Ishaan Arora

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Location
Chicago, IL
School
Drake University
Expertise
South Asia and China, Hiking and Trekking, Sports Tourism
  • Having spent seven years living and working in China, Ishaan has traveled to almost every corner of the country, instilling in him a love for Chinese culture, language, film, and literature.
  • His love for the mountains has led him to ascend the base camps of Manaslu and Annapurna — the world's eighth and tenth highest peaks, respectively — and has further strengthened his desire to complete base camp treks for all fourteen of the world's highest peaks.
  • As a soccer fanatic, attending his first FIFA World Cup in Russia in 2018 inspired him to keep fans informed about logistics and travel plans for successive international soccer tournaments.

Experience

Ishaan continued pursuing his love for writing in college by regularly contributing to the op-ed and sports sections of his university's newspaper, The Times Delphic. He also had a short story, and a poem published in a local literary magazine, whose editorial team he joined in his senior year. After graduating, Ishaan traveled across the world to begin a new life in China, where he spent seven amazing years teaching English as a foreign language at a university. During that time, he co-founded Guangxi Normal University's first-ever art and literary journal, which showcased the creative work of students to the wider local community. Outside the classroom, he wrote travel content for Global Highlights, one of China's biggest travel companies. He also spent much of his free time exploring southern China on his motorbike and traveling throughout Southeast Asia, East Asia, and parts of Central Asia and Europe. Over the past ten years, Ishaan has lived and worked in five different countries. He hopes to visit many more in the future — and dreams of one day splitting his time between running a quiet coffee shop up in the mountains and a busy pizzeria by the beach.

Education

Ishaan earned his Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Writing, and a separate Bachelor of Arts in Advertising, from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. He also possesses an HSK 5 in Mandarin Chinese and a Cambridge CELTA for teaching English to second-language learners.

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