CARPE DIEM GROUP LEADERS:
Carpe Diem takes the selection of its group leaders seriously. The Carpe Diem experience is intended to nudge the comfort level of students, expose them to life in developing countries and develop a sense of personal competence. Safety is our priority, but other attributes are considered essential in group leaders and necessary to support students. To that end, leaders must participate in an intense face-to-face interview with follow up training provided by Carpe Diem. While many programs find great staff, the learning curve in this type of work is intense. It is for that reason that we pride ourselves on the retention rate of our staff and boast one of the most successful return rates in the industry. We rate retention of leaders as one of the most critical aspects of what we do as the quality of the leadership on this type of program significantly contributes to the quality of the students' experience and the ways in which they develop. Carpe Diem builds on a decade of experience. Our areas of emphasis in training our group leaders follow:
Safety (sanitation, health)
All of our leaders are certified in Wilderness Medicine and are supported by an office staff that hold certificates ranging from Wilderness EMT to Emergency Room nurses. Furthermore, we are to our knowledge the only organization to provide an intensive seminar for all our staff on tropical medicines specifically related to our students and their programs.
Logistics
Our intention is that all participants will develop skills in safe traveling. We facilitate this by asking the students to participate in their own group's logistical requirements - everything from booking train tickets to calling and arranging hotel conversations … many times in the host language! Part of this is also learning the correct way to ask questions while overseas. For instance, in many cultures, asking a yes/no question will almost certainly yield a "yes" answer as the locals don't want to seem inhospitable. Simply put, asking whether it's safe at night in any particular neighborhood is a very important one to ask, and doing it with sensitivity to the cultural mores of the area is critical to a successful outcome. The experience of our group leaders in managing safe travel is primary to the Carpe Diem experience.
Group Process
Travel with a group is a precursor to working within a group. This may mean working with individuals that have divergent values and behaviors. We work with our staff to understand group dynamics. This includes the evolution of individuals, the group, and the roles those individuals play within the group.
Individual Mentoring
Group leaders are expected to assist individual students to develop and achieve personal objectives during their three-month experience. This includes assisting participants to move out of their comfort zone. We have learned over the years that these are often the intangible skills, but those that regularly bear the most fruit in the long run.
Problem Solving/Communication
Group leaders must be prepared to respond to a variety of emerging situations. This means involving the group in decision-making processes while ensuring safety. This also means respecting and truly understanding the individual student through each of their individual process. We support our staff with regular conversations while overseas, and by working with them in the pre-program training period to develop and hone their soft-skills.
Cultural Competence
Group leaders are expected to assist participants in thinking through their interactions with, and judgments about, cultures that differ from their own. This both supports the students in their optional college curricula, but also challenge students to draw parallels to their own cultures back home. We find this to be one of the most important ways we can facilitate a greater long-term transformation for each student.
Here are a few biographies of our amazing staff:
Adam Fischer
Selden, NY via AFRICA…via FANZ…via… Adam graduated from State University of New York at Oswego in May 2003 with a B.S. in Zoology. In his junior year he studied abroad in Cairns, Australia, during which time he was able to participate in rainforest conservation work, SCUBA Dive on the Great Barrier Reef, and travel extensively through Queensland. Following his study abroad excursion he completed an internship at a large carnivore preservation site in North Carolina. He contributed time to care of large and small cats, cage construction, and assisted on a vet check-up on an adult jaguar.
From 2003-2005 Adam worked with the Peace Corps and was assigned to a small village in Iringa Region in Southern Tanzania. He worked in the Community Based Natural Resource Management program. His projects ranged from working with a village-based tree nursery group to HIV/AIDS education. During his service he had the great opportunity to learn to speak Kiswahili and travel all over East Africa and Egypt. Since Peace Corps he has traveled and lived in the Western U.S., especially Eastern Idaho; where he spent this past winter working for Grand Targhee Summer and Ski Resort. His interests are traveling, volunteering, making a difference, soccer, telemark skiing, hiking, mountain biking, and basically anything else that involves being outdoors.
Adam is returning to Carpe Diem for a record 5th consecutive tour of duty! He led Africa in the fall of '07, FANZ in the spring of '08, India in the Fall of '08, South America in the Spring of '09, and returned to the South Pacific in the Fall of '09. He will be leading the Central America program this Spring. We are so very blessed to have this team's skills and commitment to CD!
