This recognition is to acknowledge not only travelers, but inspiring people who are making an impact in the world as well as their communities in all aspects.

July 2018 Recipient: Ejide D. Fashina

Ejide D. Fashina is a Travel Huncho In a way that you couldn’t imagine, and she is also the first ever traveler/ huncho of the month recipient. Ejide is responsible for keeping our sky’s safe. Her day job is as an air traffic control front line manager for the FAA and only one of the very few African-American air traffic controllers in the United States. Ejide began her FAA Air Traffic Control career 10 years ago with the FAA and in her short career, she has served as a Front Line Manager at the Northeast Philadelphia Airport, the flying home of former President of the United States Barack Obama Andrews Air Force Base, Philadelphia International Airport and now at Reading Approach. Additionally, Ejide serves as the current President of the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees Northeast Region which encourages equality for minorities in federal aviation. She has become an advocate for educating the youth on careers in aviation. Ejide has organized numerous summer program for students across the United States. These programs encourage students to focus on strengthening their knowledge and skills on STEM. Notably Ejide expanded her aviation outreach to Lagos, Nigeria where for the last 5 years she was responsible for successfully expanding her aviation outreach internationally by conducting an aviation academy in Nigeria. The aviation academy, titled “Safe Skies For Africa”, just celebrated its 5th year this past May and has introduced thousands of young Nigerian students to careers in aviation and will expand in 2019 . Ejide has over 30 passports stamps and she has brought more than 100 people to Nigeria in recent years. Ejide hopes to expand her aviation outreach to other countries within the continent of Africa in years to come. Stay tuned…

August 2018 Recipient: Kenna Williams

Earlier this year, Kenna went on a 2 month healing and revitalization trip from May to July to decompress. She suffered the loss of her mom on April 7th and her travel buddy Sean on April 9th. In May, Kenna traveled to Chennai, India then to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Then to Bali, Indonesia and finished up her trip in Singapore. Kenna flew back home to Los Angeles but immediately hopped on a plane to Memphis, her true home, where she stayed for about a week. After Memphis, she returned home to California for a short while then headed to Dallas to begin a tour of the US. In addition Dallas, she traveled to New York, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Miami and Atlanta. She went home for less than 12 hours and then was off to Chicago!  A lot of this was unplanned and spontaneous but it was fun as she lives this crazy #BookDatIsht life.

Places she visited/ Reflections:

  • Chennai, India India is the country that gives her the most peace so I was there visiting temples and relaxing in her favorite hotel.
  • Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Almost been before but I really enjoy seeing Batu Caves and Petronas Towers
  • Bali, Indonesia she was here to rest. Kenna booked a villa with a private pool, and spent part of the time lounging in the pool with relaxing trap music playing on the speakers. She took an off the beaten path tour in Bali and got to roam through rice fields and visit what they call gates of heaven.

September 2018 Recipient: Jade Renee

Full time entrepreneur and owner of @luxxmedia, Jade still manages to fit traveling in her very busy schedule. While traveling, she manages over 100 clients a month by working while flying to sustain business relationships and to complete projects. Also, due to the nature of her work, she can work anywhere due to the fact that all she needs is WiFi. Later this month, she’s traveling to Boston for the Forbes Summit. After Boston, she will visiting Las Vegas in October. Soon after, she will begin her tour in Europe.

Side note: Jade recently launched @billionairebabexo and received over 100 applications in less than 24 hours! Now that is hard work is paying off.

October 2018 Recipient: Nina Richardson

Nina is a full-time employee & full-time graduate student. However she still makes time to travel because she believe in “BALANCE”. She’s been to Dubai, Europe, South America, Thailand & Cuba this year.  She have a couple upcoming trips for places she wants to visit, and these tour destinations are Jamaica, Italy & Africa.

Nina’s Reflection:

Traveling has inspired me to be very thankful, grateful and most importantly humble because most of these beautiful countries that I have traveled to are poor. When traveling you becoming more open-minded & also more appreciative of the laws & recourses you have back in the United States.

November 2018 Recipient: Jennifer Pimenta

This year I went to Spain, Amsterdam, Turkey, Los Angeles, New York twice, Brazil (Vitoria, Goiânia, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais), Cyprus , and Qatar.
 
Being exposed to different cultures and ethics definitely opens up your eyes about many things and you start to see life from a different perspective. It makes you more grateful and empathetic for the life you now have, while also educating you on what we see on television is truly a false propaganda of what a regions truly looks like. Only someone who’s been exposed to other cultures can truly understand. Traveling is truly inspiring, and I urge everyone to do it.  The world is filled with many mysteries, and I will continue to travel to find out the hidden mysteries.

December 2018 Recipient: Miya Banks

Traveling and experiencing different cultures is a hobby of mine. Nothing is more eye-opening than surrounding yourself with another culture that chooses to live their life completely different from yours. I remember growing up in Memphis, TN as a kid, I loved meeting new people and experiencing new things; I also had a small obsession with the travel channel. I promised myself at young age that once I left Memphis I would experience the world and live life to the fullest. So far this year I’ve visited 4 different countries. I went to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as well as Montego Bay Jamaica. I also had the opportunity to visit Tulum Mexico, and Reykjavik Iceland.  I am fortunate to have a group of friends that share the same love for traveling such as myself. One of my favorite Traveling quotes is “The world is book and those who don’t travel, read only one page.” With that being said I aspire to keep traveling and experiencing everything that the world has to offer!

