Alumna Finds A New Way to Vacation

By Robert Graham

Chantel Reynolds (MA 96, BA 94) capitalizes on the frequent flyer miles in a different way than many other flyers.

Chantel is the Senior Director for State and Policy Initiatives with the College Board. She works primarily with the College Board’s ACCUPLACER tests. ACCUPLACER tests are adaptive exams where students answer questions based on their skill level in untimed environments. More than 1,500 high schools, colleges and universities administer ACCUPLACER tests in the areas of writing, reading and math.

Chantel with a 2-year-old male panda bear.

Photo by Justin Jia, Earthwatch

Based in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, Chantel says that 70 to 80 percent of her job involves travel. She travels regularly to the College Board’s corporate headquarters in New York City and frequently travels to other major U.S. cities— Austin, Chicago and Los Angeles to name a few. Chantel says that her work occasionally takes her to international locales, such as Doha, Qatar and Toronto, Canada.

“I was reading one of the airline magazines, and I saw a reference to volunteer vacations,” says Chantel. One of the organizations listed was Earthwatch Institute. Earthwatch Institute CEO Larry Mason says that “for more than 40 years, Earthwatch has been a pioneer in Citizen Science.” Mason says

that the Earthwatch model pits citizens from all parts of the world alongside renowned scientists. Together, citizens and scientists conduct meaningful scientific investigation.

Chantel halibut fishing off the coast of Homer, Alaska.

Photo by Phil Reynolds

‘Citizen Science’ is an emerging trend that Chantel says expands the scope of what vacation can mean. Chantel assisted in an excavation at the South Shields Roman Fort in the United Kingdom, a fort not far from Hadrian’s Wall.

Another project took Chantel to Chengdu, located in the Sichuan Province of China. The project involved analyzing the behavior of pandas at the Ya’an Bifengxia panda base.

Chantel’s most recent expedition took place last May in Italy. The expedition involved preserving San Cerbone, an Etruscan cemetery along with the ancient walls of Poggio del Molino, a Roman villa. Both projects occurred in the Italian city of Populonia.

Chantel still remembers traveling from Tennessee to New Mexico along Interstate 40 in the early 90s to attend ENMU. Now, she transits the domestic and international skyways, piloting and co-piloting conversations about student assessment and scientific advancement for the 21st century.