About Lumos

Lumos Travel Award

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Travel With a Purpose

Lumos Travel is the bridge between your academic journey and your future goals—your chance to be wildly curious, ignite your imagination, embrace adventure, and travel with a purpose.

What Does it Mean to Travel With a Purpose?

Travel & Explore: Traveling with a purpose isn’t just sightseeing—it’s about crafting your own unique project in partnership with a global organization that will directly impact a community. You’ll spend a minimum of four months exploring and immersing yourself in a new culture while building connections and making a real difference.

Learn & Grow: Take your Belmont education to the next level. Learn, grow, and lead in a global context by volunteering, pursuing a passion project, or engaging with local communities. Step outside your comfort zone and connect deeply with others.

Transform & Share: Every moment of traveling with a purpose is an opportunity to create positive change—both in the world and within yourself. It’s a transformative experience that leaves a lasting impact. You’ll share your journey through a travel blog and return to campus to inspire others with your story.

What Will You Allow Yourself to Do?

Lumos award recipients have traveled with a purpose across more than 39 countries, from bustling cities to remote villages. They’ve designed impactful projects alongside partner organizations, exploring diverse fields and making a difference every step of the way.

TRAVELER STORIES

By the Numbers

Years

Travelers

Countries

Majors

"Living in Ghana gave me the biggest dose of perspective of my life. I realized that becoming a “global citizen” doesn’t mean realizing your own importance but discovering your relative unimportance. My life changed so drastically due to my Lumos Travel experience in Ghana."

Abby Selden

Ghana

2010

“Lumos was such an influential experience—it was a whirlwind and I feel like I lived 1,000 lives already, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Aaron Kleinschmidt

Mexico

2024

“Through my Lumos Travel experience, I have a clearer understanding of my professional strengths and interests. I learned that while I have a high capacity for development and strategic planning, I truly thrive in people-facing environments and have a solidified desire to combine my love for teaching, food-based businesses, and entrepreneurship to serve migrant women in Latin America.”

Renée Ramirez

Panama

2022 - 2023

“While I entered this adventure knowing it would be an incredible learning experience, I had no idea that I would fall in love with this country and its people. By being so warmly accepted into this culture, I was able to flourish and take risks—which meant getting to know so many people, affecting their lives, and in turn being influenced by them.”

Hillary Merwin

Colombia

2017

“Living in Thailand and being a part of this unique culture has opened my eyes and heart in ways that they never were before. Thailand’s culture, full of patience, love, and community, has taught me to live. Live through all misfortunes in life and remember to not wish things away. My life before Thailand lived for results. Graduating from college, getting the best grades, and eventually starting a business, but I sometimes forgot about the importance of the process that gets you there. Becoming patient and appreciating the process has helped me become a better teacher, friend, and business owner.”

Kyle Ducharme

Thailand

2013 - 2014

History of Lumos

The Lumos Foundation was founded in 2010 by Belmont alumna and longtime Board of Trust member Cynthia Leu with the goal of offering recent Belmont graduates transformative international work experiences. The foundation’s mission, both then and now, is to empower Lumos Travelers to create positive change, transforming not only the world and their communities but also themselves.

More From Our Founder

“The United States makes up only about 4% of the world’s population. With the creation of the Lumos Travel Award, a project deeply personal to me, I wanted to inspire and offer opportunities for people to explore the world, engage with international communities, and complete meaningful, transformative projects.

It’s truly powerful to say ‘yes’ to someone’s dream and then watch them grow through that experience. They struggle, learn and change, often realizing that the biggest lessons come in small moments. While traditional education focuses on theory, the Lumos Award provides a ‘working adventure’ that allows learning through real-world experience in an international setting.”

Lumos was founded to provide opportunities that create positive change in the lives of people I may never meet. It’s like planting trees whose shade I’ll never sit under.

Give

Help Us Spark Change Around the World

At the Lumos Foundation, we believe in the power of young people to change the world. Through self-designed international experiences, recent Belmont graduates step into communities across the globe—learning, serving, and leading with purpose.

Your support doesn’t just fund travel—it fuels transformation. With your help, we can continue empowering the next generation to make meaningful, lasting global impact where it’s needed most.

Give today—and be part of their journey