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:
Mike Sobel - Thailand Office Director
Mike spent the better part of his tender, young years in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. A dreamy and introspective lad, he was often found under a tree with his nose inside of a book. Other times he'd be found exploring, hiking, biking, skiing, and camping with his father and brother in the mountains near his hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado.
Following the proverbial advice to go west, Mike attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. After graduating with a degree in Biology, Mike worked in the Oregon forests as a wildlife biology researcher, before taking off to Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He spent his Peace Corps tenure as a secondary school teacher in Malawi, a country that holds a special place in his heart to this very day.
Wanderlust revealed, a series of circuitous adventures followed, which found Mike living, working and studying on all seven continents. Along the way, Mike began working with experiential education programs, primarily in Asia, where he developed a new love affair with the people and culture.
Over the past ten years, Mike has had numerous firsthand opportunities to see the transformative potential of cross-cultural and experiential education. Once a wrestler and student of western science, Mike now finds himself drawn to meditation and Eastern contemplative traditions. Committed to lifelong learning, Mike continues to study the languages and cultures of the countries he visits and inhabits. He is pursuing a Masters in Buddhist Studies at Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon.
Currently, Mike is Carpe Diem's Southeast Asia office founder, living in Chiang Mai, Thailand and coordinating both the India and Southeast Asia semesters.
Amanda Rader - Indigenous Americas Program Director (in residence in Arizona)
Though born and raised in Pennsylvania, Amanda's sense of 'home' has extended across the globe. Her first international travel immersion was after her first year of college, as a volunteer in rural Honduras. The 6-week experience sent her life spiraling along new paths centered on questions of justice, and explorations of the lived experience and the interconnectedness of diverse approaches to it. Amanda's Honduran journey inspired her to join the Peace Corps after completing her undergraduate degree in Sociology and Spanish from Franklin & Marshall College. As a Peace Corps volunteer, she spent three years serving in the capacity of Community Health Promoter in the Dominican Republic.
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 in Kathmandu with a progressive youth organization, Youth Action Nepal. After a brief yet powerful chapter of 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 and India.
In the spring of 2010, Amanda began focusing her energy on the cultivation of a new semester program, Indigenous America. Her inspiration for this semester was born primarily of her experience living on the Navajo Nation, where she was struck by the beauty of the natural landscape, the unique power of the culture, and the complex history of reservation land and its peoples. Amanda realized the immense learning opportunities available within the contours of our own country, and is hopeful for the paths generated through the IAM semester to allow for greater understanding and harmony between native and non-native peoples.
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, and is grateful to be collaborating with Carpe Diem in generating a network of such changemakers.
--
". . . the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive....The dead may look after the afterwards, but the magnificent here and now of life in the flesh is ours, and ours alone, and ours only for a time. We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living, incarnate cosmos." - D. H. Lawrence
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 for 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 of 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.
After leading with Carpe Diem to Central America, East Africa, and just recently in the South Pacific, she is extremely excited to lead with Ben and revisit Central America!
Benjamin Bogosian - Central America
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. There he witnessed firsthand the positive effects that nature and a little introspection 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. Since then he led groups of students traveling and volunteering through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Thailand, India, Vietnam, Spain, and Morocco through various international programs, and after joining the Carpe Diem family in 2010 he has led their India, Central America, and Fiji-Australia-New Zealand semesters. He maintains his enthusiasm and energy for this 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, Nepal) and produced his own solo music album.
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 back in the Latin world with a traveling community, and he hopes to share his enthusiasm for cultural understanding and personal growth with his future teammates.
Jessica Cudnik - South Pacific (WALKABOUT)
While Jessica is a true Georgia native, she is really a woman of the world. Growing up, she loved to play outside and to explore the natural wonder of plants with her mom. This helped grow her passion for exploring human being's agrarian roots. "Plants are awesome y'all!" There is something very basic about being able to see things from another's point of view - be that another person or a plant. 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 for exploration both that presented themselves and that she chased and presented to herself. She holds a profound belief in a person's strength and ability to do anything, despite the conditioned 'limitations' we prescribe to based on social or financial perceptions.
Her first internship was 6 months in Northern California at a cut flower farm. There she met many international students and explored the natural and rugged beauty of the Pacific Northwest coast and forests. She was hooked! She then spent a semester studying in Honduras at the well-established Zamorano University where they live by the motto 'Learn by Doing'. After graduation she continued to look for ways to expand her knowledge of the world and to 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 Picchu, visited with Mummy Juanita and the Ice Maiden, passed through Arequipa and many, many other things. She has also traveled to Scotland, France, The Netherlands, El Salvador, Costa Rica, India, Nepal, and New Zealand.
