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Lindsay MacKenzie ’05 visited 21 countries, some for a day and some for up to three months, as part of an incredible yearlong journey she undertook after winning a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship while at Colgate.

She traveled by herself, though by embracing opportunity and accepting happenstance, she found she was rarely alone.

She walked with elephants in the plains of southern Africa, tiptoed over cultural chasms in Jordan, and drank in la pura vida, a totally different approach to life, in Central America.

But she said the most powerful lesson, the invaluable keepsake she stuffed in her suitcase of memories to bring back to her home in Canada, was this:

“The world is not a very scary place. It’s not nearly as frightening as it’s made out to be when we’re at home just watching the news.

“And when you’re not so afraid and suspicious of everything you start to find new opportunities, you start to be more open to meeting new people, and it just changes the way you interact with the world. That’s a fabulous thing to learn.”

MacKenzie talks about her globetrotting in the 16th episode of Colgate Conversations, a podcast series that highlights members of the Colgate community. Her trip ran from August ’05 to August ’06, and she returned to campus last fall to speak to current undergraduates considering applying for a Watson.

Lindsay MacKenzie '05 secured a coveted Watson fellowship during her senior year at Colgate. (Photo by Tim O'Keeffe)

The geography major used her Watson grant to study transboundary conservation areas, which are dedicated to the protection of biological diversity and cultural resources and that are managed cooperatively by different nations.

The project built on her senior thesis work and the experiences she had as an undergraduate intern in Kosovo in 2003. MacKenzie and others from Colgate worked to create a Balkan “peace park” in the border region between Montenegro, Albania, and Kosovo.

The Balkans opportunity came about because MacKenzie expressed interest in the project, pursued it, and sold the idea to her professors.

“There are so many opportunities available at Colgate if you just make the tiniest bit of extra effort,” said MacKenzie. “Whatever you’re interested in you can make happen.”

For MacKenzie, a whole lot happened during her travels around the world, perhaps most importantly the recognition of how valuable her interactions -- many of them unexpected -- were with the many different people she met.

“Every person that you meet has a story and every person that you meet you can learn something from. Everywhere I went the people were what made it a special place,” she said.

To hear MacKenzie, who is now working at the Centre for International Relations at the University of British Columbia, talk about her world travels, please go here or see the Colgate Conversation page or iTunes page for download options.