Roman Yavich

Roman Yavich fell in love with travel and sustainability in college. After studying abroad in Chile and researching economic inequality in Argentina, he saw the potential for sustainable tourism to be a model for economic development. He received a Fulbright Grant in 2006 to research sustainable tourism in Nicaragua. In 2007 he co-founded Comunidad Connect, a nonprofit organization that funds its community development work by hosting student groups. Roman guided over a dozen groups, developed a large number of itineraries, and oversaw the execution of 20-30 student programs each year. Having seen the positive impact that sustainable tourism and study abroad can have on rural communities in Nicaragua, Roman was inspired to bring this model of travel to other parts of the world. He founded Learn from Travel in 2017 to support community-based, faculty-led Study Abroad and Study Away programs. Roman holds a Master’s of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, a Master of Science in Environmental Science from SUNY ESF, and bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Colorado, where he wrote an honors thesis on income inequality in Argentina.