Jessica has continued to seek growth and lessons in everyday life. In the South there is a saying.... If you ain't uncomfortable- then you ain't growing! To this end, She recently completed her yoga teacher training and is currently applying to grad school. She loves being a witness to the expansion, growth, and FUN! that happens on these GAP year programs. Jessica knows what a privilege it is to share space with the amazing students that choose these trips. "See you guys real soon!"
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
Justin McBride - South Pacific (WALKABOUT)
Reigning from sunny Central Oregon, Justin spent his early years playing sports and exploring the local outdoor wonders with his family. Growing up in a small town he always wondered what else was out there to see and learn in this vast world. In 2000, Justin's love affair with cultures and international traveling began while he was sitting next to a campfire in an orphanage in Mexico. From that moment on he knew that his life would consist of traveling and helping those he meets.
This love propelled him to study Religions and Anthropology at Northwest Nazarene University as well as study abroad in Australia. During college he was always running off on whatever trips he could find overseas or heading into the beautiful mountains of Idaho for some hiking, climbing or whitewater rafting.
After graduating and unsure of what he wanted to do for a living Justin became a Wildland fire fighter so he would have six months a year off to travel and explore. Having landed on 5 continents in the last 11 years, he finds his way away from the tourists and into the local scene. Finally following his desire to teach others and help them see the world as a classroom he left the fire world to go back to leading trips.
Understanding the importance of knowledge and experience he is always looking for ways to open his mind to new ideas and world views. A life long student, he continues to search for answers on the open road whether abroad or out his own back door. He is excited to repeat his first semester in the South Pacific for a second round and we're excited to have his vast experience again on our roster!
Simone Levine - South Pacific (HONGI)
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 about the differences between people and places. This thriving metropolis filled with accents, languages, and faces from faraway places always fascinated her. It wasn't until the summer before going off to college at DePaul when she for the first time stepped outside of North America and backpacked 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 of the unknown. She studied abroad for her Junior year at the University of Sydney in Australia, where she first became interested in photography as a means of enhancing her vision of the world. When she wasn't in class or the darkroom she was taking full advantage of the opportunities to travel around this exciting area of the world; road tripping throughout most of Australia; hiking and partaking in adrenaline-pumping adventure sports in New Zealand; visiting temples and traditional ceremonies in Bali; trekking, teaching English, and scuba diving in Thailand; and doing the Bula dance in Fiji.
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 to 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 familiarizing herself with Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Peru she returned back to the U.S. with the goal to find a way to expose others to the world she now knew. When she was accepted as a Master's student at New York University's International Education program she knew that was exactly what she had been looking for. While specializing in Cross-Cultural Exchange and concentrating in Latin America, her studies were often taken outside the classroom. She spent a summer in Ghana working at an orphanage and studying diversity and education, and time in Mexico studying public health, food and culture. Simone is dedicated to understanding the field of international volunteer tourism, and is committed to bringing positive impacts to both students and host communities around the world through sustainable volunteer work. She believes that international education is the bridge to creating true reciprocity in our ever-evolving globalized world.
While in New York she worked with international college students as an events coordinator at the Office for International Students and Scholars at NYU, as well as organized yoga teacher training programs at a local yoga studio. After several months of getting certified as a yoga instructor herself, she was hired with Carpe Diem and launched her first semester leading a trip in Fiji/New Zealand/Australia. Since then she has led the South America program and a summer service program for high school students in Costa Rica. Simone finds pure passion in this work through the genuine connections she is constantly making with her students and people along the way. She is convinced that each being we meet plays an important role in teaching and inspiring us to become more understanding and open to the world around us. When she's not leading trips you can find her biking all around NYC, taking photos of just about anything, winding herself up in yoga, visiting friends and family around the U.S., learning to play the guitar, practicing her Spanish with anyone she can, cooking exotic meals to remind her of her travels, and dreaming about her next destination. Simone is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share in the challenges and miracles experienced by exploring ourselves and this world with such unique and inspiring students.
