Jade Anderson has taken to the lifestyle of international travel.

The Sedro-Woolley High School alumna left July 6 to begin a career in Qatar after earning a master’s degree in higher education from Syracuse University in New York in May.

The Middle Eastern country is located on a peninsula bordering the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia.

Anderson will be a manager of residence halls for the Qatar Foundation, a chartered nonprofit.

The project is called Education City — a 2,500-acre campus that hosts universities and research institutions from around the world. Institutions include Cornell Medical School, Texas A & M University and Carnegie Mellon University.

“This will be the most challenging and most rewarding experience,” Anderson said in an interview on July 3. “It will be an adventure.”

The campus’ institutions will expand as Education City works to become the knowledge capital of the world, she said. The campus consists of various countries’ staff and students.

Her new job will entail a variety of responsibilities and is not the typical 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job, she said.

Responsibilities include helping students adjust to campus life, enforcing rules and regulations of residence halls and conflict remediation and crisis management.

She said the job is similar to one she had while attending Syracuse.

Anderson was raised in Sedro-Woolley and graduated from Sedro-Woolley High School in 2000. She attended the University of Washington and received a bachelor’s degree in international studies with a focus on the Middle East.

Exploring the world is an interest Anderson has pursued since a young age. When she was a child, her parents would find her watching weather and news channels and researching foreign countries in atlases and encyclopedias.

Anderson traveled with relatives and studied in Spain while in college. She spent a month during the summer of 2007 traveling in Europe.

She has a goal to visit 30 countries by the time she is 30 years old. The 25-year-old has already visited 20.

“I think everyone has their own path, their own journey,” Anderson said. “My path includes going to all these places.”

Anderson’s parents, Mike and Julie Anderson of Sedro-Woolley, said they are happy for their daughter’s next adventure.

Working abroad is something Jade always talked about doing, Julie Anderson said. She said she always encouraged their three children to travel and see the world.

“(Jade) has taken me up on it,” Julie said. “The world is a big place and the more you travel the more appreciation you have for the country you live in.”

Both Mike and Julie said they have some concerns about Jade’s safety in Qatar. They will not be able to see her that often but are already planning to visit her in 2009.

If she needed help her family couldn’t get to her until about 24 hours later, Mike said. But he said she will probably be OK since the crime rates in Qatar are less than those of Seattle or New York.

Although Mike and Julie have their concerns, they said they think Jade will be safe in Qatar since she’s studied and visited the area before.

“She’s a confident traveler and I have faith she’ll do a good job and be careful,” Julie said.

Jade said she was able to meet a number of colleagues when she visited Education City in the spring, and that people were friendly.

She said she feels safer in Qatar than she does in the United States since there is little crime, but as a Western woman she will have to be a bit careful.

She said she will not have to change the way she dresses and cover up her body while in the country.

“Out of respect I will make sure I dress modestly,” Jade said. “But because I am not Muslim, I shouldn’t cover up.”

Jade said she is looking forward to gaining professional experience and learning more about herself and the culture of Qatar.

She said she has taken “baby steps” to prepare herself for working in Qatar, beginning with a move to Seattle and then to New York.

“I’m ready for the challenge,” Jade said.