01 August 2011

Many people wait until they retire to take the trip of a lifetime. Yet Carolyn Sheaff was able to spend her working years travelling to places most people only dream of visiting. As director of the BEAR TREKS Travel Program, California Alumni Association, Carolyn was responsible for developing and administering educational travel programs for alumni and friends of the University of California, Berkeley.

Carolyn's work often took her abroad, and over the years she has visited more than 100 countries, often serving as a tour facilitator. "I did get to travel to places I never would have visited otherwise," she says. Some of the most memorable destinations included Antarctica, with its fascinating wildlife, and Indonesia, with its unique culture, as well as hiking in the Swiss Alps and the Italian Dolomites. One trip even took her to the former Soviet Union for three weeks, where the tour group rode the Trans-Siberian Railway across a portion of central Asia.

While working the trips may sound glamorous, it wasn't all rest and relaxation. When traveling as an assistant on BEAR TREKS trips, Carolyn was responsible for overseeing certain aspects of the trip. "You're worried about health, politics, the environment," she says. "It's a big job." And while she did get to do some globetrotting, most of her work took place on the UCBerkeley campus, where she managed the complex logistics of a program that enrolled 1,300 travelers on 35 domestic and international tours each year. Fortunately, she had the help of a capable staff and the support of the Cal Alumni Board of Directors to make sure every trip went smoothly.

Carolyn's career earned her a well-used passport, as she had no professional travel industry experience before landing the job. A Berkeley alumna with a degree in political science and a minor in economics, Carolyn says that it was actually her administrative experience that won her the position. She joined BEAR TREKS in 1983, after spending time at home raising her three children, as well as holding positions at Pricewaterhouse and other companies. But once she accepted the BEAR TREKS position, she knew she had found her place and directed the travel program for more than 20 years.

Carolyn, a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has spent most of her life in the Bay Area, eventually retired in 2005. Today, she continues to stay involved in the travel industry, working occasionally for wholesale group tour operators and alumni associations, as well as doing some travel brochure editing. "I've been very fortunate to continue to travel as a consultant to the educational group travel market," she says.

Now, however, Carolyn spends much of her time closer to her home in Orinda. She enjoys spending time with her five grandchildren, who range in age from grammar school to college-aged. One of Carolyn's hobbies is genealogy, and during the summer, she often recruits her grandkids to help her with research so that they can learn more about their own family history. She also enjoys gardening and recently served on the Board of Trustees and as president of the Women's Board of the Oakland Museum of California.