Karen Rosenbloom - East Africa
Karen grew up in a northwest suburb of Chicago Illinois. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Art Education with a concentration in Ceramics from Northern Illinois University. During the last years of her study, Karen created an art curriculum designed to open minds to other cultures and influence positive change. For this she was awarded a National Education Award from Golden Key National Honors’ Society. While pursuing her degree, Karen was a Trip Leader of The Outing Center of NIU, a High and Low Rope Facilitator, and a manager of a climbing gym in Warrenville, IL. She is passionate about sharing the wonders of other cultures and adventurous experiences in the great outdoors. During her junior year in college, Karen earned a grant to perform a cultural art study in Thailand. The tsunami relief of 2004 gave her the unexpected opportunity to stay in Koh Phi Phi to help the “Reservoir Dogs” remove the stagnant water from the reservoir and create a new pool. Traveling throughout that country was one of her most influential experiences. It opened her mind to other ideas, ways of living, and taught her great meaning and the reward of service work.
Soon after university, Karen explored her heritage in Israel and went to the Dominican Republic. While in the Dominican Republic, Karen helped instruct and construct a ceramic water filtration production now recognized as Filtre Pure. Filtre Pure is currently run by a local ceramicist in Moca, DR. This project helped Karen recognize the importance of empowering others to make positive change, and taught her how crucial teamwork is to efficiency.
Before Karen joined the Carpe Diem team, she taught art at the elementary level and instructed yoga at Northern Illinois University. This will be Karen’s third semester working with Carpe Diem Education. Her first three programs were with us in the South Pacific in Fall 2008, India in Spring 2009, and Central America in Fall 2009 and were met with rave reviews and lots of student growth! Between Carpe Diem Programs, Karen is an avid rock climber, backpacker, and skier. She enjoys just about any outdoor activity and expressing herself through the arts.
Karen is thrilled about sharing worldly experiences with others while making a positive difference in others’ lives.
Cliff Agocs - East Africa
Above all, Cliff is a lover of adventures. He believes that long, challenging and occasionally frightening journeys – both inward and outward – inspire growth, maturation, and self-awareness.
His passion for exploration began both in the woods and on highways. His love for the outdoors began at the age of 10 in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. His love for visiting unknown places began on a road trip to America’s Southwest, where he visited every National Park and roadside tourist trap that caught his eye. Subsequent road trips have taken him to 47 states – he’s yet to visit North Dakota, Kansas or Alaska, but is eager to make friends in each of those places.
During University, he travelled to Netherlands and got his first taste of the difficulties of really getting to know a place when you don’t speak the language and don’t have months to explore. Graduating with an English degree but without a clue, he moved to California, which became the source of his exploration for much of the following eight years. While working as a freelance writer he took up the art of rock-climbing and mountaineering. Eventually this passion found him working as an outdoor educator.
Wilderness leadership provided myriad opportunities to live out of a backpack, and to provide a space for others to disconnect from society, finding solace and redemption in nature. While teaching backcountry skills, Cliff emphasizes the importance of connecting with the outer world by shedding the many layers of insulation that society helps us place between ourselves and the gritty, smelly, wet and wild Earth from which we are derived. These same lessons apply when travelling abroad: we shed most of our possessions and the personas that shield us. We see the world in ways that we never have before, and we develop a unique camaraderie that isn’t available from any other shared endeavor. As a leader, Cliff looks for challenges that ask students to step beyond their comfort zones. He believes in positive risk-taking, and encourages those around him, for their own sake, to jump at opportunities to do the “impossible” – whether that sense of impossibility derives from physical or emotional limitations. He is also a certified Wilderness First Responder.
Cliff’s passion for climbing has fostered exploration of both inner and outer worlds. Internally he has built an ethic of self-reliance, calm in the face of danger, joy in challenge, and comfort within adversity. He has learned that the mind is often a more difficult obstacle to overcome than the mountain. Externally, he has been inspired to explore ranges from the Sierra Nevada to the Himalaya. One of his favorite aspects of international expeditions is seeing the varied hues of life that exist along the spectrum between an airport in a huge city and a remote summit on a distant peak. He is currently planning an expedition to Ecuador.
At the moment Cliff is guiding mountaineering in the Cascades and rock-climbing in Oregon and can often be found laying in his sleeping bag trying to stay awake long enough to see just one more shooting star. He’s thrilled to come down from the summit and explore the sights, sounds and smells of East Africa this Fall.
Jeff Halvorson - India
Jeff Halvorsen - Hailing from the Beautiful Pacific Northwest, Jeff was born with something much more profound than just the “travel bug”, rather a deep and profound desire to explore the world and the consequences associated with a love of learning, an addiction to challenge and growth, and the drive to do something truly amazing with his life. Jeff graduated from the University of Southern California with a BA in International Relations, studying abroad in both the Czech Republic and Brasil, in 2001. Unable to bring himself to “settling for” a desk job, he joined the Americorps National Civilian Community Corps and traveled/lived/volunteered around the Western USA for a year with his team, Green 1. Further diving into a life of service, he went and worked with Habitat for Humanity in Charleston (SC), teaching volunteers how to build homes for the local participant families and gaining a real appreciation for what can be accomplished with a little altruism mixed with hammer and some nails.
