tour with me, or our Egyptologist or someone else. Like that's a hard line limit. I prefer low 20s, but hard line limit, never more than 30. Rarely do we even have that happen. But I like to give people free time and flexibility too. I always hated being rushed through things or never given that chance to explore. Most of our travelers are very well traveled and well educated, and they kind of need that time, right? So I'll put out a list of vetted activities or things that they can do if they want for say half of the day. We'll have like our structured stuff for part of the day, and then the other part of the day, they can do what they want. Or for the people who maybe really aren't, yeah. Sometimes I get people who it's it is their first time abroad or it is their first time really experiencing a culture vastly different than theirs. I always throw out the jewel default and I'm like, hey, I'm gonna go to this museum or I'm gonna go to this restaurant tonight. Like, if you want to come with me, tag along. And then the rest of the people can just go do their own thing. So they get that chance to learn from our guides, learn from our professors and our and our locals, and still have the chance to like explore and get to do what they want to do as

Choosing Destinations And Making It Easy

Jewel 13:59

well.

Jim 13:59

Well, that's a good idea, though. I think we think it's important also to not over-schedule.

Rita 14:03

Yeah, we pivot all the time.

Jim 14:05

In fact, often the things that we enjoyed most about a trip were the things that we didn't plan.

Rita 14:09

Yeah. We just decided, oh, Seville's there. It's uh it's like a 20-minute bus ride. Let's do that, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And we've enjoyed it. We've stayed five days in Seville. Nice. Have you done Segovia?

Jim 14:24

No, I haven't.

Rita 14:25

We're going back to Spain in uh in the spring.

Jim 14:28

In the spring.

Rita 14:28

Yeah. Where particular where at?

Jim 14:30

Well, we're gonna start in Madrid and uh then we're gonna work our way up the uh coast. We have to stop in Benidorm because we love the sitcom.

unknown 14:39

Yeah.

Jim 14:41

Just work our way up the coast and then into France and on our way up to Belgium. And it it's quite a tour.

Rita 14:47

Yeah, then we're doing the Scandinavian countries. So it's yeah, it's it's complicated.

Jewel 14:52

That's awesome, though. I love it. That's that's that's incredible. These are these are life goals for me once I'm once my child is grown and I can well, yeah.

Rita 15:02

And and that's that's the same with us. We're you know, we're retired, and that's why we can kind of go where the wind blows.

Jewel 15:10

And uh I love it. Well, if you get a chance to go to Segovia, I don't know if you will, because it's it's not quite the direction of Barcelona, it's a little further west, but it is an amazing area. And our exchange student and I have several really good friends in the Valladolid area, and it's near Segovia as well, and it's amazing castles and wineries, and it's just not tourist-y, so you get to really see and experience stuff. So one of my favorite places.

Jim 16:10

Well, it's not nailed down yet, so no, it is because just recently we were talking about the Basque region, yeah, too, between Spain and France and then Andorra.

Rita 16:17

I thought, hey, we should go to Andorra. That's just it. What when we get to someplace, it can it can we can pivot and do something totally different. There are too many wonderful places to look at.

Jewel 16:30

There's never shortage, never a shortage of ideas. I mean, I get people always telling me, hey, can you organize a trip to here? Can you do a trip to here? I'm like, ah, like, trust me, but the world is a vast place. I can't go everywhere all at once.

Jim 16:42

Right. That's an ever-expanding bucket list.

Rita 16:45

It is. That's what happens to us. Yeah.

Jim 16:47

Uh on the website I've seen you've you know had trips to some of the destinations we've been to, like Ireland. We just recently spent a month there. We mentioned Istanbul, Italy, Spain, the Galapagos, but you also cover some domestic locations like Savannah and New Orleans.

Rita 17:01

I like Savannah.

Jim 17:02

Do you agree that the reluctant traveler is sometimes overlooking the cultural diversity and history that you can find without leaving the U.S.?

Jewel 17:10

Yeah, I I definitely do. I mean, we have so much people. You know, I'm kind of guilty, I guess, of setting my sights further, but really we do have a lot of amazing things to do right here. And to me, especially if someone might be hesitant to go further afield, New Orleans gives you that perfect feel, like the total I'm not in Kansas feeling anymore. Like you're kind of still in Kansas. So I really love it a lot. And Savannah is a really amazing, amazing place as well, with beautiful architecture and rich history. And different regions definitely do have different cultures. And they're they're influenced by the the different groups and people who settled there or who live there currently. And just I think that's an another reason why New Orleans just always draws me back because you have the African influence, you have the French influence, you have the Spanish influence, and then you have the guess we'll call it the melting pot American influence, and you just kind of get this hodgepodgery of awesomeness happening. Yeah, yeah.

