ABOUT
DELIBERATE DETOUR
ABOUT DELIBERATE DETOUR
OUR FAMILY’S STORY
Hello and welcome! I’m Stephanie. From the year of my birth until 2008, I traveled to 48 countries as an exchange student, program director, tourist, Peace Corps volunteer, backpacker, and newlywed. In the subsequent ten years, I traveled to exactly one: Mexico.
Pausing adventurous travel wasn’t entirely intentional; life events kept me home in those ten years. I gave birth to two babies; my mother died of cancer; my husband went back to college for another degree; my pets aged but didn’t pass away.
I always knew I’d get back out into the world with my children for one simple reason: immersive international travel had transformed my life more than any other experience, and I wanted the same for my children. When my first daughter was born, I whispered into my husband’s ear about a Ten Year Plan, which entailed leaving the US for a year in ten years, worldschooling the children, and immersing them into cultures all over this magnificent planet.
He gave me a, “Mmm, that sounds nice” and went about focusing on that day and that week, as was his style.
To each their own; however, I knew the Ten Year Plan was achievable, and the idea of it smoldered in me all of those years. So when my girls were six and eight, my husband and I started talking in earnest about how to manifest this vision.
We addressed all of the common concerns: how to educate our public school daughters, afford a worldschooling lifestyle, convince our family members that we weren’t mad, keep our children connected to peers, and much more. After a pandemic delay, my family departed in September 2021, my daughters then 10 and 12.
On our journey through Europe, parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, we’ve honed our education style, altered our day-to-day experience to meet each of our needs, perfected our travel budget, and improved our techniques for socialization and cultural immersion.
We have so much to share with others considering and planning for this massive life shift. Deliberate Detour was born from these lessons.
OUR FAMILY’S STORY
Hello and welcome! I’m Stephanie. From the year of my birth until 2008, I traveled to 48 countries as an exchange student, program director, tourist, Peace Corps volunteer, backpacker, and newlywed. In the subsequent ten years, I traveled to exactly one: Mexico.
Pausing adventurous travel wasn’t entirely intentional; life events kept me home in those ten years. I gave birth to two babies; my mother died of cancer; my husband went back to college for another degree; my pets aged but didn’t pass away.
I always knew I’d get back out into the world with my children for one simple reason: immersive international travel had transformed my life more than any other experience, and I wanted the same for my children. When my first daughter was born, I whispered into my husband’s ear about a Ten Year Plan, which entailed leaving the US for a year in ten years, worldschooling the children, and immersing them into cultures all over this magnificent planet.
He gave me a, “Mmm, that sounds nice” and went about focusing on that day and that week, as was his style.
To each their own; however, I knew the Ten Year Plan was achievable, and the idea of it smoldered in me all of those years. So when my girls were six and eight, my husband and I started talking in earnest about how to manifest this vision.
We addressed all of the common concerns: how to educate our public school daughters, afford a worldschooling lifestyle, convince our family members that we weren’t mad, keep our children connected to peers, and much more. After a pandemic delay, my family departed in September 2021, my daughters then 10 and 12.
On our journey through Europe, parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, we’ve honed our education style, altered our day-to-day experience to meet each of our needs, perfected our travel budget, and improved our techniques for socialization and cultural immersion.
We have so much to share with others considering and planning for this massive life shift. Deliberate Detour was born from these lessons.
ABOUT DELIBERATE DETOUR
At Deliberate Detour, we’re devoted to supporting daring international family travel. Our aim is to inspire you to get out into the world because travel can change your life forever. It has for us.
Our vision is to create a more empathic and peaceful world by supporting families in creating immersive, life-altering travel experiences for their children and themselves.
Our programs and offerings:
- help you leap into worldschooling with all of the stories, tools, and resources you need
- support you in creating a journey that’s right for your unique family, with all of your dreams, hopes, barriers, and constraints considered
- encourage you to notice your impact on people and the environment, giving you ideas to keep traveling while having a lighter touch
- inspire you with travel stories that are funny, daring, mysterious, and enlightening
- help you tap into a larger worldschooling community to glean and share expertise and to create travel companions
ABOUT DELIBERATE DETOUR
At Deliberate Detour, we’re devoted to supporting daring international family travel. Our aim is to inspire you to get out into the world because travel can change your life forever. It has for us.
Our vision is to create a more empathic and peaceful world by supporting families in creating immersive, life-altering travel experiences for their children and themselves.
Our programs and offerings:
- help you leap into worldschooling with all of the stories, tools, and resources you need
- support you in creating a journey that’s right for your unique family, with all of your dreams, hopes, barriers, and constraints considered
- encourage you to notice your impact on people and the environment, giving you ideas to keep traveling while having a lighter touch
- inspire you with travel stories that are funny, daring, mysterious, and enlightening
- help you tap into a larger worldschooling community to glean and share expertise and to create travel companions
WORLDSCHOOLERS: Innovative Parents Turning Countries into Classrooms
OUR VALUES
- We believe that all people have equal value, that their cultures each have fascinating lessons to teach, and that no country comes first.