By this time he had adopted much of the culture of the South as his own, and still runs around using “hon” and “y’all”, and fell in love with beach cruiser bikes, crawfish cook-outs, and operating “Southern Time”. But he felt the call for something new, and proceeded to lead 3 semester-long educational service-learning programs through Northern California, Central America and the South Pacific. Yet no matter how strong this call was, it was nothing compared to the one (of his then-girlfriend) that took him to Mexico, where he spent the better part of 3 years teaching English and then 6th Grade, helping out with the ex-pat community, dancing salsa, eating tacos al pastor, and working in the hotel/travel industry in Playa del Carmen on the Mexican Riviera.
While in Playa, Jeff returned to the life of the group leader, going to Ecuador and then Peru, before traveling solo through South America for 6 months. Once stateside, he fulfilled a life-long dream of experiencing Africa, leading 2 groups to Ghana during the 1st half of 2009, and now finds himself back on familiar ground: rejuvenated and grateful for the opportunity to be with others as excited as he is to explore not only the world, but themselves and their own experiences, as well as our place here and what is possible through programs like Carpe Diem.
Amanda Rader - India
Though born and raised in Pennsylvania, Amanda’s sense of ‘home’ has extended across the globe. Her first international travel immersion was as a 6-week volunteer in rural Honduras, which set her life spiraling along new paths centered on questions of social justice and equality. Amanda’s Honduran journey led her to join the Peace Corps after completing her undergraduate degree in Sociology and Spanish from Franklin & Marshall College. The Peace Corps assigned Amanda to the Dominican Republic where she spent three years soaking up Dominican culture and collaborating in various projects to holistically address community health concerns.
Turning her sights to graduate school, Amanda applied for and was awarded a World Peace Fellowship from Rotary International. Through this fellowship program, Amanda completed her MA in Peace & Conflict Resolution from the University of Queensland in Australia. During the course of the fellowship, Amanda was also fortunate to study in Argentina and Brazil and intern with a progressive youth organization, Youth Action Nepal, which put on the first-ever Nepal Youth Social Forum in Kathmandu. After a brief stint living and teaching on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, Amanda launched into her first semester with Carpe Diem as a co-leader for the FANZ trip. Since, she has also led semesters to Central America, South America, Southeast Asia.
Amanda has developed a passion for life through the intensity of her journey across cultural ‘boundaries.’ She holds a profound belief in the potential of inspired youth to positively transform our world. Amanda is honored and thrilled to be spiraling into her fourth semester with Carpe Diem to share in the infinite possibilities that unfurl from opening up to challenge and diversity.
Casey Welch - South Pacific
Casey Welch's C.V. reads more like a travel catalog than one person's linear path to success in a career. She blames Chile and Peru (her first international destinations in 1997) for her insatiable travel compulsion, as her penchant for exploration can be traced to that initial life-changing, eye-opening trip. Then, as a student on the International Honors Program's year-long Global Ecology study abroad program in England, India, the Philippines, New Zealand and Mexico, Casey witnessed firsthand the often devastating effects of unchecked globalization on the natural environment and indigenous people around the world. Having become irrevocably convinced not only of the pitfalls of neoliberalism but also of the superiority of experiential, immersion education, she went on to study and practice organic agriculture and permaculture in Hawaii and Ireland, and sustainable building techniques in Mexico before graduating from the Evergreen State College. This was followed by a stint as a holistic, vegetarian chef after attending the Natural Gourmet Cookery School in New York City. But it was during her years as a SCUBA instructor in Thailand and Mexico that Casey realized her passion for education, especially of the outdoor variety. After completing her Masters in Education at New York University, she worked with K-8 students at a bilingual charter school serving a low-income Latino population in Oakland, California. And though she had intended to remain there as an elementary school teacher, Casey could not resist the offer to act as the traveling facilitator for IHP's Health and Community semester for college students in Geneva, India, China and South Africa. Upon comparing how much learning did not take place inside classroom walls the year before versus the profound personal growth and worldly knowledge gained by the students she traveled with, it was suddenly clear to her what people mean when they talk about finding their calling. To be able to combine her passion for travel with what she sees as the most important kind of "education" in a young person's life was the perfect fit, and Casey went on to lead gap-year programs in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Thailand, India and Vietnam (so far...) She also spends her summers leading high school students on community service/outdoor education/language immersion programs with Adventures Cross Country, which brought her to Fiji and Australia last year, and Ecuador, California, and Spain in years before that. Summer of 2010 will find her in Tanzania and Kenya.