Jim 18:18

Yeah, I was thinking the other day about the cultural differences between just like you know, say Boston, New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco, oh yeah, Seattle. You know, those are radically different cultures, really.

Rita 18:29

They are, yeah, yeah.

Jim 18:31

And all just a domestic flight away or a drive away.

Rita 18:33

Now, how long do your trips usually last?

Jewel 18:38

So so it depends on the destination. New Orleans, I typically do January 3rd through 7th. So just a short, short trip. And I I go that window of time because a friend of mine runs the Joan of Arc parade, which kicks off carnival season. So I always like to be there for that. And this year we'll be participating in the parade again, and she always comes and talks to my groups and stuff. So it's super fun. So the domestic trips are just sort of like a long weekend, basically. And Egypt is uh just about two weeks, a little under two weeks. Our Istanbul tours, any of the tours we have, we have Professor Thomas Madden on several of our tours. We keep those at about a week. He does a lecture every night, and then we tour the city that we're in, like Istanbul, Venice, Rome during the day. And so we keep those at about a week. We do get a lot of, I would say, like 50 somethings who maybe still have work obligations, but are able to have a little more flexibility with their time. So we try to be conscientious of that. But yeah, anywhere from say four to five days to two weeks.

Jim 19:48

And do you handle all the transportation arrangements or do they meet you at a at the location and go from there?

Jewel 19:53

They'll meet at the location typically. So one of the things I learned early on was group flights are not the same as hotel block rates. Like group flights are awful and expensive, and you you kind of feel like it's criminal that they they know they've got you for it. And it's like twice the price you'd pay on your own. Plus, people have loyalty points or airlines, and most of our groups are coming from everywhere. Like nobody's just, you know, all coming from Pittsburgh most of the time. They're from all over the state. So I'll help someone if they're like, hey, can you give me some suggestions on what itinerary I might take? I won't book flights anymore. It's just, it's ugly well, you travel enough, you know the airline industry. But once people get to the the airport, like in Egypt, I have someone come pick you up right at the airport. Same with Turkey, same with Venice, for example. But if it's like New Orleans or Savannah, then it's I have them Uber or taxi. It's just way cheaper to do that. And I don't want to be charging someone three times the price just so they have a private ride. Right.

Jim 21:00

Yeah, and we agree that there's absolutely no logic when it comes to uh airline prices.

Rita 21:05

No, no, no, none whatsoever. But honestly, we use like when we were in London, we used the tube to get from Heathrow to to our hotel down in London Central. So yeah, there's all kinds of different ways. Let them figure it out. It's a challenge.

Jim 21:22

I imagine hurting 30 people through the tube.

Rita 21:24

Oh, I can't imagine.

Jewel 21:26

Yeah, well, yeah, we haven't we haven't ever had it. I I that's another thing I won't do. If I have like uh now they're all arriving usually with their spouse or maybe a friend or something, so it's easy to do transportation like that. Now, like I said, Turkey, Egypt, where it might be a little bit of culture shock, I have the transportation for them. But even Ireland, I'm like, just get a get an Uber, get a cab, you're gonna save a lot of money that way. And I do private transportation for any big group, so just because it's not or bigger, even in Venice, I rent private boats to take us out to Murano and Verano instead of doing like the Valparetto, just because you keep it's it's too much. It's too much to navigate sometimes with lots of people.

Jim 22:10

So you've been doing this full full time for what about five years now?

Jewel 22:14

Yeah, yeah, for five years. Five years exactly this summer.

Jim 22:17

Do you have any uh any repeat tourists? People who've come back to you a couple of times?

Jewel 22:22

Oh gosh, almost almost like it's I won't say almost exclusively, but definitely. Like I have people who have done 10, 11 tours with me at this point who have done like everything I I've done. We we sort of lucked out, I guess our first it was like I call it our COVID Egypt tour, more or less. It was in 2020, 21. We were still 22, we were still swabbing noses and having to, you know, pass the test to get home and everything.

Compassion Beyond Fear And First Steps

Jewel 22:49

And we just have such an amazing group of people, and they have all they were strangers going into everything. And it was like someone knew someone, or someone knew my business partner, or someone knew someone's cousin, or something else, and and everyone got along so well. So a lot of people in that group are on at least like their seventh or eighth tour with me, and some even more. But yeah, I mean it's it's honestly more rare that I have someone that only does one. It's it's I think it becomes a little addicting. Like we create a really great culture in our groups too.

Jim 23:23

Well, the more you travel, the more you want to.

