2025 in Reflection: How Broken Earth Grew Through Honesty, Learning, and Slow, Meaningful Progress

Every organization has its defining years—periods that shape its direction, its identity, and the foundations it will build upon. For Broken Earth, 2025 was not a year marked by rapid expansion or highly visible achievements. Instead, it was a year of careful steps, deliberate learning, and quiet but significant progress.

This reflection explores how Broken Earth developed during 2025: the first official experiential learning program in Nepal, the realities of building an employee-owned organisation from the ground up, and the early groundwork for a new program in Romania. It also examines the lessons learned during a year defined by humility, community partnerships, and persistence.

The purpose of this article is to offer an honest look at what it truly means to build an ethical, community-led experiential learning organisation while balancing the complexities of life, caregiving, and long-term vision. For readers, partners, and future students, this reflection provides context for how Broken Earth operates and what values guide its decisions.

A Year Built on Foundations Rather Than Finish Lines

When Broken Earth began its journey, the intention was not to create a large travel organization or a high-volume volunteer program. The goal was to establish a model where communities lead, students learn through lived experience, and partnerships are rooted in long-term trust rather than speed.

2025 highlighted this intention clearly. It was a year focused on small, intentional shifts rather than broad expansion. There were no exaggerated outcomes, no inflated metrics, and no claims of rapid transformation. Instead, the focus remained on aligning action with values—something essential for any organisation committed to ethical, community-based learning.

The Nepal Field School: Broken Earth’s First Official Program

Establishing a Learning Experience Rooted in Respect

The most significant milestone of 2025 was the successful delivery of the Nepal Field School, conducted in partnership with the University of Guelph. This program represented the first fully realised experiential learning initiative under the Broken Earth name. It was not a pilot or a tentative experiment. It was a functioning, collaborative program built with intention and community partnership at its core.

Students travelled to Nepal, participated in community-informed learning activities, and engaged directly with local partners who shaped the direction and content of the experience. This program reflected how Broken Earth aims to approach experiential education: through humility, shared learning, and partnerships that respect local knowledge.

A Partnership That Strengthened the Vision

The collaboration with the Guelph Institute of Development Studies and Dr. Andrea Paras was instrumental in making the program successful. Dr. Paras, with extensive experience in ethical international learning, contributed greatly to the program's design and academic grounding. Her testimonial offered meaningful validation—not as a form of praise, but as acknowledgement that the organisation’s values were translating into practice.

Her words described Broken Earth as an organisation attentive to student learning, safety, logistics, and community-led design. For a new organisation, such feedback reinforced that meaningful, ethical international learning can be created even at an early stage—as long as the structure prioritises people and relationships over scale.

Why Nepal Set the Tone for the Future

The Nepal program demonstrated that experiential learning does not require elaborate operations to be impactful. Instead, it requires intention. The field school operated smoothly, supported by local hosts, community partners, and structured learning objectives. The experience provided a model for future programs:

• Learning shaped around local communities

• Experiences focused on understanding, not intervention

• Partnerships built slowly and respectfully

• Logistics that prioritise safety and student wellbeing
  

This program showed that even in the earliest phase of building an organisation, meaningful impact is possible when values guide every decision.

The Reality Behind the Work: Building an Organisation Alone

The Complexity of Starting an Ethical, Employee-Owned Structure

Behind the successful program were the less visible realities of building Broken Earth. Establishing an employee-owned organisation is challenging under any circumstances, but doing so during a year already full of personal and professional responsibilities made the process even more demanding.

As the founder, the responsibilities extended well beyond program delivery. They included communication, design, budgeting, partner engagement, risk management, policy development, long-term planning, and ensuring that the original mission did not get diluted by the pressures of growth.

Balancing Work, Caregiving, and Mission

In 2025, the founder navigated the dual responsibilities of building an organisation and raising a child as a single parent. Some weeks allowed momentum and productivity; other weeks required stepping back due to family needs or unexpected life circumstances.

The process highlighted an important truth often overlooked in narratives about entrepreneurship: building something meaningful does not always follow a linear path. There are moments of clarity, moments of overwhelm, and long pauses where progress feels slow but remains essential.

Why Meaning, Not Motivation, Sustained the Work

Throughout the year, what provided stability was not constant motivation or the pursuit of rapid expansion. It was a sense of meaning tied to the mission:

• Creating programs grounded in dignity and community leadership

• Offering learning opportunities that avoid harmful volunteerism

• Building a future worker-owned model that redistributes power

• Ensuring that local partners shape the programs instead of being secondary stakeholders
  

This sense of purpose acted as the anchor through slower months, logistical challenges, and the incremental nature of building a new organisation.

