Media featuring Lisa and George Rajna
Television
KTLA Channel 5 Career Day
Magazine
Shape Magazine: Readers Reveal: "How I Celebrated My Weight Loss" From well-deserved makeovers to love-related treats, we salute these weight-loss superheroes! By Ysolt Usigan
"I celebrated 60 pounds of weight loss with a wedding! It all started with on online date nearly five years ago. I met George online at my heaviest of 176 pounds and at our wedding, I was 114 [pounds]. We met at 4:30 p.m. at Casa Del Mar and were still talking at 9 p.m. My favorite part was when he asked for a second date and then kissed me goodnight! In Fiji in June 2007, after six months together, under the moonlight he asked me to join his dream and travel in Southeast Asia for one year. During our year away, I lost 60 pounds, and we got engaged underwater. After we got back, we got married where we had our first date!"--Lisa Niver Rajna
Photo by amy and stuart weddings
"I celebrated 60 pounds of weight loss with a wedding! It all started with on online date nearly five years ago. I met George online at my heaviest of 176 pounds and at our wedding, I was 114 [pounds]. We met at 4:30 p.m. at Casa Del Mar and were still talking at 9 p.m. My favorite part was when he asked for a second date and then kissed me goodnight! In Fiji in June 2007, after six months together, under the moonlight he asked me to join his dream and travel in Southeast Asia for one year. During our year away, I lost 60 pounds, and we got engaged underwater. After we got back, we got married where we had our first date!"--Lisa Niver Rajna
Photo by amy and stuart weddings
Match.com
Happen Magazine: Is your love life going up in smoke?
With a shared interest in world travel, George and Lisa really hit it off on their first date — but on their otherwise-great second date, new information came forward about George's smoking status. "On our second date, I saw one of those patches," Niver Rajna says. "It wasn't something we talked about, but I knew then that the smoking was more than occasional." But because the second date was a complete success in every other way, she turned to a friend for advice. "My friend told me that smoking is a 'deal-breaker,' but thank goodness I didn't listen! George quit smoking on his own and has been smoke-free almost three years. I would tell everyone who has 'deal-breakers' to reexamine them, because you might be throwing out the best match you could ever find." Read more...
With a shared interest in world travel, George and Lisa really hit it off on their first date — but on their otherwise-great second date, new information came forward about George's smoking status. "On our second date, I saw one of those patches," Niver Rajna says. "It wasn't something we talked about, but I knew then that the smoking was more than occasional." But because the second date was a complete success in every other way, she turned to a friend for advice. "My friend told me that smoking is a 'deal-breaker,' but thank goodness I didn't listen! George quit smoking on his own and has been smoke-free almost three years. I would tell everyone who has 'deal-breakers' to reexamine them, because you might be throwing out the best match you could ever find." Read more...
Radio
Total Education Hour: International Testing Roundtable: my section starts at 27:50. Feb 24, 2012. First heard on WRCT Pittsburgh.
Together Again Radio Show with Coach Marsha and Coach Jim
Together Again Radio Show with Coach Marsha and Coach Jim
- October 13, 2011: Unusual Jobs: Five guests will discuss their unusual jobs which include a blackjack card counter, a realtor divorce specialist, a mortuary consultant who rescues failing funeral homes and a modern day version of Love Boat's Julie.
- September 8, 2011: Speed Dating: In the second hour three guests discuss speed dating!
Interview: Profiles in International Education
Lisa Niver Rajna is our Geography Awareness Editor, a world traveler, and a science teacher in Los Angeles, California. Think that science isn't international? Think again! I'm impressed with the work that Lisa does with her students - exploring the world, and the people in it. She's the publisher of two websites that combine her love of travel and teaching science - We Said Go Travel, and Science Isn't Scary. She embodies the true meaning of international education - and practices it every day. Read the interview and see the photos here.
Interview: L.E.A.N Traveler
Frequent Traveler Who Lost 60 Pounds While Traveling: LeanTraveler.com interviewed Lisa Niver Ranja about her traveling experiences and how she stays lean while on-the-go. Read the interview here.
Interview: He said, She said at Cheap Tickets
What’s your favorite budget-friendly location that you’ve ever visited? He Said: I would have to say my favorite budget destination would be Indonesia. Especially when I visited Sulawesi in 1998 and the exchange rate was amazingly favorable. In six weeks, I spent under $400.
