Dex Mandela Burns is an avid world traveler and has been to over seventeen countries and counting. He credits his passion for global citizenship to his initial study abroad experience in Cuzco, Perú in 2012. He is a staunch advocate of study abroad and in 2017, became the youngest alumnus to establish a named scholarship at the University of Illinois at Springfield for disadvantaged students to study abroad for the first time. He lives in Washington, D.C. and has managed foreign affairs internship programs in both the federal and nonprofit sectors. He is currently a Provost's Doctoral Fellow at the George Washington University, a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and lectures at the Elliott School of International Affairs.