Shirah is a recent graduate of Belmont University (May 2012), where she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Entrepreneurship – a major she created herself through Belmont’s Honors Program.

Shirah’s first big trip was to Brussels, Belgium in 2006, where she studied as a high school exchange student. During that year she fell in love with the joys, new discoveries, and challenges of traveling, and she’s been globetrotting ever since. Nepal is the 30th country she has visited in the past 6 years!

Shirah is passionate about linguistics. Though she’s tutored English learners all over the world, this is her first opportunity to serve in a formal position as an English teacher. She speaks French fluently, Russian competently, and Spanish conversationally. She arrived in Nepal knowing only a few words of Nepali, but hopes to learn quickly enough to hold a conversation with her Nepali friends within the next few months!

Following her service work in the monastery this summer, Shirah will move directly to Helsinki, Finland, where she’s been accepted to a Master’s program in Business Strategy at Aalto University. You can read about her past journeys and future plans on her personal travel blog: No Journey Wasted