- We believe that the world is safe and that people are inherently good.
- We believe that immersive travel is the best vehicle for self-discovery, personal growth, and the development of traits like perseverance, flexibility, tolerance, grit, and open-mindedness.
- We believe that travelers have a duty to behave responsibly, respecting people, places, and the planet, and leaving places better after departure.
- We believe, in most circumstances, that only those of privilege intentionally leave their own countries. As such, travelers have a duty to recognize when that privilege is manifesting, pledging to mitigate it and to treat others equitably.
OUR VALUES
- We believe that all people have equal value, that their cultures each have fascinating lessons to teach, and that no country comes first.
- We believe that the world is safe and that people are inherently good.
- We believe that immersive travel is the best vehicle for self-discovery, personal growth, and the development of traits like perseverance, flexibility, tolerance, grit, and open-mindedness.
- We believe that travelers have a duty to behave responsibly, respecting people, places, and the planet, and leaving places better after departure.
- We believe, in most circumstances, that only those of privilege intentionally leave their own countries. As such, travelers have a duty to recognize when that privilege is manifesting, pledging to mitigate it and to treat others equitably.
Stephanie Tolk
Author | Speaker | Worldschooler | Traveler | Writer | Instructor | Coach
Stephanie Tolk has lived, worked, backpacked, honeymooned, and volunteered in nearly 50 countries on five continents. She has spent the night in a sandstorm in the Sahara Desert, cared for scarlet macaws in the jungles of Guatemala, danced on the streets of Salvador de Bahia, Brazil during Carnival, and much, much more.
Stephanie served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, West Africa, where she lived in a small village without electricity or running water, an AFS exchange student in Greece and the Netherlands, and she studied all over the world with Semester at Sea. She has spent nearly five years of her life abroad and speaks Bambara, along with a smattering of Dutch, Spanish, and French.
Professionally, Stephanie co-founded a non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon called The Pangaea Project, where she served as executive director. She’s held director-level roles at several non-profit organizations in Oregon, leading teams of up to 15 individuals.
Stephanie and her husband began worldschooling in 2021 with their two daughters, and together, they have explored countries in Central and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Stephanie Tolk
Author | Speaker | Worldschooler | Traveler | Writer | Instructor | Coach
Stephanie Tolk has lived, worked, backpacked, honeymooned, and volunteered in nearly 50 countries on five continents. She has spent the night in a sandstorm in the Sahara Desert, cared for scarlet macaws in the jungles of Guatemala, danced on the streets of Salvador de Bahia, Brazil during Carnival, and much, much more.
Stephanie served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, West Africa, where she lived in a small village without electricity or running water, an AFS exchange student in Greece and the Netherlands, and she studied all over the world with Semester at Sea. She has spent nearly five years of her life abroad and speaks Bambara, along with a smattering of Dutch, Spanish, and French.
Professionally, Stephanie co-founded a non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon called The Pangaea Project, where she served as executive director. She’s held director-level roles at several non-profit organizations in Oregon, leading teams of up to 15 individuals.
Stephanie and her husband began worldschooling in 2021 with their two daughters, and together, they have explored countries in Central and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
WHERE WE’VE BEEN
WORK WITH STEPHANIE
With 19 years of experience leading teams of up to 15 individuals as an executive director and marketing director of US organizations, Stephanie easily demonstrates strategic thinking, organization, and planning and execution. Her travels have molded her into an open-minded, flexible individual who perseveres, takes thoughtful risks, and respects difference.
Stephanie’s exceptional writing abilities, honed at University of Michigan, are cataloged in Worldschooling: Innovative Parents Turning Countries into Classrooms and on her Medium page, followed by hundreds of devoted readers.
Contact Stephanie about:
- Article authorship
- Guest blogging
- Podcast interviews
- Source quotes
- Public speaking
- Sponsored travel
- Worldschooling consultancy
- Brand partnerships
- Affiliate marketing
WORK WITH STEPHANIE
With 19 years of experience leading teams of up to 15 individuals as an executive director and marketing director of US organizations, Stephanie easily demonstrates strategic thinking, organization, and planning and execution. Her travels have molded her into an open-minded, flexible individual who perseveres, takes thoughtful risks, and respects difference.
Stephanie’s exceptional writing abilities, honed at University of Michigan, are cataloged in Worldschooling: Innovative Parents Turning Countries into Classrooms and on her Medium page, followed by hundreds of devoted readers.
Contact Stephanie about:
- Article authorship
- Guest blogging
- Podcast interviews
- Source quotes
- Public speaking
- Sponsored travel
- Worldschooling consultancy
- Brand partnerships
- Affiliate marketing