Who is Think Abroad?

Think Abroad, LLC was founded in 2004, incorporated in 2006 and is a limited liability company with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.  Think Abroad provides travel and language consulting services and educational products to individuals and businesses. Our Clients: Think Abroad’s target client demographic are kids, teens, college students, adults, professionals and retirees.

Vision:

Study any language, anywhere.

Mission:

Think Abroad’s mission is to increase ones' marketability for future endeavors and promote multilingualism by facilitating educational travel, intercultural exchange, and work opportunities abroad, while providing personal attention to each client.

Core Principles:

Service First
- We place priority on being responsive and attentive to all of our clients.

Communication
- We maintain clear, consistent, and collaborative dialog with our clients and with each other.

Be Proactive
- We take initiative to provide solutions and opportunities for our clients and for each other.

Continuous Improvement
- We do not settle with the status quo and strive to exceed our benchmarks.

Trustworthy
- We follow through on what we say.

Act with Integrity and Honesty
- We stand by a strong code of ethics and manage our organization with honesty.

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The Think Abroad Team:

President:

Peter B. Sims is the founder of Think Abroad and is currently serving as the President. He is accountable for the overall achievement of Think Abroad's strategic objectives.

He is fluent in Spanish and is studying Mandarin Chinese. He has traveled to Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and has lived in San Jose, Costa Rica, Shanghai and Beijing, China and London, England. 

As a Senior in high school, he traveled abroad for the first time to Vietnam.  He recalls the trip as being a transformative moment in his life. He states that, "After going abroad and experiencing a culture and country so different than mine, I promised myself to appreciate what I have here in the US and also to respect cultures and people who are different than me."

In 2004, he graduated from Northeastern University in Boston with a Masters degree in Physical Therapy.  "After graduation, instead of a job, I decided to enroll in a three month Spanish immersion program in Costa Rica. I left the U.S. unable to speak Spanish, but when I returned, I was fluent.  My marketability as a physical therapist skyrocketed and I had multiple job offers because of my newly acquired Spanish language skills."

In 2006, he formally incorporated Think Abroad with the intention of sending thousands of clients abroad to learn foreign languages. He believes that, "Immersion education is by far the smartest way to learn a foreign language.  You will learn more in two weeks than you would learn in a semester. While abroad, you are not only learning a language, you are living it!".

He is excited about working with you to help you find the perfect language immersion program to fit your specific goals, preferences and budget!  

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VP Client Relations & Strategy:

Lauren G. Cosby is a Think Abroad partner who is currently serving as VP Client Relations. She is a graduate student at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology working toward a Master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Loyola University Chicago and plans to use her combination of people skills and business savvy in her role as VP Client Relations.

She has traveled throughout Europe and Latin America, the latter of which sparked her interest in learning Spanish. She is currently taking classes toward this goal and plans to one day live in Latin America.

She has an extensive background in customer service and very much looks forward to helping clients of Think Abroad find the program that best suits their specific needs.

General Counsel & VP Operations and Strategy:

Karim G. Dure is a Think Abroad partner who is currently serving as Chief Legal Officer and VP Operations and Strategy for Think Abroad. He is currently developing the French division of Think Abroad,
Français s’il vous plaît (French Please). He graduated from law school in 1999 with a specialization certificate in International and Comparative Law. His passion for language and travel was instilled in him by his parents and above all his father. At the age of 4, he moved to Paris, France with his mother and father, who were both enrolled at the Sorbonne University. He went to school with French kids and lived in Paris not as a foreigner, but like any other 4 year old.

He has also studied in London while in law school at Kings College and truly believes in the transformative power of travel, studying abroad and language immersion. “It has given me a different perspective on life and has forced me to think in ways that are beyond the scope of what a general domestic experience brings”.

He states that, “My love for France, the French language and the joy of travel was to remain in my blood from that moment on. My father has been a French teacher for almost 30 years and he has brought countless groups of American students to France for exchange programs. Throughout the years I have been back to France, not only to study at the Sorbonne myself, but to vacation and visit friends and family”.

“Through Think Abroad, I hope to share my international experiences and my passion for language and cultural immersion. I believe that all students should study abroad at some point in their lives because the experience changes perspective on the world and opens minds in ways that are impossible otherwise.

Think Abroad is a company that believes that the world is becoming smaller, countries are part of a global community. I am committed to doing my part to educate others about the joys and benefits of language, travel and cultural immersion"!

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VP Global Strategy:

Alex Cutler is a Think Abroad partner who is currently living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  He is serving as the VP Global Strategy.