After a semester off from leading (which was spent visiting family and doing yoga and organic gardening in Argentina) Casey is now eager to help Carpe Diem's participants get the most out of their experience in Fiji/Australia/New Zealand this fall. She is also eager to stop referring to herself in the third person.
Ben Bogosian - South Pacific
Benjamin grew up with a big family and the four seasons of upstate New York. He went on to study physics at the University of Vermont, where he spent just as much time in the wilderness and at the yoga studio as in the science lab. Led on by his growing interest in the world around him, he took a semester off halfway through his studies to travel through South America, which proved to be a life-changing experience that effectively hooked him on international exploration. After graduation, he quickly returned to Bolivia where he studied Spanish and volunteered at a center for disabled youth. Soon after leaving the high deserts of Bolivia he found himself again in the high deserts, but this time in Utah, where he worked as a wilderness therapy guide for some time, witnessing firsthand the positive effects that nature can have on our minds that are weighed down too much by the stresses of modernity. In pursuit of yet another way to help bring mind, body and spirit into balance, Benjamin transitioned to Salt Lake City to undertake an intensive study and practice of yoga for six months, to the point where he was able to pass on this knowledge to others by teaching classes. But it wasn't long after this that Benjamin was back on the international scene, because he was approached with a job offer to be a trip leader that he simply couldn´t refuse. For three years he led groups of students travelling and volunteering through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Thailand, India, and Vietnam, and maintains his enthusiasm and energy for the work by appreciating the truly momentous effects these experiences have had on the programs' participants. Between leading trips, he's managed to travel a bit on his own (Armenia, India, Ireland, Wales, Uruguay, Argentina, Bahamas) and produced his own solo music album featuring the Hang drum.
Benjamin is all about encouraging others to look in and see what ways they can heal, grow, and understand themselves. To him, strong self-awareness and a healthy self-image are what it takes for an individual to make a truly positive change in this world. Despite witnessing the world being consumed more and more by materialism leading to isolation and separation, Benjamin is hopeful and has faith in the younger generations to elevate our society to new levels of responsibility and mindfulness. Benjamin is excited to be a new member on the Carpe Diem team and hopes to share his enthusiasm for cultural understanding and personal growth with his future students.
Andy Bemis - South America
Andy Bemis - A native of Tucson, Arizona, Andy developed a love of Spanish, Latin American Culture, Mexican food and the desert at a very young age. With a fierce desire to learn Spanish, he spent the summer of his 15th year living with a host family in Mexico solidifying his love of travel and cultural immersion. He continued his international explorations after graduating High School with several backpacking trips through Europe before graduating from the University of California Santa Cruz with a degree in Anthropology in 2005. In college, the travel bug continually called and Andy spent: a summer learning about Tamil music and culture while volunteering at the Mohanam Cultural Center in Auroville, India; a semester studying Andean Anthropology and History in Quito, Ecuador; five months teaching English at an elementary school for indigenous children in old Quito; and various other travels to Thailand, Borneo, Israel/Palestine, Costa Rica and Panama.
Andy has led student groups in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands and revels in the opportunity to inspire an ethic of humility, courage, self-reliance and global-citizenship in a group of ambitious young explorers. Whether working with first time travelers or experienced nomads, he loves the opportunity to provide a fun, safe and adventurous atmosphere that is open to exploring limits, challenging comfort zones, and engaging in self-discovery. Andy has worked as a back-country ranger in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of Washington, a campus organizer at UCLA, a campaign director for Environment California in San Francisco, a stagehand at a theater in Tucson, and a carpenter in Montreal, Quebec. He is a certified Wilderness First Responder, Lifeguard and Shiatsu Massage Therapist. Inspired by the lessons learned at a human powered pace, he prefers to travel by foot, sailboat or bicycle and recently spent six months riding over 5000km through rural Mexico.
After many years away, Andy has recently returned to the healing heat and spectacular scenery of his home in the desert southwest where he can be found exploring this gorgeous land while rock climbing, hiking and caving as much as possible. He also spends his time substitute teaching, salsa dancing, practicing acroyoga, playing ultimate frisbee, juggling, gardening, reading and spending time with family.
Andy is leading in the Fall of 2009 to Central America and will be heading to the South Pacific in the Spring of 2010.
Jessica Cudnik - South America
Playing outside and encouraged to explore the natural wonder of plants by my mom was what helped grow my passion for human’s agrarian roots. There is something very basic about being able to see things from another’s (a plant’s) point of view. This is where travel became a natural fit for Jessica during college. While pursing her Bachelors in Horticulture at the University of Georgia there were opportunities that presented themselves and some that she chased and presented to herself. Her first internship was 6 months in Northern California at a cut flower farm. There she meet many international students and explored the natural and rugged beauty of the Pacific Northwest coast and forests.
