Maya Frost

Maya Frost knows a thing or two about using creativity to shine in less-than-ideal conditions. Adopted at birth by a couple who divorced when she was five, she moved to Oregon to live with her grandparents. Within months, her grandfather died of a massive heart attack while mowing the lawn. Her mother remarried and the family moved to a rustic rural property three miles by gravel road from the nearest town of 350 people. Maya worked in the fields during the summers and maxed out her options at her high school, becoming the Homecoming Queen as well as the valedictorian.

She got scholarships and went off to the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. Her senior year was spent in nine Asian countries--she studied politics in South Korea, art and architecture in Japan, and history in China. She visited the hill tribes in Thailand, meditated with Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, wandered through temples in India and trekked in the Himalayas in Nepal. Maya had her "graduation" ceremony on Sigmund Freud's couch in Vienna, Austria, and upon completion of her thesis and finals in London, spent a couple of months hanging out with the surfers in Cornwall and flying the London/Paris/Casablanca/Bombay route with an Oxford-educated airline pilot.

Maya arrived back in the U.S. in the middle of a recession in 1982 and couldn't find a job in Oregon. She grabbed an opportunity to teach English in rural northern Japan, and that's where she met Tom--even though they'd grown up in small towns in Oregon just a few miles apart. They got married, had their first two kids there, then moved back to Oregon, where they owned an export company, a retro/vintage clothing store and a snowboard/skateboard shop. When the Japanese economy tanked, they yanked their four kids out of elementary school and spent three fabulous months in India and Nepal.

The next few years were rather mundane: Maya and her family lived the typical American suburban lifestyle. Clearly, it couldn't last. You'll read about her 'burb-busting epiphany and subsequent adventure in alternative college prep in the book.

After a year in Mexico and three years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Maya's four daughters were launched and pursuing their dreams around the world. As empty nesters, Maya and her husband embraced their opportunity to have yet another adventure: they moved to a small farm in rural Uruguay.

Maya is the head cheerleader for Smart Education Design, and she and her husband teach parents how to help their kids get a great global education that doesn't cost a fortune. Learn more at http://www.MayaFrost.com