Jackie grew up “free range” in the mountains of Lake Tahoe, CA with national forest land right behind her family’s house, and hiking and camping adventures always on the docket. In high school, a foreign exchange student lived with her family for a year, introducing her to the world of study abroad. She took her own opportunity through a one-year program and fell in love with the world outside of what she had known.

After she returned from that first trip, she also realized she couldn’t go back to normal, so at 19 years old, Jackie moved to Montana. It was here that she learned about blogging and quickly started her first site, The Budget-Minded Traveler. Eventually, that led to her launching her travel podcast JUMP and her next site Traveling Jackie, which focuses more on adventure and solo travel.

Jackie is excited that group trips have evolved into a large part of her business, as traveling in groups and sharing experiences is her favorite part. She sees a parallel between life, travel, and adventures, and created group travel experiences to help people discover themselves through travel, just as she did.