Crafting tours with Pride: Kenzie's EF journey

Meet Kenzie: A Senior Market Development Specialist at EF Education First. With a background in music and a passion for travel, Kenzie has recently channeled their creativity and dedication into a special project: designing the new EF Go Ahead Tours’ Pride Tours launching in 2025 and 2026.

We recently sat down with Kenzie to learn more about their EF journey, the inspiration behind the Pride Tours, and the importance of fostering safe spaces—both on tour and in the workplace.

Tell us about your current EF role and journey to where you are today.

My name is Kenzie. I use they/them pronouns, and I am a Senior Market Development Specialist, which is just a fancy way of saying I research destinations and design tours for EF Go Ahead Tours.

I had a completely different background before this—I have a background in music, but my passion was travel. I started at EF in 2020 during the pandemic and worked my way up to Market Development because it's a very creative role. It's something I manifested from the moment I walked in the door. They said, “What do you want to do? I said, “I want to design tours.” And here I am.

Can you tell us about one project that you're currently working on?

I am the lead designer for Go Ahead Tours’ new Pride Tours that we launched in June. I designed two itineraries—one for Amsterdam and one for Lisbon—and they are all about celebrating Pride. This project has been really close to my heart because I'm a part of the LGBTQ+ community, so I am grateful for the opportunity I had to step forward.

Originally, I was just going to consult on the tours during the development stage—I had volunteered because I wanted to be involved, but in the first meeting, our Senior Market Analyst turned to me and said, “You really should be in this. I'd like you to step forward.” And to me, that was a great moment of advocacy for elevating a queer voice, and I am really grateful he saw the opportunity to do that. While I trust that my team would have delivered a thoughtfully designed itinerary no matter what, there's something to be said for having a queer person be the one designing something that queer people will be experiencing—it's exciting to be able to bring that unique perspective to these itineraries.

In your opinion, why is it important for EF Go Ahead Tours to launch these Pride Tours?

For me, it's really about creating spaces for people. There's not a lot of options available on the travel market that cater to the whole LGBTQ+ community, or for anyone wanting to travel to travel to celebrate Pride. We saw a bit of a deficit there and felt we were the right people to address it. We have travelers of all kinds—and a queer community within—so we felt like we should offer them a tour and a place where anyone can celebrate Pride.

As a part of the LGBTQ+ community, I want to go on tours like this and travel the world with a company that fosters a positive, safe, and inclusive environment for their travelers. It's an unfortunate reality for a lot of people in the queer community that they don't necessarily feel safe traveling independently sometimes. Group travel is a good alternative for that, so if we can create a safe space for queer people and allies to go on a tour like this, then we should.

How was this idea received internally, and what support did you get to pursue it?

I have felt so supported through designing the tour and carrying it from the beginning stages to the final product. I received nothing but support from our VPs, as well as from our Brand Team and our Operations Team. Everyone has been really, really on board with this. It's been a wonderful, beautiful experience seeing how this tour has come together. I think it will be a beautiful gift to the community, and I'm excited to see it come full circle.

What can we expect to see on these tours?

I tried to think about having it be as diverse an experience as possible. It is fundamentally a Pride tour, so you're going to destinations to celebrate Pride with the people in Lisbon and Amsterdam. You'll see how they celebrate Pride, and you’ll be there for the Pride Parade. But we've also tried to add some things for everyone, such as food and wine, history, music and theater, and the arts. We're trying to make sure that a wide audience can appreciate it because we recognize that the queer community is very diverse. We want to make sure that there's a little bit of something for everyone.

What has been the personal impact of working on this project?

EF is the first job I've ever had that felt like I could be out fully with my identity. And it was quite frightening at first—to be so open and vulnerable with people—but it really showed me how important it is to make those spaces safe. Using my position in my job to create those kinds of spaces for other people has been, I think, one of the most important things that I could do. It's why it's so important to me and why I've been so passionate about being at the forefront of this project.

What has resulted from working on this project?

This experience has really opened the doors for new opportunities for me at work. I had an opportunity to work with many different teams that I hadn't before. So, the amount of exposure to new teams, connections, and communities that I’ve been able to build has been astronomical. When I first joined this project, I didn't realize how many friends I would make—and how many allies were right there, willing to champion me and the project.

In addition to my own professional development, I also want to use the opportunities I have to elevate other queer voices within the company. Just from working on this one project, I have had so many people within EF come to me and say, “Hey, I'm also queer, and I'm also working on this. Can we work together?” I think it's created a lot of collaboration—it’s created more connection within the EF community.

What has been your favorite part about working at EF?

It sounds cheesy, but my favorite part of working at EF is the people—it’s the fact that I work with people who are interested in travel like me and who are as enthused about the things that I am—and yet have different experiences and perspectives from me. And we get to collaborate to create all these incredible tours and get people out there. That's why I like working in travel—it’s the opportunity to see different perspectives and communicate and collaborate with different groups of people.

I admire EF's mission statement of opening the world through education. I think there are no qualifiers for that, and there are no asterisks. It's an invitation for everyone. It’s why I feel so welcome here; it's why I feel empowered to be here. It’s something that EF does especially well—fosters community no matter what—and that we have this philosophy and mentality that everyone is welcome and that everyone has a valid perspective to share. Everyone wants to see the world, and the best part of my job is that I get to create those opportunities for other people, and then I get to experience them, too.

You are part of the LGBTQ+ @EF resource group. How did you find this group, and what motivated you to join?

We have a mentoring program at EF Go Ahead Tours, and my mentor was the first person I was open with about my identity when I started working at EF. Early in my career, I was still trying to figure out how much of my identity I wanted to be open with at work. And she said, “Well, you know, we have a whole group of people within EF,” and she introduced me to the affinity group LGBTQ+ @EF. It was both comforting and inspiring to see how my colleagues within the queer community operate in their roles at EF, and having that group as a support system really opened my eyes to the fact that you can bring your whole self to work. They've been so supportive—especially as my career has grown and I've taken on new projects.

The LGBTQ+ @EF resource group meets monthly and hosts events and activities inside and outside of work. For example, every year, we march in the Boston Pride Parade. You can also network with people in EF's other offices—because it’s an international community. It’s a group I really love to be a part of.

It's been very fulfilling to have that support system and that network there. As a queer person, I think that having other queer people around and seeing that they're also successful here is both validating and motivating.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you to the many people behind the scenes of these Pride Tours—from the design to the production to the final products, this was a project championed by our staff and we're all so excited to share them with the world. I say this a lot about these tours: I feel like they're a love letter from our community at EF to the greater community of our travelers, whether you're queer or an ally. We love these tours, and we hope you do too.