Meet the Greenheart Travel Team: Zoe Coulter

Meet Zoe Coulter, Greenheart Travel’s Work Abroad Program Manager!

Upon obtaining her first penpal from Germany at age 12, Zoe instantly fell in love with learning about diverse cultures. From that moment on, Zoe began searching for any opportunity to visit distant countries. She attended North Central College solely to enroll in their great study abroad programs. As a sophomore in college, she spent a term living with a host family in Costa Rica where she took four hours of intensive Spanish every day and interned for a tourism company.

During her last year of college, Zoe spent a transformative term in Spain studying Spanish translation and phonetics. While completing her B.A. in Spanish and International Business, she explored Panama, Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

High on her must-see destination list are Colombia, Mexico, and Ireland. When she isn’t planning her next getaway, Zoe enjoys singing to her favorite Spanish songs, practicing Latin social dances, watching dramatic novelas, disappearing into a good book, and making new friends.

Read on to discover Zoe’s hidden talent and favorite travel “aha moment”.

Q: Where did you grow up?

I’ve moved around quite a lot, but I’ve spent most of my life in the south suburbs of Chicago. Sauk Village, Illinois is where I spent most of my childhood.

Q: What is your favorite international city?

I instantly felt connected to Seville when I visited Spain back in 2015. The architecture alone speaks volumes about the history of southern Spain. Andalusians are so warm and personable. Plus, I had fun trying to learn the Andalusian dialect.

Q: What is your secret talent?

I practiced Taekwondo for about five years. What I learned is that I’m scary good with nunchucks.

Q: If you could eat only one country’s style of food for the rest of your life, which would it be?

Spanish food, hands down! While living with my host family in Seville, I was never tired of the cuisine. There were so many great soups and tortilla española galore.  I was impressed with how many dishes my host family could make with eggs and rice. Today, I still find myself eating eggs with dinner.

Q: Complete the sentence: When I grow up I want to ______.

Own a house in Spain.

Q: What is your spirit animal?

Well, if my mother was answering this question she would say a giraffe, but I think that has more to do with my stature than anything. Is it weird to say I think that my spirit animal is a hamster? I know it isn’t exotic or anything, but we have similar tendencies. I forage and hide my food from others too. Evidently, sharing food is not my strong suit.

Q: What is your favorite travel “AHA! moment” or memory?

I lived in Costa Rica during the rainy season, so it literally rained every day around 4:00 pm. I have this crazy curly hair, and at that point in my life, I worked super hard to keep it dry and tamed.  Whenever my hair touched water it turned into a lion’s mane. But, as it was the rainy season, it was impossible not to get wet at some point.

One day I was walking home, and sure enough, I had forgotten to bring my umbrella. Well, you can guess the rest of the story. But, it wasn’t all for naught. At that moment, I realized that I spent so many years thinking that I hated the rain, and now one of my favorite memories was getting caught in it. I thought about how often we say we hate things that we never even tried.

Q: What is your favorite thing about working for Greenheart Travel?

Working at Greenheart Travel has a way of feeding my curiosity and my desire to learn. Everyone at Greenheart Travel has experienced their own share of adventures and hardships abroad, and those experiences have shaped each person in various ways. Hearing these stories has been super rewarding.