Our Mission:  To promote international learning for dedicated student athletes through travel to interesting locations, volunteer projects within local communities and exposure to new customs and cultures, while maintaining a safe, structured and challenging daily athletic training environment.

Our Goals:

We STRIVE to:

- Promote cross cultural learning and relationships

- Support the local community service organizations with whom we partner,

  through volunteer projects as well as with financial support  

- Provide serious student athletes with an opportunity to travel and volunteer          

  abroad without having to sacrifice their training

- Expand our camps to additional countries and locations

- Expand participants' understanding of the world

- Keep each participant safe, healthy and energized throughout his or her

  STRIVE adventure.

Who Are We?

Katherine Trotzuk 

Katherine has lived and worked around the world in countries including England, India, Canada, Denmark, Japan and the United States, where she settled 18 years ago.  Katherine received her MBA from Columbia University before working in corporate consulting for 15 years.  As the mother of teen-aged runners, Katherine has been researching running-friendly travel destinations for years.  Her oldest son, now a runner at Harvard, has trained while traveling in Kenya, Argentina, Hawaii, Spain, Turkey and England, among other destinations.  STRIVE brings together Katherine's passion for organizing affordable international travel, exploring new cultures, and supporting volunteer organizations, with her desire to support all serious student athletes' desire to maintain their training regimen regardless of location. If you have questions for Katherine please email her at k.trotzuk@strivetrips.com

Sarah Heard

Sarah teaches and coaches at Collegiate School in New York City.  A 21 year veteran of independent schools, Sarah has taught in Tanzania, the Netherlands, and two New York City independent schools, Trinity and Collegiate.  While teaching history, Sarah has coached cross country, track and field, basketball and soccer.   Sarah has a strong wanderlust and enjoys sharing that passion with students.  She has designed and led trips for students to several international destinations in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.  Sarah has also spent summers doing volunteer service in Africa and Asia.  

Rob Martin has been a high school running coach and math teacher for over 10 years and has coached a number of state ranked runners and one current nationally ranked runner. Rob is also in training himself to run the NY Marathon in November. Rob is excited to return to East Africa as he spent 3 years after graduating from Purdue University working for the Peace Corps, teaching math and training teachers in Malawi.  Rob has extensive experience leading community service groups, leading clean-up efforts after 9/11 in New York and in 2002 leading a team of Americans as they built a community center within a South African township.  Rob’s passion for running and service combined with his experience in coaching and managing high school aged students set the stage for an excellent Strive experience this summer.

Gavin Smith has been a competitive distance runner for the last 15 years and has trained, raced and coached in locations including UK, USA, Sweden, Portugal, Germany, France and Switzerland.  He has long held a passion for Kenyan culture and running, and spent the summer of 2009 living and training with Kenyan runners in El Paso, TX.  He left his new Kenyan friends with the promise that he would visit their homeland soon and he is delighted that he will fulfill that promise through STRIVE's summer trip to Iten.  Since graduating from Loughborough University (UK) in 2007 Gavin has worked in youth sport development in UK high schools and as a House Parent in a residential boarding school for 15-19 year olds.  Gavin is currently employed as Further Education Sports Coordinator and Athletics(T&F) Coordinator and Coach for the Perins School Sport Partnership in Hampshire, UK. His work involves developing opportunities for teenage students to take part in sport and coaching primary school Track teams as well as developing older students as volunteers in sport. He has vast experience leading and supervising teenage groups both in residential and sporting settings.

Luke Maher is currently a student athlete majoring in East African studies at Tufts University.  He runs cross country and track all three seasons and is thrilled to be returning to Iten, Kenya where he spent the summer of 2007.   

The name STRIVE represents what we do and who we are.  It's an acronym for Sports TRaining International Volunteer Experience.  The name also keeps us on our toes as we continuously STRIVE to improve on every aspect of our programs,  just like the dedicated student athletes who join our trips.