Laying the Groundwork for 2026: A Future Program in Romania

Why Romania Became the Next Focus

As 2025 progressed, early relationship-building began in Romania. This work was not rushed and did not aim to create a quick launch. Instead, it followed the same approach that guided the Nepal program: slow growth, community involvement, and respect for local expertise.

The potential program in Romania centres on:

• Community-based lodging

• Heritage restoration initiatives

• Cultural immersion experiences

• Partnerships shaped by long-term trust
  

The goal is to design a field school or collaborative learning program where participants explore local histories, landscapes, and community-led projects.

A Program Built Without Assumptions

Unlike traditional travel or experiential models, the Romania initiative is being developed without fixed expectations or predetermined outcomes. There are no inflated timelines or exaggerated projections. Instead, the intention is to allow the program to evolve naturally, based on community input and the pace of relationship-building.

Why 2026 Represents a New Phase

If launched as hoped, Romania will reflect the organisation’s next step: a second fully developed, community-guided program that expands the geographic reach while maintaining the same values of ethical, responsible, and grounded experiential learning.

What 2025 Truly Taught Us

When looking back, the lessons of the year were clearer than the milestones.

 2025 illustrated that meaningful organisations do not emerge through appearances or scale. They grow through values, relationships, and the willingness to take small steps consistently.

The year reinforced several truths:

• Progress does not require pretending to be further ahead

• Strong partnerships develop at the speed of trust

• Showing up matters more than speed

• Slow growth creates long-term stability

• Honest reflection is essential for ethical program design
  

Broken Earth remains an organisation in its early stages. It is still forming its structure, building relationships, and developing its worker-owned model. Like a seed, much of the growth this year happened underground—quietly shaping roots rather than branches.

Looking Ahead to 2026 With Realism and Steady Optimism

The upcoming year will bring its own challenges and opportunities. The goals for 2026 remain grounded in realism rather than ambition. These include:

• Delivering another successful Nepal experiential program

• Launching the Romania program if local partners feel it is the right time

• Expanding involvement in student, adult, and group field programs

• Deepening relationships with current and future partner communities

• Strengthening the foundation for a community-centred, worker-owned organisational model
  

Rather than envisioning rapid expansion, the vision for 2026 is one of steady, meaningful development. Progress will be measured not by scale but by alignment with the organisation’s core values.

Conclusion

Broken Earth’s journey through 2025 demonstrated that building an ethical experiential learning organisation requires patience, reflection, and an unwavering commitment to values. The year brought significant achievements, especially the successful Nepal program, but it also involved challenges, slow progress, and moments of uncertainty.

This reflection aims to offer transparency about the realities of creating community-led programs and sustaining them through responsible and thoughtful growth. As Broken Earth moves into 2026, the focus will remain on relationships, integrity, and the gradual steps needed to create long-term, meaningful impact.

The organisation will continue to grow—quietly, steadily, and through partnerships that honour the communities at the heart of every program.

Frequently Asked Questions

1What type of experiential learning programs does Broken Earth offer?

Broken Earth designs community-led experiential learning programs that prioritise ethical engagement, cultural understanding, and collaborative learning. Programs currently include the Nepal Field School and developing opportunities in Romania. All programs are shaped by local partners and focus on learning rather than intervention.

How does Broken Earth ensure its programs are ethical and community-centred?

The organisation partners directly with local communities to shape program goals, activities, and learning outcomes. Programs are developed slowly, with attention to community priorities, long-term relationships, and ensuring that visiting groups do not impose external agendas.

Why is Broken Earth structured as an employee-owned organisation?

The long-term aim is to create a worker-owned model that redistributes decision-making authority and centres the perspectives of local partners and team members. This structure supports transparency, shared responsibility, and equitable governance.

What distinguishes Broken Earth from traditional volunteer travel programs?

Broken Earth does not offer volunteer tourism, short-term service projects, or activities that position visitors as problem-solvers. Instead, the organisation focuses on guided, community-led learning experiences grounded in local knowledge and cultural context.

How can institutions or instructors partner with Broken Earth?

Educational institutions and instructors can collaborate by co-designing field programs that integrate academic objectives with community-guided learning. Partnerships begin with conversations, relationship-building, and careful planning to ensure that programs align with ethical standards and the needs of local communities.