{"id":3525,"date":"2011-04-13T14:51:57","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T20:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/?p=3525"},"modified":"2011-04-13T14:51:57","modified_gmt":"2011-04-13T20:51:57","slug":"go-west-young-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/2011\/04\/go-west-young-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Go West, Young Men"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Road<\/a>

Richard Swift, Jack Naito, and Ezra Siegel prepare for their trip around the world.<\/p><\/div>\n

The road after graduation leads west \u2013 about 20,000 miles west \u2013 for seniors Ezra Siegel<\/strong>, Jack Naito<\/strong>, and Richard Swift<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The three have purchased tickets for a June 12 departure\u00a0to Japan, where, despite the recent events, they will embark on \u201cThe Road is West,\u201d a 193-day journey of more than 20,000 miles through 24 countries and\u00a0three continents.<\/p>\n

The idea began when Siegel and Naito were sophomores; Siegel wanted to travel extensively and Naito liked cars \u2013 so in CC fashion they\u00a0devised their own interdisciplinary post-graduation plan: driving around the world. Naito mentioned the idea to Swift, and he was immediately in.<\/p>\n

The trio will purchase a Subaru in Japan, then ferry it to Vladivostok, Russia, where they will spend approximately\u00a0two weeks driving to China, and on then to Ulaanbaatar,\u00a0the capital of Mongolia. There they will spend several weeks volunteering with The Tributary Fund, which was founded\u00a0by Betsy Gaines Quammen \u201990<\/strong>. \u201cI heard her husband\u00a0talk at CC during my junior year, and spoke later with her.\u00a0She was enthusiastic about our trip and offered to help with some of the logistics in Mongolia.<\/p>\n

After Betsy explained that CC students have worked with The Tributary Fund in the past, we decided that we couldn\u2019t pass through Mongolia without stopping by to help out at TTF in whatever way we could,\u201d Naito said.<\/p>\n

After volunteering with The Tributary Fund in Mongolia, they will continue west across Russia and into Finland, where they will begin the European portion of the journey, ending up in Lisbon, where they will ship the car to New York City.<\/p>\n

From there, they will drive across the U.S., stopping in Chicago (Siegel\u2019s home), Fort Collins (Swift\u2019s home), Colorado College (of course!), and Portland, Ore. (Naito\u2019s home), before heading north through Canada to Anchorage, Alaska.<\/p>\n

During the six-month journey, they hope to meet CC alumni and raise money for the AppreCCiate Scholarship, a scholarship founded and run by CC students that provides need-based student financial aid. The scholarship was started by Ari Stiller-Shulman \u201906<\/strong> and Robin Dunn \u201906<\/strong>, who rode their bikes across the United States following graduation, raising money for and awareness of the scholarship.<\/p>\n

Swift, Naito, and Siegel have landed a few corporate sponsorships, and are seeking more. One company, Flip, already has donated a pocket-size video camera for the trip.<\/p>\n

The students are undertaking the trip for a variety of reasons, but all three agree that the time after graduation is the ideal time to embark on such an adventure. \u201cIt\u2019s possibly the only time I\u2019ll have to do something like this,\u201d Naito says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m passionate about traveling,\u201d says Siegel. \u201cI want to see a variety of cultures and people. I\u2019m interested in everything out there, and doubt I\u2019ll stop traveling after this trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

To follow their progress, go to their website<\/a>, blog <\/a>or Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The road after graduation leads west \u2013 about 20,000 miles west \u2013 for seniors Ezra Siegel, Jack Naito, and Richard Swift. The three have purchased tickets for a June 12 departure\u00a0to Japan, where, despite the recent events, they will embark on \u201cThe Road is West,\u201d a 193-day journey of more than 20,000 miles through 24…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-3525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-april-2011","tag-around-cc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}