She Said: My favorite budget destination would be Cambodia. While we were away for eleven months, we had three weeks with my parents when we swapped from minus one star travel to five star travel in Asia. When we went back to budget style, we ate dinner for two for $4.50 USD in Siem Reap; excellent Thai food on the cheap. Read more....
She Said: My favorite budget destination would be Cambodia. While we were away for eleven months, we had three weeks with my parents when we swapped from minus one star travel to five star travel in Asia. When we went back to budget style, we ate dinner for two for $4.50 USD in Siem Reap; excellent Thai food on the cheap. Read more....
Articles: MSN.com Lessons from Jobs in your 30s
MSN.com Lessons from Jobs in your 30s
Niver Rajna discovered that she really enjoyed both traveling and working with the kids' programs on the cruises. These experiences, plus her educational background, led her to become a science teacher and travel blogger in her 40s.
"I have no regrets about taking this other path," Niver Rajna says. "Once I decided that leaving medicine was the right choice for me, everything else fell into place. When I am teaching or traveling, I know I am in the right place doing what I am meant to be doing." Read more....
Niver Rajna discovered that she really enjoyed both traveling and working with the kids' programs on the cruises. These experiences, plus her educational background, led her to become a science teacher and travel blogger in her 40s.
"I have no regrets about taking this other path," Niver Rajna says. "Once I decided that leaving medicine was the right choice for me, everything else fell into place. When I am teaching or traveling, I know I am in the right place doing what I am meant to be doing." Read more....
More.com 15 Ways to reinvent yourself abroad
Work on a Cruise Ship
The Perks: Ever since Fantasy Island, cruise ships seem like a happy place to be. Work as a bartender as you sail across the Atlantic. You'll be off duty and free to explore when you reach your next port. "Nearly every morning you wake up ready for a new adventure in another location with no packing or unpacking!" said Lisa Niver Rajna, a travel writer for We Said Go Travel, who worked as a Senior Assistant Cruise Director on Renaissance Cruises. Read more....
Bootsnall: Why a travel break can be your best move after all...
Lisa Niver Rajna, who runs We Said Go Travel,
also went back to her job as a teacher after her career break. She
loves how her experiences translate to the classroom. “The children are
transfixed when I share stories and photos of our travels. For a lesson
on measurement and balance scales, I showed photos of the market where
people use scales from the floating market of Banjarmasin Kalimanta. …
The lessons of travel have been marvelous for my students.” Read more...
Meet, Plan Go National Event: Los Angeles Hosts' Career Break Fairy Tale
Taking a Chance and Saying “Yes!”
When asked in the moonlight on a gorgeous beach in Fiji, “Will you go with me on my life dream and travel in South East Asia for a year?” I, of course, said “YES!” I mean after kissing all those frogs to look for my prince, what American-born girl raised on Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White does not know the answer to that question! Read More...
Giving Back: Donating to build a library in Bhutan!
MPG Los Angeles hosts, George and Lisa Rajna (the creators of We Said Go
Travel), participate in community lives when they travel and support
those in need – whether it’s Burmese refugees in Northern Thailand, the
Jewish World Watch Solar Oven project to help people acquire the tools
they need to improve their lives, or importing purses fabricated from
local tapestries made by Kazak women to better provide for their
families. The idea of sharing profits from the Meet, Plan, Go! event with others came as a natural continuation of their other works. Read more...
Parenting.com: Everyday ways to sneak in Learning
Observation is the basis of science, so do what Rajna does when she takes her students out on a walk: ask your child to put on his imaginary detective hat and tell you everything he sees.
Most adults think of science as an experiment or equation that has nothing to do with everyday life. But science is the process for figuring out how things work, explains Lisa Niver Rajna, a K-6 science teacher in Los Angeles. When you think of it that way, even a construction site can turn into a physics lesson. Read more....
Most adults think of science as an experiment or equation that has nothing to do with everyday life. But science is the process for figuring out how things work, explains Lisa Niver Rajna, a K-6 science teacher in Los Angeles. When you think of it that way, even a construction site can turn into a physics lesson. Read more....