AMHERST—Yasmine El Baggari has a natural curiosity and a desire to connect with people all over the world. A lofty goal, but one that the Hampshire College senior is making a reality for herself and others.
Encouraging people to experience “authentic connections” isn’t just on the Moroccan native’s wish list. Instead, through the self-directed, interdisciplinary education encouraging entrepreneurship at the college, El Baggari has created a business, called Voyaj, which matches travelers with hosts all over the world who share common interests with the aim of bridging cultures.
Voyaj, an online platform incorporated in 2014, is currently being pilot tested, and El Baggari plans to formally launch it globally in December. Visitors to the site can create a profile describing their interests, and in turn, potential hosts provide like information in the hopes of sharing their common experiences in person.
The way El Baggari describes it, Voyaj is the “intersection where meaningful person-to-person exchange and technology meet. It pairs safe, affordable travel opportunities and one-on-one cultural exchanges to promote a more peaceful world.”
At age 23, El Baggari is dreaming big.
“I am looking to impact millions of people. Not just 30 or 100. I built an algorithm that looks at emotional intelligence, common interests and values to match people around the world to have positive experiences together,” she said.
The development of Voyaj came in part from her own travel experiences. With a goal of visiting all 50 states (to date she has been to more than 30), El Baggari became inspired through what she learned about differences with host families in the U.S. Among other goals, she wanted to dispel stereotypes about the Middle East and Muslim women.
While at Hampshire, including taking a year off from school, El Baggari has also traveled to 25 countries in Europe, South America, Asia and elsewhere to conduct research as part of her studies.
“If people are connecting because they have something in common, like tea, music, yoga, or education, then they can also talk about key political or religious issues that are bringing people apart,” she said. “They develop a comfort level because of some commonality and that might allow them to touch on subjects that aren’t necessarily as comfortable.”
El Baggari arrived from Morocco at Hampshire College in the fall of 2011. After exploring a number of colleges and universities in the U.S., the entrepreneurial spirit of Hampshire stayed with her.
Initially, she was interested in studying computer science, but she came to realize how much of a “people person” she is, so she switched to studying economic empowerment, women’s issues and education, with a background of technology and algorithms.
“At Hampshire I was motivated and believed that someday I would start a company or organization that is about connecting people to follow their passion and have authentic experiences all over the world,” she said.
Hampshire College awarded El Baggari a $60,000 grant from the Seed Fund for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which was established by Michael Vlock, a 1975 Hampshire graduate, who donated $1 million. The money helped her establish Voyaj, including paying for travel across the U.S. to attend conferences and meet with CEOs of companies to learn more about operating a business. Her experience included finding out how to create a business plan and effectively allocate her resources.
Omar Dahi, associate professor of economics at Hampshire, has worked with El Baggari as her academic adviser all four years and as a professor in several of her courses. She has also served as one of Dahi’s teaching assistants.
He describes her as a “student leader, activist on social justice on campus … and a global entrepreneur.”
Dahi said that Hampshire’s educational curriculum encourages inquiry-based learning through which students are trusted to develop their own questions and find ways to answer them. Under the college’s motto, “To Know is Not Enough,” students are encouraged to seek an education that fulfills and benefits them, but also changes the world for the better, he said.
“This facilitates students’ ability to be resourceful, creative and problem-solving oriented,” Dahi said. “The goal is that students feel empowered to achieve their vision of their studies and the world rather than a predetermined path that may be imposed on them.”
El Baggari fits that bill, Dahi said, noting her drive for “passion, professionalism and humanity.”
William Ryan, co-director of Hampshire’s Writing Center and a faculty associate in the School of Social Science, began working with El Baggari as a member of her theses committee during her senior year.
He described her as being “confident without being cocky in a way that draws people to her.”
In terms of her writing ability, Ryan said she is able to “transform the ‘internal speak’ that goes with the high-level entrepreneur world she works in to language and narrative people not in that world can understand.”
From El Baggari’s perspective, Hampshire has given her the confidence to ask questions and create collaborations without being concerned about her young age. Hampshire’s educational model encourages students to thrive at an earlier age, not five or 10 years after graduation, she said.
“Follow your passion, but have guidance from your advisers and work with the professors that understand what you want to create in the world. Hampshire is interesting because it has an impact-driven mind-set,” she said. “That means people who graduate are mission-driven and they want to have a positive impact in the world. They want to disrupt the norm in the hopes of creating positive change.”
Besides establishing Voyaj, El Baggari’s studies have led her to conduct research during her travels on the experiences of Arab students who go to Europe and their ability to integrate or assimilate in the European culture. During her own travels, El Baggari said she “felt safe everywhere.”
“I couldn’t understand why as a woman from Morocco I was able to integrate in the U.S. and have positive experiences, but my friends who lived in Europe experienced a lot of racism and discrimination,” she said. “I was curious about that gap. I interviewed Arabs and Europeans to try and understand why there is a lot of hate and anger and lack of integration.”
Among many highlights of her experiences so far since arriving in the U.S. include meeting President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House when she was identified as one of the 100 most influential travel bloggers in the world, and as one of 70 global emergent entrepreneurs. In December 2014, she served on a panel with Biden to discuss her experiences as an entrepreneur and her work on women’s issues.
Coming up for El Baggari is her attendance June 22-24 at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which gathers entrepreneurs at various stages of business development to share experiences with investment, partnership and collaboration.
Through the assistance of the U.S. State Department, she helped plan to bring 30 women from 30 different countries to the summit in Silicon Valley to learn about business and entrepreneurship opportunities and connect with business owners. President Obama is hosting the event.
As she readies to graduate in May, El Baggari is finishing her senior thesis which next year she plans to use as the foundation for a book she is calling “The Invisible World.” That will cover her “journey, my new vision for education, travel, and how to connect the planet together.”
While El Baggari seems all business all the time, she wants people to know there is another side to her, one in which she favors wearing bright blue eye shadow and fancy hats, and what she describes as “just being 23 years old and sharing my outgoing, bubbly personality.”
“I have an immense interest in and love for humanity. I am fascinated by people’s stories. That’s what led to all of this,” she said. “It’s not about me anymore. I’m living my dream traveling the world and have achieved so much. Now I want others to feel the same passion and positive energy and ability to connect with others.”