{"id":131945,"date":"2017-11-24T08:26:49","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T13:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=131945"},"modified":"2021-06-28T10:32:44","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T14:32:44","slug":"recent-alum-whole-world-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/11\/recent-alum-whole-world-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Alum Has Whole World in Her Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At 24, Olivia Balsinger \u201914 (CLAS) has a passport with 75 nation stamps in it and a job as deputy editor and journalist for the luxury travel website <em>Oh the People You Meet<\/em>. Her office spans the entirety of planet Earth. She has lived in an Amazonian eco-lodge with the closest grocery store a three and a half hour canoe ride away, ridden an elephant\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BB76KQnoJWv\/\">in Thailand<\/a>, rappelled down a 350-foot waterfall\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BA2qqxfoJdA\/\">in Ecuador<\/a>, eaten salted grasshoppers in Japan, gone on safari\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BFmKSFioJe9\/?taken-by=ohlivitup\">in the African Bush<\/a>, celebrated the new year in an Ethiopian village, and laid under the gleaming Aurora Borealis\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BCqX71RoJeX\/\">in Yukon Territory<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wondergridgallerylightbox_options_51\" data-skinsfoldername=\"skins\/default\/\"  data-jsfolder=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/plugins\/wonderplugin-gridgallery\/engine\/\" style=\"display:none;\"><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"wonderplugingridgallery\" id=\"wonderplugingridgallery-51\" data-gridgalleryid=\"51\" data-width=\"200\" data-height=\"150\" data-skin=\"threecolumns\" data-style=\"caption\" data-categorylist=\"[{&quot;slug&quot;:&quot;all&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Show All&quot;}]\" data-enabletabindex=\"false\" data-masonrymode=\"false\" data-random=\"false\" data-shownavigation=\"true\" data-shownavcontrol=\"true\" data-hidenavdefault=\"false\" data-nohoverontouchscreen=\"false\" data-hoverzoomin=\"true\" data-hoverzoominimageonly=\"true\" data-hoverzoominimagecenter=\"false\" data-hoverfade=\"true\" data-responsive=\"true\" data-mediumscreen=\"true\" data-smallscreen=\"true\" data-showtitle=\"true\" data-showtexttitle=\"false\" data-showtextdescription=\"true\" data-showtextbutton=\"false\" data-overlaylink=\"false\" data-donotaddtext=\"false\" data-lightboxnogroup=\"false\" data-lightboxcategorygroup=\"false\" data-usetemplatefortextoverlay=\"false\" data-usetemplateforgrid=\"false\" data-lightboxshowallcategories=\"false\" data-lightboxshowtitle=\"false\" data-lightboxshowdescription=\"true\" data-lightboxaddsocialmedia=\"false\" data-lightboxresponsive=\"true\" data-centerimage=\"true\" data-circularimage=\"false\" data-firstimage=\"false\" data-textinsidespace=\"false\" data-donotinit=\"false\" data-addinitscript=\"false\" data-lightboxshowsocial=\"false\" data-lightboxshowemail=\"false\" data-lightboxshowfacebook=\"true\" data-lightboxshowtwitter=\"true\" data-lightboxshowpinterest=\"true\" data-lightboxsocialrotateeffect=\"true\" data-lightboxenablehtml5poster=\"false\" data-categoryshow=\"false\" data-categoryhideall=\"false\" data-categorymulticat=\"false\" data-categoryatleastone=\"false\" data-addvideoplaybutton=\"true\" data-lightboxfullscreenmode=\"false\" data-lightboxcloseonoverlay=\"true\" data-lightboxvideohidecontrols=\"false\" data-lightboxresponsivebarheight=\"false\" data-lightboxnotkeepratioonsmallheight=\"false\" data-lazyloadimages=\"true\" data-triggerresize=\"false\" data-lightboxautoslide=\"false\" data-lightboxshowtimer=\"true\" data-lightboxshowplaybutton=\"true\" data-lightboxalwaysshownavarrows=\"false\" data-lightboxshowtitleprefix=\"true\" data-thumbwidth=\"90\" data-thumbheight=\"60\" data-thumbtopmargin=\"12\" data-thumbbottommargin=\"4\" data-barheight=\"64\" data-titlebottomcss=\"color:#333; 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--smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/192;\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div><div