TravelEd was founded in 1978 by Tom Johnsen and Donald Zimring, two former middle school teachers, who wanted students to not just learn about our nation’s history but to experience it first hand.  Each brought a unique set of skills to their vision.  Johnsen holds his Juris Doctorate degree from UCLA and wanted to instill in students the fundamental understanding of how our legal system works and how truly revolutionary the  concept of “rule by law” versus “rule by king” was in creating our country.  Zimring holds a Ph.D. from UCSB and had previously worked for the World Affairs Council of Los Angeles with travel to over 24 countries.  His experiences showed him the power that “teaching through travel” could have on a student.  Together they began planning their student trips as they would a lesson plan – but using our nation’s capitol and historic locations as the classroom.

TravelEd is the premier educational  travel program for students in grades eight and above from Conejo,  Las Virgenes, Oak Park, Ventura and other California schools. Over 18,000 area students have had history and government come alive over the past four decades on a TravelEd Tour.