About Me

Hi! My name is Olivia! Here’s a little bit about me:

I was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico by an amazing, loving family. I am the youngest of three kids and am best friends with both my brother and sister. I was homeschooled until I turned 15 so yes, I was one of those weird homeschool kids.

But now I am currently studying at Fort Lewis College in the small town of Durango in Colorado. I am studying Adventure Education (AE), so I have now upgraded from a weird homeschool kid to hippy. I am planning on graduating with a degree of AE in May of 2022.

Now I know what you are thinking: “Adventure Education? What in the world is that? Sounds made up to me.” Well sometimes I think the very same thing but it is an actual major. Basically, to get an AE degree I had to take a bunch of fun classes like climbing, paddling, canyoneering (one of my favorites!), …etc. (Don’t worry! It wasn’t all fun, there were still some boring classes too.)

One of the requirements for my major was to spend the majority of the semester backpacking, learning how to read maps, tie knots, predict the weather, cook in the backcountry, set up shelter and other things like that. So that’s how I have been spending the last couple of years of my life. I love being outside even if it’s just to sit and soak in the sun.

Last summer I spent 11 weeks as a camp counselor for Eagle Lake Camps. I worked for their Day Camp On Location program which means I traveled to a different church each week and brought camp to them. It was exhausting work but I loved doing it and learned so much and gained some good friendships from that summer. I am planning on going back this summer to work at Eagle Lake’s overnight camp up in the mountains of Colorado Springs.

How I came to find the World Race:

Since I am graduating from college I was looking for what was next for my life. I was talking with friends and family about what would be some good options. I found that through my freshman year in college and when I was a camp counselor God gave me a passion for ministry/sharing the gospel with others. I have always had a passion for traveling and learning about the world. I wanted more than anything to be able to do that after I graduated. I happened to hear about something called the World Race through a lady at my church in Albuquerque. After that all of a sudden I started hearing more about the World Race from other random people and I had a friend who was looking into it at the same time I was. It’s a recurring theme of conversation in my life after never hearing about it before. I talked with my family about it a lot and decided it might be a good option, especially after spending a semester living out of my backpack.

I kept looking into it and applied just to see what would happen. When I got in I was over the moon with excitement to have the opportunity to see God’s creation around the world. The more I do to get ready to start WR and think about it the more nervous I get. But I know God’s got a plan for me even if there’s trials involved I am excited to go serve his people and see where he’s going to take me through WR. God provided me with this option right when I started to worry about what I was supposed to do after college and I am so thankful to him.