style=\"clear:both;\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"clear:both;\"><\/div><\/div><script>function wpgridgallery_51_appendcss(csscode) {var head=document.head || document.getElementsByTagName(\"head\")[0];var style=document.createElement(\"style\");head.appendChild(style);style.type=\"text\/css\";if (style.styleSheet){style.styleSheet.cssText=csscode;} else {style.appendChild(document.createTextNode(csscode));}};wpgridgallery_51_appendcss(\"@import url(https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\/css?family=Open+Sans);  #wonderplugingridgallery-51 .wonderplugin-gridgallery-item-container {     text-align: center;     box-sizing: border-box;     -moz-box-sizing: border-box;     -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; }  #wonderplugingridgallery-51 .wonderplugin-gridgallery-item-container img { }  #wonderplugingridgallery-51 .wonderplugin-gridgallery-item-container img:hover { }  #wonderplugingridgallery-51 .wonderplugin-gridgallery-item-text {     color: #333; 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}  .wpgridgallery-socialmedia-icon { \tdisplay:table-cell; \twidth:32px; \theight:32px; \tfont-size:18px; \tborder-radius:50%; \tcolor:#fff; \tvertical-align:middle; \ttext-align:center; \tcursor:pointer; \tpadding:0; }  .wpgridgallery-socialmedia-rotate { \ttransition: transform .4s ease-in;  }   .wpgridgallery-socialmedia-rotate:hover {  \ttransform: rotate(360deg);  }\");wpgridgallery_51_appendcss(\"#wonderplugingridgallery-51 .wpp-category-greybutton .wonderplugin-gridgallery-tag { \tborder: none; \tbackground: #666; \tcolor: #fff;   \tpadding: 6px 12px; \tfont-size: 12px; \tfont-weight: normal; \t   \tfont-family: \\\"Lucida Sans Unicode\\\",\\\"Lucida Grande\\\",sans-serif,Arial;   \tbox-sizing: border-box;    \tcursor: pointer;   \ttext-align: center;   \ttext-decoration: none;   \ttext-shadow: none;   \ttext-transform: none;   \twhite-space: nowrap;   \t-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;   \tborder-radius: 2px;   \ttransition: background-color 0.3s ease; }  #wonderplugingridgallery-51 .wpp-category-greybutton .wonderplugin-gridgallery-tag:hover, #wonderplugingridgallery-51 .wpp-category-greybutton .wonderplugin-gridgallery-tag:focus { \tborder: none; \tbackground: #999; \tcolor: #fff; }  #wonderplugingridgallery-51 .wpp-category-greybutton .wonderplugin-gridgallery-tag-selected, #wonderplugingridgallery-51 .wpp-category-greybutton .wonderplugin-gridgallery-tag-selected:hover, #wonderplugingridgallery-51 .wpp-category-greybutton .wonderplugin-gridgallery-tag-selected:focus { \tborder: none; \tbackground: #f3b200; \tcolor: #fff; }\");<\/script>\n<p>When Balsinger was first asked to be interviewed for this article, she responded that she\u2019d reply more fully later, but at the moment she was standing atop the stunningly gorgeous summit of Mount Timpanogos in Utah. Through her work for the website\u00a0<em>Oh the People You Meet<\/em>, she was busy enjoying the finest in Western skiing, nature, and lodging all free of charge \u2013 a rare U.S. excursion to complement the many nations already stamped on her passport.<\/p>\n<p>Balsinger credits another \u201cYukon\u201d territory for her success: the University of Connecticut. Her journalism courses included<br \/>\nEnvironmental Journalism with Professor Bob Wyss, a class she credits with her first \u201cpress trip\u201d to the Florida Everglades reporting\u00a0on ecological issues. She credits a job as campus tour guide for prospective students with improving her ability to ask good questions. And not one, not two, but three study abroad opportunities, to Guatemala, Cameroon, and the U.K., gave the former homebody \u2013 who\u2019d never flown on a plane until a ninth-grade trip to Disney World \u2013\u00a0a serious travel bug.<\/p>\n<p>The first study abroad to Guatemala set her life path in motion in unforeseen ways. \u201cIt was my first taste of being somewhere totally out of my experience,\u201d recounts the Fairfield, Connecticut, native. \u201cI\u2019d only taken French up to that point and didn\u2019t speak a word of Spanish.