Of the 350,000 US students studying abroad each year, only six percent are students of color. Today’s guest, Lamar Shambley, gave up his teaching career to help solve that problem. 

After teaching for seven years, Lamar’s high school Spanish students inspired him to Teens Of Color Abroad, a program that provides high school students of color with language immersion study abroad programs. TOCA's aim is to expose students of color to global languages and cultures in order to augment their educational outcomes, and strengthen their global competency skills. 

He formed the non-profit just this past year, and the first cohort was set to travel to Seville, Spain this summer of 2020. Then, the pandemic hit. 

This episode is a bit different, shining a light on the impact that Covid-19 is having on the brave changemakers like Lamar, who have to fight to keep their dreams of making an impact alive. In this episode, you’ll hear Lamar’s own journey, and how much programs like the very one he created had a positive impact on the trajectory of his life. 

You can feel how important opportunities like study abroad programs are for teens and young adults, and how important it is for a program like Teens of Color Abroad to exist. Lamar is working to continue to keep Teens of Color Abroad not only alive, but relevant to the current educational environment, and pick up where it left off as soon as it is safe to do so.  

About Lamar
Lamar Shambley is a Brooklyn-based educator with seven years of experience teaching both middle school math and high school Spanish. He's an avid traveler, lover of languages, and passionate about all things hip-hop related.

If you want to support Teens of Color Abroad, please visit https://www.teensofcolorabroad.org/donate.

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