Let the adventure begin…
Welcome to this cultural journey! Allow me to introduce myself!
My name is MK and I am the founder of Anthro Kid club! I was born and raised in Amish Country, USA and learned very early on what it was like to live close to people who lived and did things differently than myself. My love of culture grew as my parents adopted my younger brother from Romania and spent a significant amount of time learning about and investing in Romania. As my family hosted exchange students from countries such as France, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, to name a few, my fascination grew even more. In high school, I had my first international travel experience when I volunteered along side my parents with an organization in Barbados. After a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe to visit my older sister in college, my passion for travel and work that had an international component was fully realized. After high school, I moved overseas to Brisbane, Australia as a temporary resident. I spent nearly three years in leadership training while simultaneously leading/participating in small mission-minded groups of youth on overseas trips to Japan, Solomon Islands, Germany, New Zealand and the Czech Republic.
In 2010, my new husband, Dustin, and I spent the summer in China, helping students and children practice their English in a foreign language club. Before moving to Nashville in 2011, I worked for Light Gives Heat, a non-profit providing employment to women in Uganda who were affected by the civil war in Northern Uganda. Working closely with the founders, Dave and Morgan Hansow, I was a part of a team that created an award-winning documentary that brought awareness, dignity, and empowerment to the people of Uganda. Interestingly, my husband, Dustin, also worked on a documentary; he traveled to Israel and Palestine to objectively document the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Having settled in Nashville, TN, for the past decade, Dustin and I now have two daughters and continue to be culturally curious as we do our best to prioritize global travel and mission work - where our heart is to serve, love and celebrate the people of other cultures as we believe God has called us to in Matthew 28:19-20.
Though we thought our traveling days were over upon having kids, we quickly realize that traveling with children has only made the learning all the more exciting, as we’ve found children really help break the barrier between the locals and the travelers.
Working with children all the way up to young adults has played a significant role in my adult life, from nannying to youth leading to working as a recreational at-risk youth coach, planning and leading youth overseas trips, mentoring and mothering. The idea to combine cultural learning and children into a club setting came in 2020 when the plans for overseas travel were indefinitely postponed due to Covid. Furthermore, I was thinking a lot about how many kids and their families don’t have the ability, resources and/or time to travel to other countries, but that they should still have the opportunity to learn about these other cultures in a very real and tangible way. From this moment on, Anthro Kid Club was born. In January 2022, I joined forces with Gateway Church to make this club a reality and the rest is history!
I do hope you and your family will join the adventure!
-Mk