Jesse came to Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC) in December 2007 after a round-about journey of his own. Living overseas as a child instilled in him an early desire to see and understand the bigger picture. Every trip to a new place or country was always a thrill.

After spending four years in Chicago studying design, Jesse was restless to do something which allowed him to participate in events outside the United States. Upon finishing his undergraduate degree he became an active duty U.S. Marine infantry officer. He spent time in both Iraq and Afghanistan, completed his active duty service and left the Marine Corps as a Captain.

It was the experience of working daily with civilians dealing with conflict that led him to look for an alternative means of carrying out reconstruction efforts within developing countries. Now, as the Director of JWOC, Jesse manages new kinds of operations and supervises the daily affairs required to ensure JWOC effectively carries out its stated mission.

Feel free to contact Jesse at: Jesse@JourneysWithinOurCommunity.org

Se was born in Kampong Charm where his parents farm and fish. He considers himself to have been lucky as a child in the village because he was encouraged to go to school while most of the boys were working at the farm and lake.

After Se finished high school in 2004, he moved to live in Siem Reap where he spent time working in a hotel and taking a part time English class. A year later, he entered university and chose to major in English. Se received a scholarship from JWOC in 2006 and was sponsored by an American couple, Gay and Charles. Se credits JWOC with providing him an opportunity to give back to his community.

After six months working at Journeys Within B&B, Se was hired as the JWOC Assistant Director because of his hard work ethic and passion for seeing Cambodia develop. His responsibilities are supporting the JWOC Director in all aspects of administration and helping to manage the continually expanding projects.

After working in New York City for the past six years Nicole was ready to pursue one of her life long dreams: traveling.  During her first trip abroad to Thailand a few years ago, she instantly fell in love with the people and culture and couldn't wait to return to Southeast Asia.  

Nicole joined the JWOC staff in June after making the long move from New York City to Luang Prabang, Laos. She is currently hard at work starting and developing JWOC community projects in northern Laos.