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Hello, we're Nat and Jake. We both majored in Environmental Studies at Yale and met in an environmental law class during our junior year. We are new to Workaway and anticipate this new chapter of life after college to be an important time to see various places, make memories, and create meaningful connections with others as we find the ideal place to live and work. Beginning in 2025, we will be traveling the United States to learn more about our shared goals in the short- and long-term. We seek to gain a more grounded and realistic perspective of our travels than a conventional tourist experience offers, and we believe Workaway is a great avenue to explore.
Together, we spend the majority of our free time outdoors, camping, playing music, and cooking. We are both pursuing careers in environmental fields. We are hardworking, flexible, and extremely quick to learn. We excel both as a team and as individuals. Whatever tasks or goals you are interested in completing, we would be more than able to help you with them while we learn about the land around us. We are excited at the prospect of honing our skills and know-how. We found Workaway to be an inspiring platform for people who enjoy traveling and experiencing a place through a more local lens. We value the chance to familiarize ourselves with our destinations while developing skills that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. Below is some more information about us as individuals:
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Hello, I'm Nat. I was born and raised in the Tampa Bay area. I grew up in a large Cuban family. I am fond of good food and conversation. I am most passionate about music, languages, and gardening. I currently work as a civil engineering designer and permitting specialist at an environmental engineering firm in my hometown of Tampa. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on soil chemistry and aquatic pollution from phosphate mining and fertilizer processing in central Florida.
I have played piano since the age of 3 and regularly give lessons to all skill levels. I picked up the guitar in 2021 and have been steadily learning different styles. I am always interested in learning new instruments and would love to learn the fiddle in the near future.
I was heavily involved in music extracurriculars at Yale. In my sophomore year, I was the music director for a student production of Once on This Island. I learned the 1.5-hour piano score by ear for the duration of rehearsal, coached vocals, and played piano and drums for shows. I was also the business manager and music director of Yale's bluegrass group for 3 years. I was responsible for all on-campus rehearsals and performances, as well as for planning the group's annual tours.
Tours involved food and lodging accommodations for all 18 people in the group, coordinating airfare and ground transportation, as well as booking performance venues and equipment. The three annual tours I was part of were Lawrence, Kansas, in 2022, Seattle, Washington, in 2023, and an extended two-week tour of Ireland in March of 2024. Each destination had its own unique character as well as its own logistical challenges to navigate. These experiences in music have given me a working knowledge of musical performance norms, group leadership skills, and the ability to work very well under pressure.
I am an avid gardener and enjoy challenging plant projects. I have rescued over 40 houseplants in the past 3 years and am working on planting a garden for my parents with the remaining time I have left at home as the weather in wintertime has become more temperate. I am currently growing mango trees, squash, bell peppers, and a variety of herbs. A long-term goal of mine is to grow the majority of my own food. This goal requires skills like carpentry and DIY and working knowledge of agriculture—attributes that I hope to learn from Workaway.
I am always interested in learning new languages and practicing those I already speak. I am a native Spanish speaker, speak fluent Russian and French, and know basic German. I tutored French and Spanish for all skill levels in high school and tutored Russian for intermediate speakers in college. I cook very often. I enjoy trying my hand at unique recipes as well as perfecting my favorite dishes. I regularly cook and bake with my friends, often making gluten-free and vegan foods. As I have a nut allergy, making substitutions for dietary restrictions is a necessary part of life. It is rewarding to learn about the rich history and methods of different dishes and recognize the importance of that knowledge being passed on. As for my other interests, I love bugs, puzzle games of all kinds, and hand-me-down clothing. Someday I hope to make my own clothing from raw materials.
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Hi! I'm Jake, and I grew up exploring the mountains and woods of Fairbanks, Alaska. The summers are like no where else on earth with perfect temperatures and 24 hours of sunlight but the winters have become a little too dark for me in recent years.
As a kid, I spent a lot of time playing with and taking care of my three younger siblings and younger cousins, so I have plenty of experience with little ones. My parents were both educators and had the summers off with us kids. Three summers of my childhood were spent driving from Alaska to Central Pennsylvania, where much of my family is from. Along the way we would camp and visit national parks and roadside curiosities. It's these experiences that sparked my love of travel and make me so excited to be embarking on a new journey with Nat in 2025.
In college, I studied economics and environmental studies, taking my love of nature and the challenges of resource management back home in Alaska and striving to find a way to balance development with community health and wellbeing. I am especially passionate about connecting people with their local environments and developing local food sovereignty.
I spent my summers off from college back in Alaska working for Fish and Game in Fairbanks and an environmental nonprofit in Sitka, Alaska. My time in Sitka was especially rewarding because of the small community, which I quickly integrated myself within, making friends and learning about the area and all it had to offer. I spent every weekend hiking the beautiful coasts, old-growth forests, and mountains both rain and shine. I currently work as a clerk at the state courthouse in Fairbanks, where I've learned much about handling difficult people and interpreting legal documents.
I love going on walks and taking photos of plants and fungi I find along the way. I'm still an amateur identifier but that doesn't stop my curiousity in the slightest! I'm trying to build confidence in identification, especially with mushrooms, for foraging purposes. During my time in Sitka, where groceries were quite expensive, I supplemented much of my diet with foraged local berries, mushrooms, kelp, and fresh caught seafood. I hope to be able to continue these practices throughout my life, building an intimate connection to the lands around me.
I spend much of my time with music. I am always listening to music and trying to expand my taste across genres, though my favorite music is sparse contemporary folk music. I'm always happy to talk music, even if I'm not super familiar with the artist! I grew up playing drums but as my music taste changed I slowly found that I couldn't play along with many of my favorite songs that didn't have prominent drums. In the last two years I've picked up guitar and grown to love it, playing everyday. I play acoustic, mostly fingerpicking, though I've also spent some time amping my guitar up and fiddling with effects pedals and looping. I also love to read, mostly history. I especially love biographies; it's so interesting to me to experience history through just one person's perspective and I think I'm able to learn a lot about myself reading the stories of others.
Interests
Sustainability
Politics / Social justice
Plant care
Performing arts
Outdoor activities
Nature
Music
Mountain
Languages
LGBTQ
History
Hiking
Gardening
Farming
Drawing & painting
DIY & crafts
Culture
Charity work
Cooking & food
Camping
Books
Beach
Art & design
Animals
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
Russian: Fluent
French: Intermediate
German: BeginnerMore details about my language interests
Natalia worked as a Russian and Spanish tutor for all levels of fluency from 2022 to 2024.
Skills and knowledge we'd like to share or learn
We're interested in:
Teaching
Babysitting and creative play
Helping with Computers/ Internet
Some knowledge of:
Eco Projects
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Life at a Farmstay
Helping around the house
General Maintenance
Art Projects
Able to teach about:
Gardening
Creating/ Cooking family meals
House sitting
Languages
More details about your skills
Gardening skills, language exchange, animal care, drawing and civil drafting, customer service, knowledge of environmental law and water rights, cooking, cleaning, survival skills, music theory, heavy lifting
Age
23 & 22
Some more information
Smoker
Driver's licence
Allergies
(Natalia) Peanut, cashew, walnut, catsSpecial dietary requirements
(Natalia) No red meat, nut allergy
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