Skyeler Congdon - South Pacific (HONGI)
Skyeler hails from Western Colorado, in a valley where the sun rises over the flank of the Rocky Mountains and sets upon the rusted desert. This dichotomy is matched by the influence of his parents: his mother taught dance and theater at the local college and his father, an English teacher, snuck him away to the wilderness whenever possible. In time Skyeler became equally at home on the stage reciting Shakespeare or catching Rainbow Trout from an alpine lake
After graduating Skyeler chose, instead of following the masses to college, to explore the world and impart some of the peace and wisdom he had found to other young people. He began working at a wilderness therapy program in Utah, eager to be a positive influence in the lives of other teens that felt as disenfranchised by high school as he. This was also an opportunity to gain a deeper appreciation for the wild spaces he first shared with his father. But the wild world was calling, and after two years Skyeler made a pivotal voyage to Mexico. With a pair of close childhood friends, a plan was hatched to drive the Western coast of Mexico to Belize and return through the desert. Inspired by Cormac McCarthy's "Border Trilogy" the trip was a true adventure, and became very, very "real" in southern Baja, where Skyeler was robbed of passport, money, and every other critical document.
This experience was indescribably powerful for him, and set a course he has followed to the present. Upon returning to the US, Skyeler lived and worked at Shambhala Mountain Center, a Buddhist retreat center in Colorado where he became exposed to meditation, yoga, and a lifestyle of living mindfully that continues to this day.
Eager to share the power of international travel with others, Skyeler began leading trips around the world with various outfitters in 2005. Since then he has guided service and adventure-based trips to Mongolia, Costa Rica, Peru, and Ecuador. He also spent a semester studying abroad in S. Korea, China, Vietnam, and Thailand deepening his understanding of religious studies and political science.
In 2011, Skyeler took his career to the next level and graduated Cum Laude from Fort Lewis College with a degree in Adventure Education. After years of studying experiential education theory, he cannot wait to share his knowledge and passion for adventure.
Skyeler is overjoyed to join the amazing team here at Carpe Diem, and cannot imagine a more incredible place to guide and share the types of experiences that have helped him grow as a person with other young people.
"There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, Ready to be filled. You feel it, don't you? Remind those who tell you otherwise that Love comes to you of its own accord, and the yearning for it cannot be learned in any school." Rumi
Meghan Sullivan - South 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 for the second consecutive semester in South America! What a gift Meghan has become to us in the office!
Grant Williams - South America
Grant grew up gardening, birdwatching, canoeing, and generally mucking about with his family in Missouri. This grounded him in his passion for the outdoors. He found his early college education information rich and experience poor, so he began working with the National Outdoor Leadership School in Alaska, which finished with a month-long Outdoor Educator course. Leaving Alaska, he knew he wanted a 'classroom' where experiential education and a connection to nature were valued, and began looking for the right fit. An Alaksan colleague informed him about Prescott College in Arizona where he discovered that learning could be exciting, and challenge him with new ways of inquiry. He studied a myriad of topics from ethnobotany to environmental perspectives in whitewater rafting and spent more time in a 15 passenger van than in a classroom.
His first international immersion was a self designed course focusing on ethical travel photography in Southeast Asia. Touched by the culture, people, and landscapes he encountered he returned to Arizona humbled. In response, he hosted a fine art exhibition raising money for a school in Chang Rai, Thailand. Grant concluded his Prescott degree instructing for Teton Science Schools in Wyoming, and with his BA in Adventure-based Environmental Education he started looking for worthwhile employment. He found his call working for the Missouri Division of Youth Services, which put him at the forefront of juvenile justice reform and adventure based therapy. After three years, he was feeling the call to continue his own personal evolution through additional global exploration, and thus spent the next year traveling and volunteering in Latin America.
As a hiatus to travel status, Grant worked in Patagonia, Argentina as a wilderness expedition staff member, leading teams of volunteers on remote ecological research surveys. Another stop along the way was an animal refuge in Bolivia caring for howler monkeys in the morning and pumas in the evening that had been rescued from illicit sources.
Departing Latin America Grant went 'mahalo' style on The Big Island of Hawaii leading an intrepid team of staff enthusiastic to cultivate healthy obsessions and imprint a positive self-image in young adults struggling with weight loss. Returning mainland he decided it was time to take another international leap. And, after feeling the call to Asia he found A Spiritual Guide to India located on a friends bookshelf, which he took as the last sign to buy a ticket. Following a transformational exploration through the many states of Northern India, Grant transitioned to Scotland to begin working for an outdoor education program close to Edinburgh, implementing programs focused on self confidence, leadership, cooperative team building, and environmental awareness.
In his spare time he enjoys 'geeking out' on the outdoors, trad-climbing, french pressing, biking, dreaming of the next destination, snapping photos, and studying yoga. He feels blessed to join the Carpe Diem community and looks forward to collaborating with Meghan and you this Spring.