Rita 23:25

Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. So you must be doing this all year round. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

Jim 23:31

Now, from leading all these groups around and having repeat people, you've seen them go through some changes, and of course, you see all the different cultures. Do you feel like the world's taught you anything about just basic human nature?

Jewel 23:42

Oh, absolutely. I feel that I feel like it teaches you a lot of compassion and appreciation for things. I really can't express enough like how having conversations with people and seeing what they've gone through or lived through. I mean, you could you could have the same thing in the US, I guess, but it's just a different perspective. Like, for example, we we just did a tour to Ireland back in April, and we spent a couple of days. We did we did a 20th century history focus for the whole tour, and we did Belfast, of course. And we actually had a guide who took us up through South Armand and showed us like the countryside and where different things happened throughout the troubles. And then we actually had lunch with five different women who lived through the troubles, and like one was imprisoned, and the woman who I was sitting with, like both of her parents were imprisoned, and we just had these small little groups of us with a woman at each table to tell us what their experience was like living through there. And that to me is uh, you know, just one small snippet of you don't come back the same, like you just you don't walk away from that table the same.

Jim 24:54

Yeah, Belfast really had a strong impression on us too. Uh oh yeah, yeah. Taking the tour, and it's the bus driver's like, uh, over here is where the five martyrs were shot, and this is where the seven people were beat to death by the police.

Rita 25:04

And it was we we usually hop, do the big red bus, get uh acclimated to whatever town or city we're in. And actually they took us by what it was a division between the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods where they locked them in at night at 8 30. And now it used to be manually done, but now it's electronically done because the of the troubles.

Jim 25:26

Because the bombs.

Rita 25:27

Yeah, because of bombs and people getting well, I mean, that that's so shocking to me that that's I think like most Americans, we kind of think of that as something that happened way in the past. Right. It's it's happening, it's still happening.

Jim 25:40

And then you go to Ireland or you go to Eastern Europe. And for people in Eastern Europe, World War II is not a distant memory or something you read about in books.

Jewel 25:48

Well, that's the way Latvia. Absolutely. And that that World War II is um one of my favorite time uh periods to study and to read about. And I actually just went to the island of Guernsey back in June. It had been a bucket list destination for me because of the history and the occupation. And I'm planning a tour there probably 2028, by the time I have everything vetted as well as I want it to be. I would like to go back one more time before I take a group. But yeah, I mean, like our our tour guide uh was phenomenal, and she was able to tell us stories about her family and what they lived through. And this was just like her father, you know. Yeah, and it's so recent. And then to us, we've just kind of been protected from having war on our own soil, except for the civil war, and that's so far removed. And you know, 9-11 maybe you could consider that, but we've really been sheltered from what a lot of other places have endured, right?

Rita 26:51

But you know, prejudice lives everywhere.

Jewel 26:54

So gosh, of course. That's definitely that. But I mean, war and like I don't have bombs whipping by my house.

Rita 27:00

Right, right. Hopefully we won't. Yes.

Jim 27:02

Now you say the world's greatest classroom has neither walls nor age limits. Is that something you keep in mind whenever you're designing your tours?

Jewel 27:10

Yes. So one of the things I had told my my business partner, and we still have our email of correspondence from 2019 when I told him about how thrilled I was that his, you know, his son was going to, I think it was Egypt at the time, for a month. And I said he will learn so much more in this month than he would ever learn in the four walls of a classroom.

Rita 27:31

Right.

Jewel 27:32

And um you yeah, you just you can't you can't experience things and life that you can learn a lot in a classroom, sure. I mean, I I was a teacher, that's what my my background's in, but the the real stuff that you're gonna remember forever and that's going to shape you as a human, that's not gonna be learned in a seat, in a in a in a in a room. No.

Jim 27:58

Do you think public education is falling short on preparing young people for the future, or is there anything that you think that they could do that they're not doing now?

Jewel 28:07

Oh, majorly. We could have a whole chat. We could have a whole chat just on that.

Jim 28:12

Um, we have a daughter in the who works in the school system and I have a friend who's a teacher, we have relatives who uh were in the school system. So it's something that we think about a lot.

Rita 28:21

Yeah, my daughter is a a school counselor and she has been, she's in her well, she's turned just turned 50. And she said even when she has chats with the parents, they come in in their faces in the phone rather than uh addressing, you know, the real problem. And she said it's just horrendous.

Jim 28:42

Is there anything that you think would be helpful in preparing kids today for the future?

