Community Connectors: Rachel Carlson, Worldschool Pop-Up Hub 

We had the pleasure of linking up with Rachel Carlson, the founder and director of Worldschool Pop-Up Hub. In this post, she shares how the organization was born, how it’s grown, and a bit about her personal experience as a long-term traveling family. 

Worldschool Pop-Up Hub is a resource that aligns with our upcoming book, Wonder Year: A Guide to Long-term Family Travel and Worldschooling. While we’re waiting for its September publication, we are excited to feature some wonderful members of the worldschooling community. The answers to the following questions are Rachel’s direct words. [Title Photo Credit: Sarah De Santi]

Why did you start Worldschool Pop-Up Hub?

Our worldschool hub ventures stemmed from our family’s desire to continue full-time travel with our teens and tween. Though we have always traveled with the kids, in 2018 we gave up our residence when the children were 8, 10, and 13. That first year of exploring the world was fresh and new for us, and we were super happy checking out the US National Parks, catching up with family and friends, revisiting our former home of Kauai, and discovering the ins and outs of life in New Zealand. 

The traveling lifestyle was novel and we had plenty of friends and people to meet along the way. However, a few things were lacking and our conversations weren’t always of the positive nature. Though people were interested in us and our story, their curiosity about our lifestyle choices – no home, no belongings, no storage unit, no formal schooling – meant we were fielding the same questions over and over again. For every person excited about our lifestyle, there were others that felt the need to be critical and not in a constructive manner. It was never our intention to put our kids in a situation where they needed to defend our family’s choices, we just wanted to see the world and experience all life can be. 

In addition to this, our kids were aging into adolescence. This is a time in their development where peers take priority over family. Though we did a great job meeting locals and reuniting with family and friends, we realized that we didn’t have enough of a ‘stable’ community. The kids’ social needs were not being met. 

It’s quite common for worldschooling families to hit a wall as their children equate traveling with not having peer interactions. Adolescents may resist being away from their friends and urge the family to quit traveling. They may want to attend a brick-and-mortar school to immerse in a normal, teen-friendly lifestyle.

Adolescence is also a period where teens and tweens need to experience more autonomy… the kids need a safe space to part from the family: hang with friends, go to the mall, grab a coffee at a café, lounge at the beach, etc. Sure this can happen if you have siblings who get along well, but over time it gets a bit lonely because it’s trickier to break into established teen circles while migratory.  

How did Worldschool Pop-Up Hubs start?

We put a lot of effort into seeking other worldschooling families that intersected our travel path because whenever we were able to meet, it was pure magic. It was so refreshing to not have to explain our lifestyle to anyone, we just automatically understood each other…we all were creating the lifestyles we wanted and not the path we were told to live.

But, even with pre-planning our routes, it was difficult to connect in the same place at the same time… so we hatched a plan to bring the worldschoolers to us. Why not pick a place we want to explore and invite other families to join in? Within two days of our first pop-up, the kids were convinced we needed to host another gathering and our 1-week model was born. 

There are lots of hubs out there—what sets yours apart?

Our events stand apart from other hubs for the ease and simplicity of what we provide. It’s the perfect gateway into the worldschool community without a lot of investment of time or money, or loss of independence. Families have full freedom over where they stay, what activities they attend, and how involved they’d like to be with the larger group. And this is true for both our guests and our hosts. It’s the perfect bite-sized way to decide if these connections and opportunities are important to your family.

Once a family is connected within the wider worldschool community, it’s so much easier to meet up with each other again, no matter where they’re exploring…and it doesn’t need to be specifically at a hub. It can happen organically, which is super beautiful. 

How many of these do you personally go to? What role does your family have in the organization?

In the beginning, our family hosted the bulk of the events, typically staying one month in our destination and offering a pop-up at the end of that period. However, as our reach has grown, we’ve welcomed other worldschooling hosts to our platform…we truly provide events created by worldschoolers for worldschoolers. 

This is key to our dream because we’re empowering other worldschoolers to enter this hosting field without having to create businesses of their own. Plus, now we’re offering simultaneous events all over the globe. This truly was my vision for the Worldschool Pop-Up Hub. I want worldschoolers to take responsibility for creating community for one another. Why rely on others to provide what we need when we’re perfectly capable of bringing the worldschool community right to our destination of choice on a timeline that coincides with our travel? 

How has it evolved and refined itself?

Many of our guests go on to host their own pop-up through our platform, plus it’s not unusual for 25-50% of pop-up attendees to be returning families. In essence, we’ve created a stable, but mobile, community. It’s exactly what many families are seeking.

For my family, this is wonderful. Not only do we have friends we see all over the planet, but now we can both host our own events and attend our friend’s pop-ups as guests. We love joining as many pop-ups as we can. It’s heavenly to show up in a place, have a list of cool things to do, and get a little reminder message each day for what’s on the schedule for the following day (it takes a whole lot of the decision-making out of visiting a new destination… whoever does the planning in your family will love a break from that responsibility). PLUS, we have a whole group of like-minded people to meet and explore with. I love how this works!

Our philosophy is to keep it simple…encourage worldschoolers to go to the same place at the same time, provide opportunities to socialize, but also get out and explore a new area! We keep our pricing low to attract families from all backgrounds and encourage participants to check out the local nature, food, culture, and history via our planned activities.

We’ve hosted over 250 families at this point and have welcomed a diverse group of already diverse people! Our attendees have included seasoned travelers, fast travelers, complete newbies, families with infants through adult children, expats, passport stamp collectors, unschoolers, strict schoolers, budget travelers, solo parents, worldschool-curious families… you name it! 

Our events are open to all ages and have an excellent track record of attracting families with teens and tweens. This age is really a turning point for many families as they strategize how they’ll meet their adolescents’ needs while traveling. 

Even though our events are only a week long, this is enough time for us to use each other as a lifestyle sounding board. If my family is having an issue (say one of my kids wants to leave the family and go to school or perhaps when we go back “home” we don’t fit in like we used to), we have other experienced families who can share their stories and strategies. They’re happy to help us brainstorm a way forward. The families I’ve met have given me strategies to refine our lifestyle to meet our children’s needs, all while staying mobile.  

What are you most proud of/ what do you enjoy most about your creation?

It’s really captivating to watch other parents go through these conversations and see their “a-ha” moments when they incorporate a new strategy or mindset into their personal issues. Even though these events are created to support the children’s needs for friendships, the adults have found the conversations to be equally necessary. There is nothing like finding acceptance, support, and validation for the unique life choices we’ve made. It’s beyond-refreshing to answer the same questions but from a different perspective: Instead of questions that are interrogatory and judging and asking for justification, we’re now talking to others who want to know about how we make this work for our family… and they might just have some input that makes our lives easier. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, there are plenty of worldschooling families with real-life and relevant ideas for all of us. 

I’m so proud that we’ve grown to the point that families seek our pop-ups and incorporate them into their travel planning. There’s no better feeling than saying good-bye but realizing that we’re hooking back up in just a month or two! 

From the Wonder Year Team: Rachel Carlson’s entrepreneurial and mission-driven work have helped so many. We thank her for her work, vision and support of our worldschooling community. Check out Worldschool Pop-Up Hub. Their schedule is impressive and scholarships are available. Sign up for her newsletter on the website which is always chockfull of ideas and inspiration. Our author group plans to host a meet-up in spring of 2023, in Colorado. Hope to see you there!

Follow her on Instagram @worldschoolpopuphub