After returning to UGA it was soon that Jessica began asking what other opportunities were out there to both grow her horticulture knowledge, get better at Spanish and maybe expand her view of things. She has spent a semester studying in Honduras at the well established Zamorano University where they live by the motto “Learn by Doing”. There she rotated thru Apiculture, Horticulture, Aquaculture, and Veterinarian ‘learn by doing’ modules. After graduation she continued to look for ways to expand her knowledge of the world and continue learning Spanish. This lead to Trujillo, Peru where she lived with a Peruvian family and taught English Language and Civic Duties for 6 months at El Cultural Centro Peruano Americano. While in South America she was able to visit Ecuador, Bolivia and travel extensively throughout Peru. Taking advantage of every opportunity is a strong motivator and she sampled Amazonian life in Iquitos, hiked to Machu Piccu, visited with Mummy Juanita, the Ice Maiden, in Arequipa and many, many other things. She had traveled to Scotland, France, The Netherlands, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and New Zealand.
She has continued to seek growth and lessons in everyday life. She has worked in offices in Illinois, Georgia, and currently is working in California. After being behind a desk and grounded in the greenhouses she has once again changed her path to answer the call to the road and to share with others while they learn about ‘it’ themselves. If you ain’t uncomfortable… then you ain’t growing! So she leaves the comfort for something greater.
"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." Bilbo Baggins (J.R.R. Tolkien)I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” -William Penn
Ari Alberg - Central America
Ari was born in Seoul, South Korea. Orphaned as a child, he was adopted by a loving family from the United States. With memories of the orphanage he has committed his working life to advocating for underprivileged youth.
In 2003 Ari joined the the Teach For America program and was placed in New Orleans where he would teach for two years in an extremely under-resourced school in one of the poorest districts in the country. Here he was exposed to the challenges of institutional racism and generational poverty that would compel him to focus on educational services for youth.
In the years following his experience in New Orleans, Ari was fortunate to work for several excellent educational organizations that combined academics with life skills training, vocational training, and a bit of adventure. Whether welding, rock climbing, writing essays, dealing with substance abuse, or presenting to city mayors, Ari has thoroughly enjoyed his work with youth.
In recent years Ari has been working to provide educational experiences abroad for low income young adults with an organization called The Pangaea Project. Through Pangaea Ari has taken groups of students to Ecuador and Thailand to learn about local social justice issues and focus on leadership skills development.
Since November of 2009, Ari has been traveling on his own, first exploring the Motherland, Korea, where he was fortunate to learn so much about his culture and heritage. He is currently in Costa Rica doing volunteer work at an ecological reserve and is excited to become a member of the Carpe Diem team.
Meghan Sullivan - Central America
During her sophomore year at Boston College, Meghan participated in an alternate Spring Break program focusing on peace, justice, and human rights in Nicaragua. This was her first experience in third world travel and cultural immersion and to say that it pushed this Jersey Girl out of her comfort zone would be quite an understatement. The program, however, was an extremely positive and eye-opening experience that left Meghan looking for more opportunities to travel and explore the world around her.
The first semester of her junior year, Meghan chose to study abroad in Scotland and traveled around Europe with friends. Although the experience was amazingly fun, something was pulling her to explore more of the developing world. She spent the following summer studying sustainable development in Costa Rica and after graduating with a BA in Political Science and Theatre Arts, Meghan spent six months independently traveling from Bolivia to Guatemala.
Knowing that she wanted to return to Latin America, but would need time to figure out the best way to do so, she moved back to Boston and began working for CIEE, supporting international students who participated in work and travel programs here in the US. After a little over a year back in the States, Meghan returned to Latin America, where she spent two years volunteering at the Working Boys’ Center in Quito, Ecuador. There she became a teacher and mentor for children who worked on the streets of Quito and helped the Center provide support for their families.
After returning from her volunteer service, in an attempt to settle down and get a “real job,” Meghan moved to New York City and took a job planning fundraising events for non-profit organizations. After two years of working at a desk (and a few short trips back to Ecuador) she left the Big Apple to explore Southern Africa and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. While in Africa she began to wonder if she could make her love of travel a career and upon her return to the US became a tour leader with Trek America. She spent 6 months criss-crossing the US in a van filled with international adventurers. Taking advantage of the seasonal nature of tour leading, she used the off season to explore Nepal and India and make another quick trip back to Ecuador to visit her friends at the Working Boys’ Center. In the summer of 2009, Meghan began her second season as a tour leader with Trek America. Unfortunately, her season was cut short due to an ankle injury she suffered while playing trampoline dodgeball with her passengers. Needing some time to recover, Meghan rejoined the world of non-profit events, this time based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Meghan is thrilled to be joining the Carpe Diem family. She is exited to explore the world as part of a group eager to experience all the challenges and wonders that come with traveling in Central America!
