Originally a native of Boston, Sheera Gendzel made the jump to California in 2009, and while friends back home are shoveling snow, she can be found rollerblading near the beach or enjoying yoga in the warm sunshine. Traveling the country and the globe is nothing new to Sheera—she has lived in Montreal, Sydney, and Los Angeles, and has chosen Luang Prabang, Laos as her favorite place that she has traveled… so far. Here she shares one day of her life in California as she helps teachers and students discover America.

Just another day on the road and I’m hunting out a place to set up my mobile office in between meetings... This time I’m in Santa Ana and am torn between the familiar Starbucks or a high-potential Coffee Bean 3.2 miles away. Coffee Beans are great: excellent WiFi, good coffee, and I just so happen to have a gift card. But 3.2 miles is not always 3.2 miles with this GPS. It’s a little finicky and we have a love/hate relationship. I decide on the Coffee Bean and continue on along The 22, hoping my GPS is telling the truth today.

I just left a Santa Ana middle school where I met with a truly inspirational teacher and once again I am reminded why I do what I do. This teacher, we’ll call him Mr. C., is passionate and involved in his students’ lives. He’s started after-school gardening and entrepreneurial clubs and works to teach his students real-world skills in addition to classroom lessons. His club’s garden grows peppers, tomatoes, corn, various herbs and flowers, which he discreetly makes available to families in need. He also runs the school Washington, D.C. travel club, which travels to our Nation’s Capital every other year. He’s worked with another educational travel company in the past but is excited about traveling with Smithsonian next year. We discussed in detail what he’s looking for in a trip and discovered that Smithsonian Student Travel could plan the same program for $400 less per student! In his community, that will allow a lot more students the opportunity to travel.

I drive all around LA and Orange County helping teachers plan educational class trips for the first time. Taking students across the country for the first time (or for the first time with us) can be daunting, but I battle traffic on The 405 to offer my help and support to show that it is possible. Last fall, I met with two teachers and a principal at a Teach for America school in South Central, LA. They had never taken any kind of class trip before and most students had never even left California. This group from South Central successfully organized and fundraised a Washington, D.C. trip for 25 people. They leave in two weeks, and I can’t wait to see them off at LAX!

I am passionate that travel changes lives and opens doors. I take deep breaths to calm my road rage in freeway gridlock and remember that we’re all doing what we can to make the future a better place and to offer educational opportunities we all wish we had growing up.

Now if I can just find that Coffee Bean…