Jewel 28:46

One of the things that I am seeing a positive shift in, I guess, is a little more career exposure and experience. I feel like there was there's just a lot of practical skills that I think are missed. You know, you go through and especially even with our our high flyers, I call them, because I had I taught Spanish, Spanish for, you know, I had the upper level kids typically. And, you know, they're taught calculus or all these things, but they have no idea what a mortgage and interest rate might affect or how that would affect them, or what credit is like, or can't balance a checkbook or something. No, right, yeah. And and or how much does it actually cost to live? What kind of a job do you need to be able to foot the bill for a mortgage in a particular zip code and things like that? So they are doing more financial literacy, at least in Pennsylvania. That has become a state requirement. There's a financial literacy component to graduation. I'm happy with that. And also just more of the push towards the trades. I almost feel when I started teaching and when I was in the school, there was kind of like I hate to say like poo-pooing to the trades and more of like a honoring going to a four-year institution. And now you're seeing the need for trades and have to have these skills. Right. And we're losing them, you know, that we're just not getting the people to fill the positions that AI isn't going to be able to replace. We we're gonna have to have contractors and plumbers and electricians, and we need them. So that's a positive thing. I think I'm seeing more of a push for schools integrating those types of programs.

Jim 30:27

I understand you have a tattoo that says, Beyond fear lies freedom. Is that still true for you? And has that shaped your life and your work with culturedtravel.org?

Jewel 30:39

Yeah, yeah, it definitely, it definitely is. It's it's kind of a reminder to me about a lot of things. The moment that I I got that, actually, it was on the the 10-year anniversary of my my brother-in-law's passing, and it was during COVID, and it was right when I was like so desperately wanting to make the leap to do this full-time, but with COVID going on, I couldn't, and it was scary, and it was like, am I gonna be able to pay the bills and and make this work? And and and all of those questions that one might have. But I think there's so many times in life that we're afraid to do something or afraid to try something, even if even if it comes down to just having the confidence to ask a question to someone about something or try to speak it something like this, for example, and you miss out on so many things because you're afraid of something where the consequences from it maybe aren't even real or really that bad. So, like once you can get past being afraid of what I'd like to call trivial things, I mean, there's a difference of being afraid of someone isn't gonna like me or someone's gonna shoot me. Exactly. Big difference. But, you know, when you can take the leap and kind of put your own insecurities, lack of confidence, fears in that aspect aside, you can do a lot more good in the world.

Jim 32:04

Is there any advice you can offer to someone who's considering this type of travel but doesn't know where to start? I mean, do you have like a you know, culture travel 101 tour?

Jewel 32:13

Oh, I'm yeah, but I I guess anyone that would interest them, I really try to tailor them to all levels. So everybody, if they're I mean, I've had Egypt be people's first tour before, before. I mean, it's like three times. The only three people I can think of off the top of my head, or New Orleans, but it's me that someone would deal with. So if they were really thinking, you know, I've I've always wanted to see the pyramids, but I'm I am not comfortable planning any of that. Like I'm happy to hop on a Zoom call or a phone call, and then I'm going on the trip too. So I like to make everybody feel like, hey, I'm with you the entire step of the way here. And then if someone doesn't need it, you know, they're just like, yeah, I'm gonna book this trip, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go explore Cairo in the free time, I'm gonna do then they have that option.

Jim 33:00

Right. Well, we've been speaking with Jewel Rozanski, former high school teacher, and still educating people with the world as her classroom. If you've enjoyed our conversation, you can visit culturedtravel.org to discover educational travel experiences, explore fascinating destinations, and start a journey of lifelong learning. Whether you're ready to travel now or simply looking for inspiration, you'll find stories, resources, and immersive journeys that bring history, culture, and meaningful human connections to life. That's at culturedtravel.org, and of course the link will be in the show notes. Jewel, thanks for joining us on Wherever We May Roam, and happy travels to you.

Jewel 33:36

And Jim and Rita, thank you both so much. It's been a pleasure.

Closing Links And Next Week

Jim 33:39

Maybe we'll run into you somewhere in the world.

Jewel 33:40

Yeah, that would be wonderful. I hope so.

Jim 33:43

That's all for this episode. Next week we'll take a look at travel credit cards. Do the point systems really work and are they really worth the fees they charge? Until then, remember we travel not to escape life, but so that life does not escape us. If you've been thinking about traveling longer or just traveling better, we hope this episode gave you a few more ideas. Remember, there's no right or wrong way to explore the world. Only the way that works for you. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the podcast. And if you have a moment, leave a quick review. It really helps more people find us. And if you want to go deeper, you can check out my book, Wherever We May Roam, Finding Your Travel Style, where I walk through all of this in more detail. You can search for it on Amazon in Kindle, paperback, and audiobook, or just use the link on our podcast page. If you have any questions, a topic you would like discussed, or would like to be on our show, email us at jim@Jim Santosbooks.com. Thanks for listening, and as always, safe travels wherever you may roam.