January 2019 Recipient: Julian Bond

For my birthday I wanted to do a eurotrip and be completely immersed in the culture.  So here it goes!
 
Amsterdam
I was thinking it was the weed capital of the world Partly yes, but there was more than I expected. The red light district and the way secular/ vulgarity was treated was completely different than in America. Being a (ho) in a window was an actual occupation, it was something similar like being a waitress. my favorite was the moco museum, they had new york artists banksy and kaws featured which they happened to be there at the time and are in my top five favorite.
 
London
london was really awesome all I did was drink gin and beer,  it was also my first Christmas away from my family. It was different but I enjoyed it nonetheless. . shopping was incredible it was new york of the U.K. and the fashion district street was “bond st” which was really dope.
 
Paris
Paris pleasantly surprised me, I did not think I was going to like it at all. However, it was dope and the louvre is FUCKING INCREDIBLE. you could spend a whole day there. i didn’t know it was that big. pigale area is dope n that’s where the black french folks be at which is funny lol. and learned that the hunchback of notre dame was actually a real black person.
 
Rome
Rome was not that interesting for me. it was dope to see all of the historical landmarks but the culture is crazy stereotypical.
 
Madrid
Was one of  favorite by far. it might be because i’m fluent in spanish and know the culture. However it has great history, great food, great shopping, great culture, people were really pleasant. definitely favorite city I visited.
 
Tour Life
Tour life to me is the overall respect and how you respond to different cultures. Along with the ability to leave your customs at home and drench yourself in another persons customs/culture/rituals.  Traveling, and experience, will lower your clear your mind and leave you open to learn.

February 2019 Recipient: Diamond Rae

Earlier this year I took a trip with friends and family to Tokyo because it was a bucket list destination. We rode go karts through the city dressed up as characters, I was Yoshi, and it was AMAZING!!!!! Traveling isn’t just what I do for work, it’s what I do to live. Coming up, we’re heading to South Africa for my birthday and I’m most looking forward to feeding the lions during the safari and reserve tour.
 

Traveling has opened my eyes to true struggle, real poor people and the true definition of a rich/wealthy person. What we experience in the states is not a struggle or a “ghetto”. I grew up in Cleveland, in a single parent household, blah blah blah, the typical “American black girl but still made it” story. I’ve lived in places where I thought it was the worst. It wasn’t until I visited Ghana where I saw an 8 year old girl, who’s parents lived on a wooden bench in the shop they sold their handmade crafts out of. They also utilized the bathroom in a black plastic bag just on the side of the street.

They don’t have a bathroom or have any shelters. They know what struggle truly is, yet it’s life and they would still offer me their last because I was a guest to them. Traveling has made me appreciate life and my family so much more because as cliche as it sounds, it can all just as quickly be taken away from you. I’ve tasted foods that I no longer consider foreign, I now have them at home on a regular basis or at least for the holidays! I’ve gained new family and friends that I know if I ever travel to their hometown I have friends to visit and vice verse. My favorite quote about traveling goes “the world is like a book, and those who do not travel only read one page.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve never wanted to read just one page of any book!

March 2019 Recipient: Courtez Kirkwood

Over the last few months I have been to Punta Cana (DR), Johannesburg & Capetown (South Africa) and Atlanta to visit friends and family.
 

–          My trip to Punta Cana is an annual trip I’ve been doing the last 5 years. DR was the very first time I traveled abroad so It will always have a special place in my heart. During this trip, the LGBT community travels from all over the states for a fun weekend in the sun filled with themed parties and unlimited alcohol for Labor Day weekend. The energy is always great!

–          My trip with to South Africa was for my annual birthday trip, I turned 29 years old and wanted to celebrate in the motherland. The trip was planned 100% by me and included 13 other of my closest friends. We had excursions, dinner, brunch, clubbing and many other activities planned for our 7 day vacation.

–          I visited Atlanta twice in the winter, the first being to support a close friend on his wedding proposal and the second was to visit family for Christmas.

–          Earlier in the year I visited Vegas a few times, Puerto Vallarta, Denver and New Orleans for random traveling fun.

Traveling Impact

Traveling has impacted my life tremendously! Naturally I’m a jetsetter. I don’t like being in one place for too long and for me it’s an escape from reality or the current situation. 70 percent of my finances go to me traveling each year and so I truly consider it a hobby and expertise of mine. Traveling has also changed my life in the area of planning. Since my 25th birthday I’ve planned each of my birthday trips. For my birthday I have visited Aruba, Thailand, South Africa and now Japan. These trips have been planned so well that I have to restrict the guest list each as EVERYONE I know wants and tries to attend because they know how well I plan lol. I am also the reason many of friends have their passports and have traveled abroad. Traveling with friends has been a journey but moving forward I want to focus on creating some traveling experiences alone.

What Tour Life means?

Tour Life simply means making a lifestyle out of traveling. In my mind, each trip and vacation is a stop on “my” tour. Just like any tour, not all stops/venues are visited but you make the best of the places you do visit and give you’re best show while you’re there. When I travel, I completely remove myself from my home and place myself in the mind of a person living where I am visiting. The goal is to make the best of the experience and do all that you can as if you could never return.