After graduating in 2020, Isabelle Joiner (2017–2019) is used to change. In the six years since graduation, she has travelled through 25 countries and five continents.
However, she isn’t taking a vacation—these countries are her classroom, a way to experience different cultures and learn about fibre arts and natural fibres.
The Beginning of Many Future Journeys
Isabelle always wanted to travel the world and explore. During her time at Calgary Academy, her 2018 trip to Vietnam through International Travel Studies (ITS) was a glimpse into her future.
She had been to the United States and Europe before, but during ITS, she was in a drastically different climate, culture, and way of life.
She remembers their day visiting street markets and trying local foods—the best meal of her trip—a vivid memory.
“I did the Vietnam trip in 2018. It was a huge influence on my inspiration to travel. It was the first country that I’d been to that was very different from where I lived.” – Isabelle
She is still chasing the feeling from Vietnam, sitting at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant and taking in another place in the world.
After her immediate post-graduation plans fell through, she found some local work. Eventually, she heard about au pairs, who could live with a host family to provide child care and learn about the country. After meeting a good host family, Isabelle lived in France for two years (with a brief summer in Budapest).
After France, she then lived Hawaii for five months before heading to New Zealand, driven by a passion for fibre arts (such as textiles and weaving).
“My grandma taught me to knit when I was four years old. Fibre arts have always been a part of my life and something I’ve naturally been drawn to…I can’t remember a time when quality materials and fibre arts weren’t present in my life… Growing up, I always knew I wanted to do something connected to this passion.”
Real World Learning
When Isabelle became interested in fibre arts and natural fibres, she decided to “make the world her classroom.”
“I decided that I wanted to carve my own educational path within natural fibres and fibre art through travel and hands on experience.”
As part of her fibre travels, she started learning in New Zealand as a wool handler. A woolhandler’s job is to sweep wool to help support the shearer and sort the different parts of a fleece into their respective bins so that the farmer can get the best price for their wool.
Isabelle road tripped across the country, hiked, and got to know her new friends, who taught her about their culture.
“The people are so friendly. It was so much fun to work with mostly Māori people, learn their culture and language, and eat all their food. They were so excited to share everything with me.” – Isabelle
A cultural experience Isabelle’s friend told her she couldn’t miss was the Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championship. This competition is hugely popular in New Zealand, taking place every three years, and people fly across the world to participate.
They decided that the best way for Isabelle to experience the Golden Shears was to enter the competition. During the competition, Isabelle competed in wool handling, a competition testing speed, precision, and technical knowledge of a fleece. Having only worked in the industry for three months and being one of the least experienced competitors from various countries; she won the novice category.
“I gave it my all and ended up winning, which was even crazier because I never expected to win. After the announcement, they whisked me away to the media room and interviewed me. I was getting messages from everyone that I met from the industry because it was live-streamed, everyone was watching it.” – Isabelle
Isabelle showed off her skills for everyone watching, winning the Golden Shears in the novice category. It was a perfect way to end her time in New Zealand.
Looking Forward
Isabelle has now spent the last few weeks in Indonesia, exploring the country and learning about natural dying. Soon, she departs for Mongolia for an internship, where she will work in sustainable cashmere, yak, and camel production.
As she continues her self-guided education, she takes a lesson from her CA days: stay curious and know that there is always a different way to learn. She encourages anyone interested in international travel to follow their heart.
“Trust your intuition and go for it! Things can go wrong, but somehow, they work out, and there are kind people everywhere in the world, no matter where you are.”