Co-Pilots & Cabin Crew

Delonte Egwuatu - Co Founder

Delonte Egwuatu is currently a Middle School Humanities and Spanish teacher at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. Delonte began his career as a teacher while at Morehouse College as an AUC UPS Scholar, volunteering as a student-teacher in Atlanta Public Schools. He also has an interest in diplomacy, and served in the office of the Consulate General of Liberia of the Republic of Liberia, working on post-ebola recovery and preparing visas for travels. After moving back to his hometown, Washington, DC, he worked as a 3rd-grade Associate Teacher at Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School. In addition to teaching, Delonte has worked abroad with Global Leadership Adventures, serving as the International Director for the Animal Service Project in Costa Rica. He has traveled to over twenty countries and is committed to forming intercultural relationships in each new cultural context he visits.

Tyra Beaman - CO FOUNDER

Tyra Beaman is currently serving her community in the field of diplomacy and international affairs. Most recently, she completed a Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) at Georgetown University’s Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service. During her time at Georgetown, Tyra led the establishment of the first Diversity and Inclusion Organization in the MSFS program and the first Black Graduate Student Alliance in Georgetown’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Additionally, she had the opportunity to help serve U.S. Embassy Accra in the Political Section with a focus on Human Rights during the Summer of 2018. Prior to entering Georgetown, Tyra completed a 10 month Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She departed for the Dominican Republic directly after receiving her Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Spelman College and serving as a Charles Rangel Fellow for Congressman Gregory Meeks. Tyra is a native of Richmond, Virginia and graduated high school with an International Baccalaureate Diploma, which was the start to her love for global affairs and service. While at Spelman, Tyra co-founded an international education company, Black Beyond Borders, LLC., dedicated to empowering and instilling the black community with cross-cultural tools to study abroad, with purpose. She has further advocated for global and domestic social change within her local community by currently serving as Social Action Co-Chair for the Northern Virginia Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Tyra is committed to better understanding and deconstructing how identity politics impact one’s socio-political-economic agency. She explores identity politics through building transnational relationships while studying, serving, and working throughout our global community, including experiences in Argentina, Haiti, South Africa, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, and Brazil.

Betanya Mahary

Betanya Mahary, a native of Addis Ababa, graduated from Spelman College in 2018. A double major in Sociology, Anthropology and Comparative Women's Studies with a Global Studies concentration, Betanya spent her undergraduate career passionate about understanding social, economic and political institutional structures and how it impacts Black and Brown communities globally. Prior to starting her journey at Spelman, she deferred her collegiate experience for a semester to serve abroad. While in Norway, she devoted her time raising awareness and advocating for migrants rights. Upon her return, her academic studies, including research as a UNCF-Mellon Mays undergraduate fellow, examined and analyzed the exploitation of Eritrean refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.  Additionally, she spent a semester in Tunisia studying social movements, emerging identities and the role of media and youth culture. In seeking to substantiate her studies with practical experience, she interned at the Center for Civil and Human Rights, served as a Model UN delegate and worked on multiple campus projects as a Social Justice Fellow. A daughter of Eritrean refugees raised in Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia, her upbringing gifted her with the set of binoculars to explore different communities and cultures. She has traveled to over 17 countries and speaks four languages. Betanya is committed to finding better ways to serve and empower communities. Her sustained efforts led her to receive a Master of Science in International Migration and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science as a recipient of the Beinecke Scholarship.

Jaren Kirkland

Jaren Kirkland, born and raised in Brownstown, MI, is a University of Michigan Alumnus class of 2019. At U of M, Jaren was a part of the first cohort of public health majors where he studied Community and Global Public Health. Through the University of Michigan alternate Winter break program, Jaren was able to go to Palestine/Israel to see the conflict first hand and meet with people on both sides to understand the difficulty of the situation. Jaren's love for travel started in high school, where he participated in a two-week summer immersion program in Alicante, Spain. His interests in international travel, culture, and people took off from there. Currently, Jaren has visited 9 countries with Cuba being a personal favorite of his. After graduation, Jaren moved to Washington, DC to pursue a career as a health care analyst at the Advisory Board researching health care infrastructure and providing advisory services to CEOs of health care systems in Europe, Canada, and Australia. Jaren has since departed the Advisory Board and now pursues entrepreneurship full time.

Maya Lewis

Maya Lewis, our newest cabin-crew recruit is currently studying International Studies at Spelman College. She’s from Durham, North Carolina and she serves and her love for travel began during her gap year in which she traveled to Singapore, Malaysia, Israel, and Jordan. She also had the privilege of studying global development and environmental sustainability in Lima, Peru, and Tecpan, Guatemala. She intends to channel her passion for learning, travel, social justice advocacy into a career in diplomacy.

Eric Patrick

Eric Patrick is a seasoned international traveler, having worked abroad for the majority of his career as a US government contractor. A graduate from West Virginia University, he also studied abroad in London while earning his bachelor’s degree. Eric also performs internationally as a stand-up comedian, and has filmed comedy specials in London, England and Sydney, Australia. Eric is an advocate for international study and travel, and is a believer of cultural exchange, and its impact on identity and empathy. Eric has lived in 8 different countries and has visited over 40 during in the last decade.