Stefan Allen-Hickey - South Pacific
A product of the verdant Pacific Northwest, Stefan has spent most of his young adult life in, or stuck in an airport queue waiting to get in to, developing nations. He fell in love with the bustle, beauty and flavors of Vietnam at 18 and has cultivated his immersion approach to traveling by living, working, volunteering and/or studying in over 30 countries in the past eight years.
He is interested above all in human connection and delights in engaging in any variety of cross cultural dialogue. Back before students were encouraged to do so he took a gap year after high school and lived in South East Asia. What resulted was a period of exploration, hardship and, ultimately, metamorphosis that reignited his academic aspirations and inspired him to obtain a B.A. in English Literature from the Colorado College. During his studies he grew enamored of the ex-pat literary scenes of the 20’s and 30’s in Western Europe and Northern Africa and designed his own study abroad curriculum which led him to, among other places, a rather dinghy subterranean dwelling in Tangiers, Morocco where William Burroughs is purported to have nearly met his maker.
In college he became interested in problems confronting ethnic groups living in diaspora and was awarded upon graduation a Humanity in Action fellowship, leaving Colorado for Paris to study Maghreb youth culture, focusing on North African immigrant identity issues in Argenteuil and Clichy-sous-Bois.
A subsequent travel jag landed him in Bosnia, where while living with a Bosnian friend he was able to observe some of the subtleties of the embattled and largely misunderstood surrounding region. Compelled by this experience Stefan joined Peace Corps and spent his service riding horses, eating fermented dairy products and corralling livestock in the heart of Mongolia’s Gobi Desert.
Stefan believes wholeheartedly in the efficacy of immersion programs like Carpe Diem and looks forward to facilitating the sort of positive growth experiences that were so formative for him at such an age.
A diehard international soccer fan, Stefan might still be a bit hoarse from cheering, even in September, after this summer’s World Cup in South Africa, especially if his beloved Dutch side finally manage to hoist the coveted golden trophy. He’s also hoping the Aussies and Kiwis show well, as he will be leading the FANZ group in the fall of 2010.
Simone Levine - South Pacific
Simone was raised by two transplanted New Yorkers in a suburban town in Southern California, and her frequent trips back to New York were what piqued her curiosity regarding the differences between people and places. This thriving metropolis filled with faces from faraway places always fascinated her. Although she loved the beaches and sun in California, she knew there was so much more out there. Fast forward to the summer before going to DePaul University in Chicago to study Communications, when she was given the opportunity to backpack her way through Europe with her older sister. This would be the (first) trip that changed the momentum of her life forever. In 2 months of eye opening experiences she had already made up her mind about pursuing a life in travel and exploration. Always interested in the unknown, she wondered about the hidden places around the world and the living things inhabiting it. She studied abroad for her Junior year of college at the University of Sydney in Australia, where she first became interested in photography as a means of enhancing her vision of the world. Australia presented several opportunities for Simone to continue her discoveries, and she managed to spend most of her time doing just that: exploring. She spent 6 weeks in New Zealand gallivanting through the open land and delving into adventure sports galore. This was balanced by finding more spiritual and humanitarian work during her trips to the Australian outback, Fiji, Indonesia and Thailand.
Upon returning to the States she quickly realized that a life behind a desk was not in the cards, so after finishing her degree she packed her backpack yet again, and fled off to Central and Eastern Europe to learn about the arts, and then Israel to begin to understand her roots in Judaism. Finally she made her way down to South America and settled in Buenos Aires, Argentina to teach English and learn Spanish for what turned out to be a year of personal transformation and growth. After having traveled through Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Peru she returned back to the U.S. determined that it was imperative to enhance her educational experience through gaining her Master's in International Education from NYU. While at NYU her studies were taken outside the classroom where she spent a summer in Ghana working at an orphanage and studying diversity and education, and Mexico to study public health, food and culture. With a specialization in Cross-Cultural Exchange and a regional concentration in Latin America, she spent the majority of her Master’s degree dedicated to understanding the field of international volunteer tourism, and is committed to bringing positive impacts to host communities around the world through sustainable volunteer work. Her recent work with events coordinating for international students at the Office for International Students and Scholars at NYU was balanced by her work organizing teacher training programs at a local yoga studio.
