Ellen Sprague

Trip Host - Slovenia

While her career has centered on writing, Ellen’s deep passion is language - the cultural connections and implications, the unfamiliar sounds and meanings, and the surprises. She had spent time in Western European countries during college and grad school (MA in French), but after nine days in Slovenia studying creative nonfiction writing for her MFA, she was smitten with the nascent country that had been part of Yugoslavia until 1991.

Ellen couldn’t get enough of the culture, landscape, history or gelato, so she designed a month-long study abroad program for college students, which she has since led three times. When she returned from her last visit in 2022, she realized that while she was going to miss the country, what she would miss most were the friends she had made in her several visits to their Central European homeland. When offered the opportunity, she jumped at the opportunity to organize an Honest Heart Journey to Slovenia.

Since 2015, she’s been learning Slovene, but with little opportunity to practice, she says she’s really just a Slovene enthusiast with a lot of vocabulary and good friends. By reading literature from other countries, stories from Slovenia and its neighbors, Ellen learned enough about the history and culture of the region to feel she had built and completed her own master’s degree in Balkan studies.

Ellen lives in the mountains of Colorado with her husband, Josh, and her German Shorthair Pointer dog, Bader. She currently works remotely from her home as the Principia College Writing Center Director.