LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

By Leroy Adams

Editorial and Media Director, Culture Travels Media

My first time abroad was to study in Taiwan.

Seven days until the deadline, and I was a thousand dollars short.

I couldn't believe my dream of studying abroad was about to slip through my fingers. There I was, standing in my professor's office as he told me my chances of studying in Taiwan hinged on my ability to raise $1,000 in one week. I had already scraped together $4,000 while working two jobs to pay for tuition.

What followed was a month of overtime shifts, ramen noodles for every meal, tears I tried to hide, and my mother mobilizing our entire family to help me get there. With one week to spare, I submitted my final payment.

That moment changed everything.

Exchanging shirts of our favorite NBA teams with our pen pals.

Studying abroad in Taiwan rewired how I saw myself in the world and my potential within it. Since then, I've served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia, lived and worked in China as a teacher and business owner (my mom's first time leaving the country was to visit me there), and traveled to more than 40 countries. I've advised the U.S. State Department on Africa and Diasporic relations in Madrid, Spain, and been invited twice to participate in an Editor's Roundtable with Travel Weekly—one of the most respected travel publications in the world—first in Scotland, and next month, in Morocco.

But here's what those experiences taught me: I almost didn't get to have any of them.

Why We Created This Program

Young people will tell you there are three main barriers to study abroad and international opportunities:

Funding – Most can't afford the upfront costs
Access – They don't know these opportunities exist
Awareness – They've never seen someone who looks like them do it

My first day as a Peace Corps teacher with my students in Ethiopia.

I started Culture Travels Media because of what travel showed me about myself.

In China, a student licked my arm because she thought I was made of chocolate. In Ethiopia, I built classrooms and was mistaken for Lil Wayne. In South Africa, I had Christmas dinner in an Ambassador's home. These experiences—the challenging and the beautiful—taught me that I held a greater purpose in this world: to tell stories. Whatever limits placed on my potential were replaced by endless possibilities.

Now, I want to give the next generation that same feeling of hope and possibility.

What We're Building

The Content Queens Social Media Program.

We've partnered with The Content Queens, a San Antonio-based non-profit, to launch the Youth Travel Media Internship Program—a direct solution to the barriers of funding, access, and awareness.

Through this program, graduates of The Content Queens' Social Media training work with Culture Travels on real-world projects like:

Telling Harriet Tubman's story in Auburn, New York
Producing our travel cooking show, Flavors of Travel
Interviewing legends like Sheryl Underwood for our podcast
Covering Black history and culture during our Soulful Experience riverboat cruise through the Netherlands and Belgium

Interviewing a descendent of Harriet Tubman in Auburn in front of Harriet’s church home.

This year, our interns will gain industry experience in:

Destination press trips, like this.
Marketing campaigns in other countries or their community.

They will learn photography, videography, editing, and campaign execution while expanding their sense of what's possible.

How You Can Support

For $200, you can help create those possibilities.

Your annual subscription includes:

4 quarterly print magazines (premium quality, designed to be kept)
Culture Travels branded tote bag
Direct investment in training the next generation of travel storytellers

Your $200 goes directly toward:

Travel costs (flights, lodging, transportation for interns on shoots)
Production equipment (cameras, microphones, editing software)
Insurance and administrative support to run the program safely and professionally

Your investment funds a pipeline young talent to an industry they likely never considered. You're doing for them what my professor, my mother, and my family did for me: you're making the impossible possible.

Our Goal

We need 100 subscribers by the end of February to fully fund our Spring 2026 internship cohort.

If you're a corporation or organization interested in sponsoring at a higher level, please contact me directly at leroy@culturetravels.co. We offer organizational partnerships starting at $2,500, which comes with visibility in our magazine and on our website.

Learn more about the program here: INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Subscribe today. Give a young storyteller their shot.

P.S. If $200 isn't possible right now, you can still help by sharing this letter with someone who might be able to support. Every share gets us closer to 100 subscribers. Every subscription gets us closer to changing a life.