The IGLTA Foundation recently selected the recipients for its fifth
annual Building Bridges Scholarships, who will receive an
all-expenses-paid trip and conference registration for the International
Gay & Lesbian Travel Association’s Annual Global Convention in St.
Petersburg, Florida, 4-6 May.
The program was created to support the next generation of LGBTQ travel
professionals (and allies). Scholarships are awarded to small travel
business owners in emerging markets and university students pursuing
careers in the tourism industry.
“IGLTA’s Building Bridges Scholarship program is a cornerstone
initiative of the Foundation’s work, as we look to developing deserving
and passionate individuals focused on promoting LGBT tourism,” said Gary
Murakami, CMP, CMM, Chair, IGLTA Foundation Board of Directors. “We are
delighted to provide the opportunity for these deserving individuals
who will shape the minds and hearts of the global community from the
connections and education they will receive from attending the
convention.”
Meet this year’s Building Bridges Scholarship recipients:
Small Business Owner: Michael Gladwin, Edenvale, South Africa. As
the founder of the new 7th Element LGBT Travel, an agency near
Johannesburg, Gladwin hopes to build a business for South Africa’s
“amazing LGBT community.”
“Our local LGBT communities are starved for a direct, targeted approach
to travel,” Gladwin said. “Being at the bottom of the tip of Africa, we
aren't easily exposed to the markets that I need to target – and it is
often very expensive for us to do so. So the experience at the
convention is bound to open many valuable doors that will help me put
the South African LGBT market and travel opportunities on the map.”
Student: John Sakakini, Washington, D.C. The MBA
student in marketing and tourism/hospitality administration at The
George Washington University has served as president of the campus LGBT
organization Out for Business and will begin a career in the airline
industry when he graduates in May.
“The conference will really give me the ability to network with other
members of the LGBT community working in tourism and to see ways that
the community and the tourism industry are moving forward, helping to
promote to the LGBT consumer and also to enhance the industry as a
whole,” Sakakini said.
Scholarship recipients participate in the entire three-day convention
program, ensuring they will have the opportunity to network with travel
industry leaders from around the world, receive mentorship from
professionals in their areas of interest and attend educational
sessions. The IGLTA Foundation also supports convention registration for
hospitality students in/near each year’s host city.