When Tom Kodiak's grandfather offered him 2,200 head of cattle and a 17,000-hectare ranch in South Park, Colorado, he told his grandfather he'd think it over. It was his last year of college and Kodiak was afraid that if he went straight from school to managing a big cattle ranch he'd be stuck there for the rest of his life.

Tom Kodiak gives students a taste of the Wild, Wild West.

"The family ranch meant a lot to me, but what I really wanted to do was travel," says the 24-year-old Kodiak. "I grew up in a hard-headed Midwestern environment and it was important for me to experience other ways of living and viewing the world."