Avy Harris - East Africa
Avy's wanderlust began early - when she was about 7 years old she made her best friend sign a contract that one day the two of them would ride a hot-air balloon all the way to Egypt. While the hot-air balloon scheme has yet to fall into place, Avy has been exploring surprising nooks and crannies of this world ever since. Two days after high school graduation, she hopped a Greyhound bus and took off from her native Colorado on a grand tour of the West, sleeping on buses and beaches and discovering the courage to enjoy solitude. After a summer of exploration, she went to the University of Colorado at Boulder where she received her BA in Women and Gender Studies. She also completed an intensive two-year community leadership program based on social and environmental justice which incorporated trips in both the American Southwest and Mexico; this was Avy's first experience with community-based service learning, and she knew she was hooked for good.
After college, Avy shipped off to Southeast Asia with 4 of her best girlfriends, where they spent the summer riding elephants, scuba diving, trekking, and scheming ways to live out of a backpack forever. She spent three weeks at home and then immediately turned around again, this time to Northern Uganda where she helped create a non-profit rehabilitating former child soldiers. Back in Colorado several months later, Avy was ready to put down some roots: so she helped her friends plant a garden, learned to cook organic food, and, of course, took several weeks here and there to do road trips in the West. During a 400-mile solo hike along Arizona's Grand Enchantment Trail, Avy talked to herself a lot and heard herself say it was time to go abroad again. So she flew off to Jeju Island off of South Korea, where she taught English and played on beaches for 8 months. Ready to go back to Africa, she moved to Ethiopia where she works on community-based ecotourism and environmental conservation projects.
She is overwhelmed with gratitude to be joining Carpe Diem for her second (and repeat) semester and ready to continue exploring with her students and co-leader!
Robbie Frankel - East Africa
Though he was raised in Philadelphia, Robbie grew up in a home where countries had no boundaries or borders. His awareness for the vast variety of cultures in the world began with his parents, Jerry and Edna. Jerry comes from a long line of conservative Ashkenazi Jews from Russia. With him Robbie learned to read and write Hebrew, studying theology, philosophy and the Torah from age seven. Business man by day, Jerry spent his spare time making furniture in his home wood shop where Robbie learned the importance and soothing satisfaction of creating with one's own hands.
Robbie grew up very close with his mother, a Native French speaking Saphardic immigrant from Egypt. Edna was always home writing, creating, and nurturing. She raised him with an open-minded view of metaphysics, spiritual healing, and other worldly possibilities. But bedtime stories were non fiction, tales of Cairo, the pyramids, jaunts to Alexandria, being forced to leave Egypt in the 1950's, traveling around Europe looking for a home, and finally landing in America. He knew that he was made of the same clay as these places and these travelers.He hungered for more connections across the globe, and knew language was the obvious bridge between people. His first purchase with his allowance money was the book Japanese for Busy People, with which he began to teach himself this foreign tongue and writing system at age 8.
Robbie began college as a Biology major at Alfred University but within weeks of beginning his studies, the excitement and creative energy of the glassblowing studio converted him to a fine arts major. He spent his first two summers taking intensive glass blowing studio art courses at Êhis school in upstate New York. He spent the following two summers teaching glass-working at a predominantly International Arts Camp in Maine. In 2006 he traveled to Tanzania for a semester with the School for International Training. The Wildlife Ecology and Conservation program allowed him to explore the wonders of travel, the land, the people, and Africa. He conducted his independent research working with the Makonde woodcarvers, learning about their craft and what compromises and innovations they have made to survive in this global economy. ÊHe graduated Alfred University with a minor in Cultural Anthropology and a Major in Fine Arts specializing in conceptual glass sculpture.
Anxious for new frontiers Robbie moved to Portland, Oregon, worked long and hard until he had saved enough to backpack through Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Malaysia. While there, Robbie studied Thai language, lived with homestay families, and volunteered with a struggling family run permaculture farm. His return to Portland lasted only 10 months before he was off traveling through Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank. In addition to hiking and exploring, Robbie worked with an ngo community service program in the highly religious town of Tzfat.
Robbie can barely hold in his excitement to share his love for cross cultural connection, East Africa, and Swahili with this new group of students and co-leader Avy.
Online Application
Programs
- Latitudes Year
- Brazil
- Native America
- Southeast Asia
- East Africa
- Central America
- South America
- India
- Australia, New Zealand, Fiji