She has spent the past few months getting certified as a yoga teacher, which has helped her find peace and tranquility within her daily life and provides a constant reminder that wherever you are in the world you can always find a way to ground yourself. On any given day you can find her biking all around the city, taking photos of just about anything, winding herself up in yoga, volunteering, playing volleyball, practicing her Spanish with anyone she can, cooking exotic meals to remind her of her travels, and dreaming about her next destination. She is thrilled to be leading the FANZ trip this Fall and can't wait to get back 'down under!'
Adam Haigler - Central America
Adam hails from the rolling red clay hills of North Carolina's Piedmont, though he's spent little time there since graduating from high school. During his senior year, a guest speaker visited his politics class to talk about his choice to postpone college to go volunteer in inner city Boston for a year. Adam was inspired...He told his parents about his newfound intention to volunteer in lieu of college and was pleasantly surprised by their elation at his decision. With their unwavering support, after graduation Adam spent nine months volunteering and traveling in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and New Zealand - where he taught English, had outdoor adventures, learned Spanish and worked in conservation. He was astounded by the growth and motivation he gleaned from these travels - connecting with diverse communities, developing a love for teaching, and sparking a passion for nature.
Ever since this pivotal year, Adam has been a strong advocate for gap years. Upon his return, his belief in the transformative power of travel and service prompted him to help his parents write The Gap Year Advantage, a book about the value of taking time off and how to go about it. Following its publication, Adam has spoken at various events about his experience, always with the intention of providing moral support and guidance to prospective gappers.
After helping with the book, Adam took another year to attempt to synthesize his passions of nature and education. This aspiration found him teaching outdoor education to low-income students in the hill country of Texas for nine months, where he met his life partner, Allison. While leading students in those sun-scorched, cactus-covered hills, he realized that education would be his life's work, but yearned to know more about the inner-workings of nature - a desire that led him to Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA in 2005.
In his tenure at Evergreen, Adam studied biology and education, but always maintained his zest for travel. During college Adam participated in field trips to the U.S. Southwest, Southeast, as well as Costa Rica and Panama, but also traveled independently throughout the U.S., Canada, Peru, and Bolivia. His field studies in Costa Rica and Panama included research on poison dart frogs, environmental ethics, and natural history, while his South American trip focused on water systems, human rights, indigenous cultures, and Quechua. Traveling with an educational focus proved to be a wonderful experience for him – one that he hopes to continue with Carpe Diem.
Along his journey, Adam realized that leading trips for young people internationally would give him the opportunity to mentor and educate students while exploring fascinating cultural and natural landscapes by their side - an unbeatable combination in his eyes. Also, doing this work with his long-term travel / life partner, Allison, has made him that much more excited about leading for Carpe Diem. He looks forward to meeting his group in Central America in September 2010 and supporting their growth for three glorious months of adventure, service, and reflection.
Allison Haigler - Central America
Like a salmon, Allison began her life near the ocean in western Canada. After being reared in her native surroundings for the entirety of her youth, becoming familiar and falling in love with the natural world around her, she set out into the big sea to begin her journey.
She studied her interests and received a two year diploma in Environmental Protection Technology, but followed the stronger current of her passions to pursue travel and work as an environmental educator. Along with guiding kids on some hands-on discovery around the Vancouver Aquarium, this wave took her to beautiful parks in California, where she led nature walks, taught Junior Rangers programs, and led canoe trips for a summer. It also took her to Holland for half a year where she raised plants, then did her first independent travels around Western Europe and northern Africa. It wasn't until she was in Texas where she worked for a year as an instructor at an outdoor school, that she met her mate.
Now on a shared adventure, finding home where she makes it, she returned for further formal education, ironically near her original home in the Pacific Northwest. There, at the Evergreen State College, she continued to develop her relationship with nature, focusing on botany and marine science for her BSc in ecology. During college, she also wrote an independent learning contract to study the flora and fauna of Costa Rica and Panama, keeping a nature journal of water colours. Not only did this serve as a learning tool and illustrative record, but just as importantly, as a means for initiating interesting conversation with the locals.
At the same time, Allison also earned a BA in cultural studies, investigating how folk art reflects a culture's environment in material and design. In another independent learning contract, she went to the Appalachian Mountains to study the regional ¨makings¨ of a people and to learn woodworking, blacksmithing, and basket weaving at one of the local craft school. In her last year, she did a comparative study of Latin American textile traditions, looking at the evolution of material use for fiber and dyes and how the tourist market has shaped the final product by researching Mayan techniques on paper, and those of the Peruvian Andes and Amazonian basin in the field.