Since 2007, he has been traveling around Latin American and Europe evaluating schools and marketing Think Abroad.  He started the Portuguese division of Think Abroad, Portuguese Please. Having completed a bachelor's degree in 2004 in Business Administration at Northeastern University in Boston, he decided to further his education with a Master's in Tourism from the George Washington University and developed his own tour company based on cultural travel.

After conducting his travel business for two years, he decided to expand his foundation in business with a Masters in Business Administration at the University Pompeu Fabra, in Barcelona, Spain.

Fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese, Alex has focused his energies on the Latin American diverse cultures and now the language travel industry by joining Think Abroad.

Alex and founder Peter B. Sims have had a relationship for close to 10 years now and together plan to expand and grow Think Abroad into the world's leading language travel company.

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Spanish Specialist and Marketing

Andy Fritz is on of Think Abroad’ Spanish Specialist. A recent graduate of DePaul University with a major in Spanish. Andy has done his share of traveling, including Europe and Latin America.

He studied abroad in Merida, the capital of the Yucatan Peninsula. His experience in Mexico, where he lived with a family and studied at a local University, helped inspire his passion for learning languages and traveling.

Andrew hopes to help maximize Think Abroad’s potential through web design, graphics, marketing, and whatever else might come up.

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Latin America & Spanish Specialist

Paul Boeder is originally from Chicago, Illinois, and in 2004 he graduated from the University of Oregon with a BA in History and a concentration in Spanish.

During that time, he spent a semester abroad in Alicante, Spain where he had his first introduction to learning a language through cultural immersion.

Since then, his travels have taken him all over Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In 2005 he spent a year teaching English as a foreign language to college students at a private university in Huauchinango, Mexico, a rural town in the state of Puebla. After a year in Mexico, Paul had finally attained fluency in the Spanish language. The ability to speak Spanish fluently has opened many doors of opportunity for Paul, and have allowed him to travel throughout the Spanish speaking world, make long lasting friendships, and experience aspects of Spanish and Latin American culture with a deeper level of understanding.

Paul has been a member of the Think Abroad team since the summer of 2008. He looks forward to assisting you along your journey, and helping you find a program that best fits your language travel needs.

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Spanish & Latin America Specialist

Rachel Reizen has been a member of the Think Abroad Team since 2009. She is from Chicago, Illinois and in 2009 graduated from Clark University in Worcester, MA. with a BA in Spanish and International Development. She is currently serving as a primary strategist for ThinkAbroad.org, the non-for-profit organization that raises money to send underprivileged kids abroad on language and cultural immersion programs around the world. Rachel has spent significant amounts of time living, working, volunteering, studying, and traveling abroad throughout both high school and college.

In 2000, Rachel went abroad for the first time to participate in the LaSalle Language Academy student exchange program in Barcelona for two weeks and was fully immersed in Spanish for the first time. Since then, she has lived and volunteered in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama and traveled through El Salvador and Honduras during a "gap year" before attending college. During college Rachel studied abroad for two semesters in the Dominican Republic and made frequent trips to Haiti to collect data and perform research for her senior honors thesis.

In March 2009, as president and co-founder of her university's social entrepreneurship club, Rachel organized and participated in the club's first experience abroad in Accra, Ghana.
Rachel is fluent in Spanish and working everyday towards a deeper understanding of Haitian Creole. She is so appreciative of her time abroad being immersed in a second language and is looking forward to working with the clients of Think Abroad and allowing them to have the same opportunities!

Think Abroad Writer & Partner School Traveling Representative:

Pat Spear is the newest member of the Think Abroad Team. She has traveled to partner schools to perform Familiarization Trips. These trips are mandatory and allow us to get a first hand experience of the school's programs and services and get to know the schools staff and homestay families. Additionally, she has done extensive writing for Think Abroad' website and marketing literature.

Pat earned a graduate degree in counseling and art therapy from the Adler School of Professional Psychology in 2005. An award-winning writer and artist, she’s traveled extensively in the Americas. She’s made annual pilgrimages  to Mexico for over 30 years, because she loves the people and the places there and feels it’s the heart of the continent. “My first immersion experience was with the School of the Art Institute on a class field trip for Mexican and Central American Art History with Professor Bob Loescher, a noted art historian. We didn't finish his ambitious itinerary, so I returned and used it as my guidebook. That trip kindled my love and appreciation of Mesoamerican art and culture. My last seven trips have been to the Yucatan and Guatemala to better understand the Mayan worldview.”

After a distinguished career as an advertising and marketing creative in New York and Chicago, Pat paints and writes, organizes and promotes art shows, teaches the library after school art program and contributes to the local paper. She divides her time between Chicago and Wild Rose, Wisconsin and her travels. “I love to encourage lifelong learning, and to inspire families and seniors to discover new worlds and help build new bridges through fluent communication.”