Deia Schlosberg
Deia grew up in the woods of Upstate New York. Since then she has earned degrees in Earth & Planetary Science and Illustration at Washington University in St. Louis, volunteered in Europe and Africa, worked as an environmental educator in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and most recently as a senior field instructor for Monarch Center for Family Healing, a wilderness therapy school in the Colorado Rockies. She is also a published illustrator, photographer, designer and writer. Deia is beyond elated and grateful to be making this little South American hike her next chapter.
"I am embarking on this trek for the same reason that motivates every major life decision for me: to learn more about myself and about the world that I am part of. I know that I gain the most understanding of myself and how I operate when I am pushed to new levels--physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually. Exploring, on foot, a large part of the world that I've been interested in for years, is for me the perfect way to do that. I also feel a very strong need to understand how people in other parts of the world live, in terms of the cultures they have developed and especially how those cultures have been affected by their local environments. Coming from a society of far-from-sustainable lifestyles, I want to gain and bring back as much knowledge as I can of how entire communities manage to thrive for thousands of years, limiting their resources and respecting the natural world."