Having a global community has always been important to me – I believe that to understand the world around us, we must actively engage in cross-cultural dialogue. My journey with Global Nomads amplified this belief and ultimately helped guide me toward a career in documentary photography.  

I began my time with Global Nomads in 2019 as an extern, where I had the opportunity to shadow fellow Grinnell College alum Sandra Stein, Global Nomads’ Chief of Programs and Learning. My first task was to backwards-map the Global Hunger curriculum. I stayed on as a Program Development intern to continue work on this module, and eventually became an Intern Coordinator at the outset of the Content Creation Lab (CCL). In this role, I collaborated with teams of interns to create youth-driven curricula on issues that mattered to them, including Human Rights, Women’s Rights, Sports, and Mental Health. 

Global Nomads structures its courses around dialogue and stories, which foster long-term engagement and increase accessibility. This philosophy has influenced my own approach as a storyteller. Behind the camera, I aim to document stories that are authentic, impactful, and accessible. I am particularly drawn to the mundane: the spaces and routines people often overlook, yet which, when made visible, can spark meaningful dialogue across diverse audiences.

In March, I graduated with a Master’s in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication at the University of the Arts London. For a degree that urges knowledge of global affairs, it felt essential to spend time outside of the United States, where I had grown up, and immerse myself in a new environment. London, as a multicultural hub, was a natural fit. The international nature of my course community both reflected and reinforced Global Nomads’ core vision: that understanding and empathy, cultivated through cross-cultural peer dialogue, are central to a global education.

My final MA project was more autobiographical than most of my other work, yet its personal lens – centered on self-portraiture – encouraged dialogue among individuals with both similar and vastly different experiences. No Place Like documents my return to the ten houses of my childhood and my encounters with the families who live in them now. Through these visits, I explore the uncanniness of reentering spaces I once called home, revealing the tension between memory and absence. As guest and ghost, I photograph myself in living rooms with the current occupants, and outside the houses, whether or not I was invited in. The series lingers in the unease of familiar yet distant, asking what it means to become a stranger in your own home – if you can still call it that. 

A few photos from that project: