Barbara Eubanks Owner of Going Global With Barbara
Sep 19, 2024
Alimond Studio
Have you ever unpacked a suitcase and found it filled with more than clothes – perhaps, a newfound perspective or a life-changing realization? That's the kind of experience Barbara, the founder of Going Global with Barbara, brings to the table as she passionately builds bridges for students of color to engage with the world through study abroad opportunities. Join us as we traverse Barbara's inspiring journey from a high school student with no clue about the globe-trotting possibilities to a retired military officer dedicated to nurturing a new wave of culturally-savvy leaders. Learn about her trailblazing work to boost the meager 6% of students of color studying abroad, and discover how her program transforms young lives by offering more than a passport stamp – it grants confidence, global awareness, and a community that traverses borders.
Picture the world as a classroom, vast and vibrant, filled with lessons in every corner – that's the vision Barbara shares in this conversation. She's not just a guide; she's a story weaver, revealing how a French novel and a surfing lesson in Hawaii became chapters in her own tale of global citizenship. Listen to the stories of students like Danica Hickman, whose journey from a program participant to a volunteer in Kenya underscores the boundless opportunities that arise when we step out into the world. Barbara's mission is a reminder that investing in our youth's global education is not a luxury but a vital responsibility, shaping not just their futures, but the fabric of our interconnected society. Tune in and prepare to be inspired to think outside your own boundaries and perhaps, to embark on your own adventure towards global understanding.
Have you ever unpacked a suitcase and found it filled with more than clothes – perhaps, a newfound perspective or a life-changing realization? That's the kind of experience Barbara, the founder of Going Global with Barbara, brings to the table as she passionately builds bridges for students of color to engage with the world through study abroad opportunities. Join us as we traverse Barbara's inspiring journey from a high school student with no clue about the globe-trotting possibilities to a retired military officer dedicated to nurturing a new wave of culturally-savvy leaders. Learn about her trailblazing work to boost the meager 6% of students of color studying abroad, and discover how her program transforms young lives by offering more than a passport stamp – it grants confidence, global awareness, and a community that traverses borders.
Picture the world as a classroom, vast and vibrant, filled with lessons in every corner – that's the vision Barbara shares in this conversation. She's not just a guide; she's a story weaver, revealing how a French novel and a surfing lesson in Hawaii became chapters in her own tale of global citizenship. Listen to the stories of students like Danica Hickman, whose journey from a program participant to a volunteer in Kenya underscores the boundless opportunities that arise when we step out into the world. Barbara's mission is a reminder that investing in our youth's global education is not a luxury but a vital responsibility, shaping not just their futures, but the fabric of our interconnected society. Tune in and prepare to be inspired to think outside your own boundaries and perhaps, to embark on your own adventure towards global understanding.
Speaker 1:
Barbara, thank you so much for coming in today. Thanks for having me. I understand you came from Maryland. What city again? Oh, bowie Maryland, bowie Maryland. Thank you so much. My pleasure Now tell me about your business. I know it's a little bit about going abroad, with a particular importance on students of color. Yes, can you tell me a little bit more about that please?
Speaker 2:
Great, so thank you for having me Now. I founded Going Global with Barbara five years ago and with an emphasis on bringing expanded opportunities around awareness and access to study abroad programs to students of color. I know for myself the entire time that I was in high school no one ever talked to me about studying abroad, or any of my friends, and I wasn't able. But I knew I wanted to travel and see the world. So I ended up joining the military. Wow, that's a pretty exciting thing that I got to do. I could just remember thinking I wish my friends were here and I wish they could see this, these great things that I'm having the opportunity to see and do and learn. And so, after my military retirement and some time in corporate America, that feeling never left me. I wanted to start something, create something that would bring those experiences to the teenager that I used to be.
Speaker 2:
So of all students that study abroad, short or long term, students that identify students of color only represent less than 6% of students that participate in that and in those types of programs, and that's really from a lack of awareness. So we want to. We want to heighten that conversation, we want to have that conversation. You absolutely can study abroad and you should have a passport. If your passport eligible, you absolutely should have one, and we want to help make that happen because it unlocks so many doors for you personally and academically and professionally.
Speaker 1:
Are there any? I'm sorry, are there any requirements to join you guys? Do we have to have particular grades or anything? Does a student would need to have any kind of prerequisite?
Speaker 2:
No, because we want to be more inclusive than exclusive. Okay, Right, yeah. So we have students that are elite students at some of the areas top schools, the country's top schools. Our students come from all over, and we also have a cohort of at-risk students at opportunity students, students that are struggling but want to do something different than what's happening in their neighborhood or their community or their school, and so it's a whole range of kids. We believe that travel is transformational for students of all backgrounds, so we want to make it so that the only requirement that we have is that we ask the students to commit to six weeks of pre-travel classes.