\u201d The trip\u2019s focus on economic entrepreneurship included everything from helping with\u00a0eye exams, to selling stoves, to in-depth dinner discussions of the 36-year Guatemalan civil war. In\u00a0Cameroon, she\u00a0worked in an orphanage that housed former children soldiers among others. \u201cWe were with children whose parents had HIV\/AIDS and whose parents died in front of them,\u201d Balsinger tells. \u201cBut they still had some of the brightest smiles I\u2019d ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her current job recently brought her to\u00a0Ethiopia. She found the country,\u00a0often thought of in connection with famine and poverty, among the happiest places she\u2019s ever visited after she participated in their\u00a0<em>Enkutatash<\/em>\u00a0holiday welcoming the new year. She sat with locals at wooden tables drinking plum wine and eating injera, a sourdough-risen flatbread considered the national dish. \u201cIt was the best New Year\u2019s I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d she says with a smile.<\/p>\n<p>Along with her work at\u00a0<em>Oh the People You Meet<\/em>, Balsinger juggles several other travel journalist jobs. She is deputy editor of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/about.com\/\">About.com<\/a>\u00a0Sustainable Travel and writes regularly for a number of outlets, including Insider Travel Report, travAlliance media,\u00a0<em>Paste<\/em>\u00a0magazine, and Yahoo Travel, for whom she is a contributor.<\/p>\n<p>And then there\u2019s her Instagram profile\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ohlivitup\/\">@OhLivItUp<\/a>, a steady stream of visual magnificence, from nature to architecture to sunsets, accompanied by descriptive and inspirational captions. There she is gazing at the opulent (if morbidly named) Cathedral of Spilled Blood\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BIAZ91fjhJt\/?taken-by=ohlivitup\">in St. Petersburg, Russia<\/a>. There she is gleefully walking the stone cobbled streets of Tallinn, Estonia, unfolded map in hand. There she is receiving a chocolate massage in Costa Rica. There she is lounging on the pristine beach of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BKi2_fXjir4\/?taken-by=ohlivitup\">Seychelles Islands<\/a>\u00a0just off the coast of Madagascar.<\/p>\n<p>But she insists that, more than any unforgettable locale or landscape, it is indeed the people she meets who get her out of bed in the morning. \u201cIt is people \u2013 not places, not planes, not even steaming bowls of ramen \u2013 that inspire me and what I do,\u201d she wrote in a December post after visiting Japan.<\/p>\n<p><em>Oh the People You Meet<\/em>\u00a0editor-in-chief Nikki Pepper commends Balsinger\u2019s appetite for adventure. \u201cI absolutely love working with her. Olivia is on fire. Her passion for life is inspiring. Her travels become her stories, and her stories are passionate and powerful,\u201d said Peppers in an email. \u201cI&#8217;m lucky to have her on my team as an editor and writer. Olivia is someone who makes more than a living out of her passion, talent, and experience; it&#8217;s her life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When our interview commenced, Balsinger was bedridden with two torn ACLs from a skiing accident atop that aforementioned Utah mountain. Yet she adamantly maintained that she harbored no regrets from the trip, and was at that very moment packing her bags in eager anticipation of an imminent trip to Qatar.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Travel journalist Olivia Balsinger \u201914 (CLAS) has 75 nation stamps in her passport. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":130453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,2226,88,2317,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2027],"class_list":["post-131945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-clas","category-global-affairs","category-journalism","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 14:27:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131945"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131947,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131945\/revisions\/131947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/130453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131945"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=131945"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=131945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}