Still enthralled in the act developing and migrating, Allison continues to grow as she travels, shares, and feeds from life's richness. When not pretending to be a fish, she can be found swimming, oh wait. She also enjoys using her feet to get her where she´s going, to play hackie sack, and to ride bikes. Additionally, she likes using her hands to make a great many things – knitted, painted, sculpted, or cooked.
She looks forward to returning to Central America for her fourth time with the group!
Alex Montalvo - Southeast Asia
Alex originally hails from Miami, FL, the patchwork city of Latin and Caribbean cultures that sparked his love for humidity and the outdoors. His childhood experience in an indistinct suburb, where remnant forests were demolished for fast food outlets and gated housing complexes, developed an intense motivation toward protecting our natural environment and for community inclusivity within urban development. Alex graduated from Tulane University with a BS in Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology. As an undergrad Alex studied tropical ecology and conservation in Costa Rica and researched ecological interactions and sustainable agroecology in several of Costa Rica’s national parks and surrounding communities. It was in Costa Rica—climbing waterfalls, drinking coffee brewed out of a sock, and learning Spanish from his 6-year old homestay daughter—where Alex became hooked on adventure and experiential education.
One must engage all of our senses and intellects, Alex feels, to fully learn from, and about, life. He strongly believes, as Henri Cartier-Bresson states, “the discovery of oneself is concurrent to the discovery of the world,” and has spent many months “discovering” as a result. His journeys to date have taken him to the United States, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Dominican Republic, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, including leading a semester long service learning program for college students to India in 2004.
In 2004, Alex returned to Miami to plant seeds and lay roots. In Miami he worked as Program Director and Interim Executive Director for the environmental education non-profit Citizens for a Better South Florida. In these roles, Alex established a popular urban reforestation program entitled Citizen Forester: Neighbors Replanting Neighborhoods and organized communities across inner city Miami to participate in large-scale community service and ecological restoration events. Likewise in this position, Alex authored a bilingual booklet entitled Go Native! Hazlo Nativo! advocating the use of native plants for water conservation and preservation of biodiversity. After Citizens, he proceeded into a position leading Green Miami, the City of Miami’s first urban reforestation program targeting recovery of Miami’s urban tree canopy, particularly within Miami’s neglected neighborhoods. As Green Miami coordinator, Alex instituted the City’s first Fruit Tree Adoption program to jointly tackle canopy recovery and economic development, distributing nearly 2000 fruit trees to residents in its inaugural year and educating an equal number of first-generation South Floridians on urban deforestation issues.
Alex is a NOLS Outdoor Educator of the Rocky Mountains Program alumni, a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver, a Florida Master Naturalist and an adept photographer. He is currently in pursuit of a Master of Architecture in Sustainable Design from the University of Oregon and leads international service learning summer trips with the experiential education organization Global Routes when he is not leading semester journeys with Carpe Diem.
Jackie Cruz - Southeast Asia
Jackie first experienced life outside America at the tender age of two while visiting her family in the Dominican Republic. While she did not much care for the cold water showers, or the mosquitoes that made her look like she had suffered a grave case of the chickenpox, she was made aware that people not only lived outside of America, but they lived quite differently. Armed with this knowledge, she was skeptical when throughout her childhood she was taught that her native New York was the center of the universe.
Jackie received her B.A. in English and a certificate in Jewish studies from Wesleyan University in 2007. Wesleyan was influential in helping her give voice to the many feelings she had had throughout her life, but was unable to fully express. This was done not only through the acquisition of language and theories on race, class, and gender but also through encouragement to study abroad and understand herself as part of a global world. Her sophomore spring found her studying religion at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, while her junior spring found her studying reconciliation and development in Durban, South Africa.
When she was not breaking the hearts of many South Africans by exposing the WWF as fake, or convincing people that she was not best friends with 50 Cent, Jackie relished the learning that came with living in a different culture. Not only was she able to understand a different way of life, she was given another lens with which to critically examine her own country, and more importantly herself.
After college, Jackie found herself teaching English at an Islamic boarding school in the tiny village of Kampung Raja as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. Located in the conservative state of Terengganu, Malaysia, she sang more “High School Musical,” than she’d like to admit. After teaching she backpacked throughout SE Asia, following the trail through Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Upon returning to the States, Jackie was a program assistant for the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA). She returned to Malaysia to help organize an international conference for over 200 Muslim women, and did not return to the States until her money ran out.
Sometimes, Jackie is not sure how it came to pass that she feels more comfortable wearing the same outfit for months on end and using a squat toilet than shopping at Whole Foods. However, she feels truly blessed to have had experiences that taught her that traveling abroad, and living amongst different cultures, is an essential part of understanding what it means to be part of the human race. She looks forward to leading, learning, and sharing with all of you this semester in SE ASIA!
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