Speaker 1:
Is that like the longest time, or can you expand it, shorten it?
Speaker 2:
We expand it. We partner with schools and youth organizations that sometimes only want the workshops. So we do travel skills workshops where they get little passports and we learn how to research destinations. We give them foreign currency. Many of them have never seen any currency other than the US dollar. Many of them and their parents think that the US dollar is walked on everywhere because we grew up hearing that, and that's not true. So we want them to know that, we want to talk about that.
Speaker 2:
We put your rose in their hand and say that I was in their hand and we want to bring the destination to them in those workshops, whether they're traveling or not. But if they're traveling, because I'm a retired military officer, leadership development is a core objective of our program. So our students are actually assigned to lead our groups while we're in Paris. So students who have never been out of the country and some who have never been out of their state or even their community are now group leaders on the ground in Paris, leading a group of their peers on and off the Paris Metro, around the neighborhoods, getting us to all of our day's itinerary items on time together, safely.
Speaker 1:
Oh my gosh, that's like huge. It's huge. It's not just like, hey, let's go see sites and that's it. You teach them. Sounds like a lot of important skills. Yeah, what's it like for you being on that other side and experiencing that, like seeing their eyes open, like whoa heroes or like I'm going to do this, like in a foreign country. It's overwhelming.
Speaker 2:
I mean, the level of responsibility that parents entrust us with is just. I'm so grateful for that, for their commitment to the program and allowing their students to travel without them. And, you know, in taking this step, pushing past fears and whatever concerns they might have and allowing their students to have this experience with us, we are so grateful and the joy that we experience when we, you know, when we hit that first corner and the students see the Eiffel Tower for the first time, it never gets old.
Speaker 1:
I'm sure I bet that's so exciting. I have never seen it, so I can only imagine like how they feel and just wow, never gets old.
Speaker 2:
But, more importantly, by the end of the week we can see the change and when the students return home their parents can see the change and we get comments from parents all the time. My student is different. My student is more confident, more outspoken. They're talking openly about travel, they're making plans to travel, they want to know about study abroad, they want to apply to colleges abroad.
Speaker 1:
That's amazing, like you totally transform them just from getting outside of the US. That's all it is.
Speaker 2:
Who would have thought right yeah, who would have thought. Who would have?
Speaker 1:
thought Now for these places in? Is it just only Europe?
Speaker 2:
No, we also go to Jordan, where I lived for three years, the Holy Land. And we go to Senegal, west Africa.
Speaker 1:
Okay, wow. Is there a particular reason why you chose these places?
Speaker 2:
Is it because your history with them like knowing it a little bit, or with it has to be places that I've spent time in, where I'm really comfortable, where I have strong local connections and strong local relationships. That's the key to a successful youth travel program. So we are a small business, so we've really invested heavily in building strong partnerships in these destinations so that the colleges that we're visiting know us the properties that we rent from. We have relationships with the landlords, everyone is background checked. So the student safety is a high priority for us and just making sure that we don't take students. We don't want to put the students at risk, obviously, but we want them to have the most fulfilling, transformational experience that they can have. So we picked four destinations where we could put all of those pieces in place. And we do get requests for new destinations, and so that means new travel for us and our staff, but so for right now we have those four core destinations.
Speaker 1:
Okay, beautiful. And then as far as marketing for your business to get more students to be aware, what do you do for that? We reach out?
Speaker 2:
to parent teacher associations of schools, school leadership, youth organizations in our community and around the country and we introduce ourselves and people are very surprised at who we are and what we do and it's they're not getting a lot of outreach. That sounds like us. So we we promote on social media, so we do get some social media traffic. People that come across our ads visit our website, but most of our, most of our clientele come from referrals.
Speaker 1:
Okay, word of mouth to word of mouth.
Speaker 2:
Our parents have great experiences. They tell their friends and, you know, they tell their students school.
Speaker 1:
And yeah, I was going to say, I feel like you would do so well going to like colleges and talking about it and maybe partnering up with them or getting a day to come in and just talk about it. Absolutely that would be great.
Speaker 2:
So we reach out to study abroad offices at colleges around the country and and the reception has been really positive Because a lot of colleges have alternate spring break where students want to do something meaningful service opportunities with travel. So we are talking to colleges around the country about developing something that will fit the needs of their students as well.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so you're ready. You're like I got this. And then as far as for your business, how did you know this was something that you wanted to do? I know you said that growing up you felt like you didn't get to travel abroad as much as you wanted to, until you got into the military. Exactly what inspired you to want to share that experience with everybody?
