About VIA
A travel publication written by students, about the way people actually travel when they are young, broke, and going anyway.
Voices in Adventure is a platform for informing, highlighting, and inspiring young travelers around the world. “Via” means “by way of,” which suits a publication interested not only in where young people are going, but in the experiences, encounters, and curiosities that carry them there.
We believe travel is a way of meeting new perspectives, learning through discomfort, and finding your place in a world that will not hold still. VIA exists to spark the curiosity that sends young people out to explore it responsibly.
Our writing is by and for a young audience. Dispatch is where writers, young travelers themselves, file stories, reflections, and destination advice. Signals covers the travel and hospitality industry and explains what its shifts actually mean for young travelers. Together they capture the many ways young people move through the world now, and make both travel and travel writing more accessible.
If you have long dreamed of going, we are here with practical guidance and perspective on the questions that make travel feel intimidating. Where should you begin? What should you expect? How should you plan, and how do you handle the parts you cannot plan for?
If you are already going, we want to push you past the familiar itinerary toward new frontiers, more thoughtful encounters, and experiences that challenge how you understand the world and yourself.
Wherever you are, VIA hopes to meet you there and move with you.
Who makes it
Writers, editors, and photographers, spread across as many time zones as the stories.
Nhan Phan
CEO/Founder
Third year at Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service, studying international political economy with a minor in journalism. From Ho Chi Minh City, and close to forty countries and territories in.
Sid Mehrotra
Chief Operating Officer
Third year in regional studies at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, focused on Europe and Oceania. Grew up across Kenya, the UK, the UAE, and India, and has visited nearly thirty-five countries.
Eli Zainea
Managing Editor
Junior at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs, with a secondary in Arabic. A semester in Ecuador, and a summer between Cairo and The Hague working on EU and MENA migration policy.
Khue Pham
Chief of Visibility Strategy
Third year at the University of Birmingham, double majoring in English literature and digital media and communications. From Ho Chi Minh City, by way of four years of high school in the US.
Avery Simon
Chief of Staff/HR
Junior at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. From Greenville, South Carolina, and has travelled to Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and Kenya.
Annie Wion
Senior Editor
Zoë Curtis
Senior Editor
Sophomore studying English at the University of Utah, after a year at a political science university in Paris. Born in London to American parents, and a Francophile ever since.
Monika Tran
External Manager
Sophomore at RMIT University Vietnam in tourism and hospitality management, and a social media developer besides. Travels out of restlessness, and to live other lives through the stories of the people already there.
Justin Liu
Digital Exposure Manager
Junior in regional studies at Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service, focused on MENA with a Persian minor. Has travelled on scholarship to five countries, among them Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Rwanda.
Bella Villarin
Staff Writer
Third year at Georgetown University, studying political economy and global development. From San Diego, by way of Japan, Virginia, and Singapore.
Grace Kim
Staff Writer
Third year at Georgetown University, double majoring in government and English. Around fifteen countries in, including Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Lithuania, France, Spain, and Korea.
Hawley Dick
Staff Writer
Rising sophomore at Franklin and Marshall College, planning a joint major in history and environmental science with a minor in Spanish. From Orinda, California.
Jordan Lubis
Staff Writer
Rising junior at Georgetown University, studying finance and management. From the Florida Keys, eight countries in, with plans to reach sixteen by the end of the summer.
Syrah Anand
Staff Writer
A student at Phillips Exeter Academy, from Dubai. Around twenty countries in, with Egypt, Turkey, and Monaco the ones that keep coming back, and a scrapbook slowly taking over a desk.
Write for us
VIA runs on people who went somewhere and came back with something to say. You do not need clips, an agent, or a plan — you need a place, a reason you went, and the honesty to write down what it actually cost. Pitch in a paragraph. We read everything.