Brad was born and raised in Toronto, Canada but was drawn to the spectacular mountain lifestyle of Colorado thirty years ago and has made it his home base for most of the time since. He is a pioneer in international alternative education and has spent much of his time over the past thirty five years in Asia, Africa, and South America. In the mid 1990’s Brad created Youth International, one of the United State’s first international gap year programs and led its first team on a ten month around-the-world learning adventure through eleven countries in Asia and Africa in 1997. After leading the second Youth International team through Asia for five months during the winter and spring of 1998, he took a step back from continuous life on the road and went on to build one of the most successful and long running programs in the gap year industry. Brad recently received the American Gap Year Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his long-term contributions and impact to the field of experiential education, and for running Youth International’s “consistently excellent” programs in 17 different countries for over a quarter century.
Prior to founding Youth International, Brad was a leader and administrator with AmeriCorps and Up With People, and ran training workshops for leaders from a spectrum of community service programs across the United States. He has also taught at the high school level in the United States, Canada, and Japan. Brad has also written several published articles concerned with humanitarian issues in developing countries. He is an honors graduate of Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. Embarking upon his next exciting life chapter, Brad joined the ARCC team to help it continue into the future as an innovative leader in experiential travel education.
What are you passionate about?
My family. After that, I am passionate about never ending exploration of the incredible planet we are all so lucky to live on. Especially that which involves getting way out into nature and/or deeply integrated into the lives of the real people that define the myriad of fascinating cultures on this earth. And, I love having the privilege of spending my life helping young people learn about the boundless potential inside themselves by facilitating their journeys into the endless possibilities that are out there in this world.
What is your favorite place to have visited?
Impossible question, but pressed for an answer I would have to say India. There are few places on earth like this, that no matter how many times I return, it continues to push me to my wits end, to make me look in the mirror and reevaluate my purpose on earth, while at the same time making me feel invigorated and fully alive.
What is on your bucket list?
A lot! For travel the first area on my list of places still to get to is probably the central Asian “stan” countries; Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. And, somewhere down the road must get to the end of the earth, not to mention to “bag” the 7th continent, Antarctica!