Speaker 2:
So, first of all, my family had a daycare center in our home and most of our clientele were medical students, international students from the University of Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2:
It was born and raised in Pittsburgh, and so at an early age I was introduced to the idea that people could travel. They could come to us, they could come to Pittsburgh of all places from Ireland and Scotland and China and India and we had these students from all over the world. I got to meet their families, learn a little bit about their culture. Sometimes they teach me a little bit of the language, and it was just this kind of magical little world, but it did create the question if they could come here, why can't we go there? And so I think a seed of travel was planted, and there is a block story that I have on my website about one of our parents was from France and she gave me a copy of the little prince, le Petit Prince, and I was little and a French dictionary, and she told me learn to read this book and someday you will come to visit me in Paris.
Speaker 2:
And we didn't keep in touch, but I definitely tried to translate that book one page at a time and learn to read it, and I, just, I would read it, passages of it, out loud, and I remember just loving the sound of my voice trying to speak another language, oh yeah, especially French, huh.
Speaker 2:
Especially French, and you know it, just those seeds were planted. The, you know, the encouragers in my life watered those seeds of discovery and curiosity. And when it came time to make a decision about what to do after high school, I knew the military could be that next step in. You know, they say, join the Navy and see the world. And that's exactly what I did.
Speaker 1:
That's exactly what you did and shared that to grow it you know Absolutely. Do you have any memorable crazy stories from being abroad that stick out to you a lot with your students?
Speaker 2:
With my students, or even just yourself too. You know, I'm a little brown girl from Pittsburgh and my first duty station was Hawaii. And you know, six months in, I was pretty miserable. And how could you be miserable in Hawaii? I, just I was on base. All I did was work and kind of stay in my room. I was really kind of shy. I didn't know how to make it feel like home or how to take advantage of what Hawaii had to offer. And my mom said you need to make friends with some local girls and figure out what they do for fun. You know, get off the base. Just because you're in the military doesn't mean your life has to be all military. That's actually a good point, isn't it Right? And so I did. I got a second job at the mall, I met a lot of local girls and they invited me to start to learn how to surf.
Speaker 1:
Oh my gosh, and just from reaching out.
Speaker 2:
Just from reaching out and making local connections and I was going to people's graduations and, you know, learning to eat Filipino food and going to Chinatown and having these experiences with these amazing young women that opened their families and their homes to me and I did learn how to surf and so there I am. You know I had to join a side story. I had to join a fitness center in Pittsburgh in preparation for joining the Navy, because I did not know how to swim.
Speaker 1:
I don't either, so so I would take.
Speaker 2:
They had $10 day passes at this spa in Pittsburgh and I would spend $10,. Save up my money, spend $10, and I would ask strangers to teach me how to swim oh my God, how to try water.
Speaker 1:
You know how to do the things that, like at the spa, at the spa and strangers would help me.
Speaker 2:
And so I went from that and I obviously passed boot camp and the strangers helped me and I got past that obstacle to end up surfing with local girls in Hawaii and paddling out, you know, at sunrise, you know, waiting for the surf to come in. And I just thought, you know, wow, you know how did I get here and, like I said, I did want my friends to be there and I did wish I could bring those experiences to othergirlscom.
Speaker 1:
That's amazing and it sounds like a big part of it is being open-minded, not being like no, I'm in the base, I'll just stay here. I'll stay with the surrounding people. You have to want to, and obviously it helps with people around you. Like your mom told you hey, why don't you talk to the local girls? I feel like that isn't even here, just being in your neighborhood. You stay in your own like zone or your own lane with your own people. You don't try to get to know other people, no matter what background they are, and just have different experiences with them. We just are so comfortable. You don't do the extra. The little tiny extra works just from saying hello to somebody on the street or asking like hey, what is that? We're so not shy but not as open, and I love that you have that and that you're teaching that to your students, just from having their own currency. All of that. Absolutely, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2:
It's where we feel safe. We feel safe in what we know, and we can't talk about travel for students of color without talking about fear. So we grow up with a lot of fears around interactions outside our communities, interactions within our communities, interactions with law enforcement. So we grow up with all of these fears that can feel like, well, if I have to be this afraid at home, what would it even be like to be somewhere where I don't speak the language and I don't know anybody? And so the fear can multiply and we have to be really careful of that because it closes doors that really are the doors to transform us in ways that we really, deep down, want to be transformed. We do wanna see new things and do new things and learn new things and grow in that way.
Speaker 2:
We were talking to a travel enter. My business partner and I were talking to a travel influencer. Eric Prince is a well-known travel influencer, lives in Thailand and last night, and he's made the comment, where you belong is not necessarily where you were born yeah, that is very true Right.
