Here’s a tribute to what he built, and what happens next
Today we’re announcing that Troy Peden, founder of GoAbroad.com, is retiring after more than 30 years in international education.
For nearly anyone who has worked in this field for any length of time, Troy needs no introduction. We’re honored to reflect on his impact on the field of international education and meaningful travel.
It started on campuses
Troy’s career began at universities, working directly with the students and programs at the heart of international education. Being the first study abroad coordinator at two different universities, Troy’s career ran parallel to the growth of international education.
In 1997, he co-founded GoAbroad.com, and in doing so, created the very first digital presence for hundreds of universities and program providers, as well as service learning, volunteering, internships, and international teaching opportunities. Long before those organizations had websites of their own, and even before Google existed.
He digitized a catalog, and the field changed
Before GoAbroad, discovering an international program meant flipping through a printed catalog at a campus advising office, and sending off applications in the mail. Troy and the GoAbroad team took traditional catalogs and created an online directory of programs where anyone could search.
It sounds far too simple now, but at the time it transformed how the entire field worked. Millions of students went from having access to whatever was on the shelf in front of them to having the world’s programs at their fingertips. Providers went from competing for rack space and bulletin boards to reaching students directly, anywhere they searched.
His fingerprints are on more than GoAbroad
Troy is called on constantly to advise, consult, invest, and speak, because his expertise runs across the whole field, from technology and marketing, to program operations and the business realities of running a program provider.
When someone in this industry has a hard question, Troy is very often the first person they call.
He doesn’t just believe in our mission. He has lived it.
GoAbroad was a vehicle for Troy to do what he loved most: help people and improve lives. He built that belief into the company, even requiring our tech generator to prioritize projects that promoted social justice, grew equality, and improved people’s lives. But Troy never left that mission on a whiteboard.
He lived it. He went to Ukraine when the war started. He stayed in the Philippines after the typhoon and worked on the ground in unimaginable conditions. He has built homes and schools, taught special education to refugee children, volunteered with street children, and served wherever people needed help in all corners of the globe.
He hasn’t just talked about making the world better. He has rolled up his sleeves and tried to do it.
Because he built it
At Troy’s retirement celebration, our COO Elsa Thomasma-Alingasa spoke about the part of a legacy that doesn’t show up in metrics. We wanted to share some of it here:
Because he built it, hundreds of careers began. GoAbroad has been a starting line for a remarkable number of people in this industry. Interns became coordinators, coordinators became managers, and people learned partnerships, content, program operations, and development on the job. Then they took those skills somewhere new.
Today, former GoAbroad team members and interns work for providers and universities around the world. Some run departments. Some founded their own companies. Some are now our partners, sitting on the other side of the table.
Because he built it, we saw true resilience. Our field has weathered nearly every kind of disruption the world can produce. The world changed after 9/11, and international travel has never been approached the same way again, and GoAbroad continued. The strongest typhoon ever recorded at landfall hit our Philippines office, and GoAbroad continued. A global pandemic stopped international travel entirely, and GoAbroad continued. There were moments when giving up would have been the easier call, but that never happened because of Troy’s unwavering dedication.
Because he built it, our partners grew. GoAbroad gave program providers something they hadn’t had before: a platform where students could actually find them that didn’t depend on a campus fair circuit or a printed directory. Those new leads turned into growth. Providers that started with one program in one country added destinations. Organizations running a single summer session moved to year-round. More enrollment meant more local staff hired, new sites opened, new communities brought in, and programs that wouldn’t have been viable at a smaller scale became viable. The whole field expanded as access grew.
Because he built it, millions of travelers found international experiences. They studied, volunteered, taught, and interned. They learned languages. They came home more empathetic and more open-minded than they left. And behind every one of those travelers was an organization, and a person at that organization, whose work was made possible by what Troy created.
As Elsa put it, “A true legacy isn’t something that ends when the person who created it walks away. It’s something that continues because it’s become part of other people.”
A note from Troy
“GoAbroad was always a catalyst. I have had the pleasure of meeting so many people over the years whose lives were transformed by their international experience, and GoAbroad had a small role in that, for which I am proud.
I was just a person in the right place at the right time surrounded by smarter, idealistic people, and I am so grateful to all of them for letting me share this ride.”
What comes next for GoAbroad
GoAbroad will keep evolving to support this field well beyond Troy’s retirement.
Elsa Thomasma-Alingasa, our COO, is taking over global operations and business development. Elsa has spent over a decade inside this business and this industry, and the direction ahead is one she’s already been driving.
That direction is straightforward. We’re more committed than ever to giving curious travelers comprehensive, reliable, genuinely life-changing program options, and equally committed to evolving alongside our partners in a digital environment that is changing faster than it ever has.
Search behavior is shifting. Discovery is shifting. How students find programs in 2027 won’t look like how they found them in 1997, and our job is to make sure our partners are found regardless. Our team, the mission, and the commitment to this industry aren’t going anywhere.
This is a new chapter, built on the foundation Troy started in 1997, and we’re excited about where it goes.
In honor of Troy’s next chapter
Troy intends to spend his retirement with his wife, children, and grandchildren, of course, still traveling to all the places he hasn’t made it to yet.
Anyone who knows Troy knows where his true passion lies: the grassroots organizations, the small projects run by a handful of committed locals, the efforts changing a community from the inside that nobody outside that community has heard of yet.
To mark this milestone, we’re establishing The Troy Peden Legacy Fund through the GoAbroad Foundation. This fund will support exactly the kind of projects Troy seeks out and cares about most; the ones that create opportunity, bring people together, support communities, protect places worth protecting, and give someone a chance they might otherwise never have had.
We invite you to honor Troy’s retirement and commemorate everything he’s built over 30 years by making a donation to his legacy fund. All donations will be used to support meaningful projects around the world.
Donate to The Troy Peden Legacy Fund →
We’ve also set up a message board where you can leave your well wishes, along with photos, videos, and memories from your years working alongside Troy. If you have a story, a conference photo, or a moment worth sharing, we’d love for him to see it!
Troy, from all of us at GoAbroad, and from everyone who found their way somewhere because you built it, thank you for your extraordinary legacy.