Speaker 2:
And so what a great perspective, and that's what we want students to know. You'll always be from your hometown, but your dream school may not be in your state, and it might not even be in the United States.
Speaker 1:
That's beautiful. And then, have you had any challenges with your business, as far as like growing it or in any particular way that you've had to overcome?
Speaker 2:
So we have a good challenge right now and that's capacity. So we are bringing on new staff, training, new chaperones so that we can run simultaneous cohorts of students. So but that's one of our challenges, finding people that are willing to make the commitment to learn the program, commit to the students, take the trips.
Speaker 1:
How many employees do you have by?
Speaker 2:
the way. So we have three Okay, we have three right now and a director of development, an operations manager and then the chaperone. Okay, yeah, so a closed chaperone. So this year I will not be going on every trip. I have gone on every trip up to this point, but we got into a capacity milestone where I will no longer be able to do that.
Speaker 1:
Thank you.
Speaker 2:
So that's our other challenge is always funding we're looking for because our funding allows us to offset the cost for the students and because one of our missions is to close the access gap financially. Those funds often become scholarships and financial aid for students that, even with the fundraising, they need help closing the gap between their desire to travel and their ability to travel. So that's always something that we're looking at. Our director of development just joined us. She is an expert grant writer, so we're very excited about that. So, and those are our challenges today.
Speaker 1:
Okay, but they sound like good challenges that you will overcome, these little things and just keep growing and expanding. This is so amazing I'm going to look more into. Is there like a particular age? I know it says students, but can anybody maybe? Is there like a limit to the age?
Speaker 2:
Well, it's interesting. Parents always want to go and they say, okay, so we can't go on the teen trips, but maybe you could do so. This year we are doing an adult trip to Paris. They want to do the itinerary that their students do, plus some additional things, just for the adults.
Speaker 1:
Is that like a particular time of year that you guys have, or how many of those do you guys have Like?
Speaker 2:
so we do one adult trip a year. Okay, we did a group of adults in Jordan, We'll do a group of adults in, we did a group of adults to Senegal and we will do an adult trip to Paris this September.
Speaker 1:
Okay, I will keep that in the back of my head. Do you have any advice for anybody other? Business owners, people in general.
Speaker 2:
I would just say you know, put push past the fear. The same thing we encourage our students to do is the same thing that we've had to do.
Speaker 2:
You know, we are walking the talk you know, if you will, in that people told us this would not work. They told us that we would. We will go broke trying to take his on an expensive trip this way. You know it just wouldn't be sustainable, and we're so happy that that turned out not to be true. It's taken a lot of work, a lot of great partnerships, telling our story just like this, so that people can who also we're not alone. There are lots of people who want this opportunity for their students, either as educators or as parents or youth leaders, and they're happy to hear that this opportunity exists and they're willing to partner with us to make this happen. So, if you are a person whether it's youth travel or whatever it is, there is a community of people out there willing to come alongside you to help your purpose and your dreams come true.
Speaker 1:
Okay, and then what has been some of the most meaningful moments that you've experienced with your students after they have gone on going global?
Speaker 2:
with Barbara, when they come back. We have a cohort of students that this year they're going to be on their third trip together. So these are students that started out traveling not knowing each other and now they consider themselves travel family and those students may likely travel together for the rest of their lives in some form or fashion maybe not as a complete cohort, but that bond is built and because they overcame things together and they worked together, and in a similar way to the bond you build when you you know in the military, with people being in new spaces and places, overcoming challenges with people. I'm watching that happen for young people and and they call me for lots of things, for letters of recommendation, to share exciting news One of our travelers, danica Hickman, who did social media for us last two trips, got invited to do volunteer work in Kenya this summer and she wanted to let me know and she's not sure that that opportunity would have come to her if she had not traveled with going global and that is everything.
Speaker 1:
I can't imagine how you feel like from people telling you like it won't work to like beautiful stories like this.
Speaker 2:
It's amazing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and then my last question for you here is gonna be if you could give one message to the world. You have a megaphone here. What would you like to say?
Speaker 2:
I would like to say that these students, the youth, are our collective responsibility, and not only keeping them safe, but expanding their horizons is our global responsibility, our collective responsibility, and whatever we can do, we should do, we have an obligation to do for them and for us. It sounds cliche to say they are the future, but they really are the present, they are the now, and we all, no matter what line of work we're in, some part of who we are and how we live, should be dedicated to ensuring that young people have the best possible chance for success.
Speaker 1:
That was beautiful. I agree with that. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and sharing your story and experiences with us. Thank you so much for having me.
