Meet Past Leaders
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Alexandra Ashley, Thailand (2012) Alex Ashley is a native of Marblehead, Massachusetts, a small town on the sea just north of Boston. A 2007 alumna of Elon University in North Carolina, Alex studied abroad her freshman year in Italy, Ireland, Germany, and France and again her junior year at St. Andrews University in Scotland. She has since traveled to more than 20 countries and credits her mother, a Delta flight attendant, for her sense of adventure. Upon graduating from Elon with a BA in English literature and philosophy, Alex moved to the Czech Republic where she earned her TEFL certificate from The Language House. After teaching English for nearly two years in Prague, she returned to the States to pursue her master’s in international education at SIT Graduate Institute, where she graduated in May 2012. In the summer of 2012, Alex led her first Experiment trip to Thailand. Most recently, she has been working with a nonprofit in the slums of Bangkok as an English language coordinator, doing anything from managing their social media for the US, to teaching English, to working with the executive director writing grants and preparing educational materials for the International AIDS Conference. Currently Alex is taking MIT and Harvard EdX courses online in The Challenges of Global Poverty and Justice, continuing her travels and developing a new travel website. |
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Mark Anthony Arceño, France (2012) Philippines-born and Metro Detroit–raised, Mark Anthony Arceño graduated from Albion College in 2010 with a BA in French and international studies, with a regional focus in Africa, and double concentrations in ethnic studies and public policy and service. During the fall of 2008, he studied abroad and conducted independent research throughout South Africa via SIT Study Abroad’s Cape Town: Multiculturalism and Social Change program, and he spent the following spring studying abroad in Paris and interning in Fontenay-sous-Bois Cedex. Upon his return to campus, he compiled his research into an honors thesis that addressed the then upcoming English translation of the Roman Missal. Currently, Mark Anthony is the program coordinator in the Office of Multi-Cultural Student Affairs at Denison University and authors a food and culture blog based on the notion of "learning through food." Mark Anthony studied French formally in both high school and college and, within the first two years of undergraduate studies, his coursework brought him to Noisy-le-Roi, France; New Orleans; and Québec. In addition to his interests in African art, cross-cultural communication, and ethnography, Mark Anthony also enjoys film, tennis, and jazz. |
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Rajai Bimbo, France (2012) While at DePauw University, Rajai Bimbo, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, studied abroad in Paris, France, with Alma College and in Bamako, Mali, with SIT. He graduated from DePauw in 2004 with a BA in anthropology and sociology and a passion for world travel and languages. After graduation, he served in the Peace Corps in Niger, where he worked as a community health agent and a teaching assistant. He coordinated literacy programs for students aged 8 to 19 and hosted a radio show focused on HIV/AIDS prevention and other health issues. Afterward, he returned to Greencastle, where he had worked as camp counselor for three summers during his college years, to serve as the director of the nonprofit day camp for at-risk youth. In 2007, he accepted a position as program advisor for off-campus study at his alma mater, where he advised hundreds of students and co-led a group of 20 students on a monthlong study tour in India. After an incredible year as a teaching assistant in France and a delicious summer with The Experiment’s France: Language and Cooking program, he is currently pursuing a master’s degree in language education at the University of Rennes 2 in France. When he's not studying or working, he enjoys biking, origami, and cooking. Simply put, he's having the time of his life and is grateful to everyone who helped him get this far. |
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Lynn Butler, France (2012) Lynn Butler is a native of Newport News, Virginia. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2009 with a BA in foreign affairs. As a part of her undergrad experience, she spent five months studying abroad in Lyon, France, and has traveled extensively throughout Europe. Following graduation, Lynn spent two years living in Washington, DC, working for a nonprofit as well as a contracting office at the Department of State. Presently, Lynn is completing an MA in international education at SIT Graduate Institute while also working parttime in the Education Abroad office at Virginia Commonwealth University. Lynn plays intramural soccer, loves to swim, and enjoys exploring new cities and cultures. |
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Cecilia Costelow, France (2012) Born in Phoenix and raised in Colorado, Cecilia Costelow developed a taste for the outdoors and adventure at a young age. She graduated with a BA in French from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2010, and soon after moved to France for seven months where she taught English in a combined middle and high school in the Southern Alps. Currently, she is enrolled in a post-baccalaureate program to obtain her secondary French teaching license. Cecilia began traveling in college starting with a semester in Rennes, France. She has since toured throughout Europe, including England, Switzerland, Italy, and the Czech Republic, along with visits to the francophone regions of Canada and Morocco. In addition to experiencing new cultures through travel, Cecilia enjoys discovering each country’s unique environment through a love of skiing, hiking, running, and biking. |
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Andrew Cunningham, Tanzania (2012) Andrew (Andy) Cunningham, from Rutland, Vermont, graduated summa cum laude from Duke University with a double major in international comparative studies and Chinese and is currently a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University pursuing his PhD in comparative international education. His passion for international education began when he was an Experimenter to China in 2002 and has continued to grow while he has worked or volunteered with the Breakthrough Collaborative in New Orleans; Mother Teresa’s nuns in New York, Calcutta, and Nairobi; and Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of DC public schools. In 2006, he co-founded the Women’s Institute for Secondary Education and Research (WISER) as the first all-girl secondary boarding school and community center in Muhuru Bay, Kenya, and served as WISER's inaugural executive director until 2010. He has since served as an international education consultant with the World Bank, World Learning, UNICEF, and the Education Venture Fund. Andy is also the recipient of the Robertson Scholarship, Truman Scholarship, and Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Award and was named one of the 100 “Leaders of Tomorrow” at St. Gallen’s Symposium in Switzerland in 2012. He has been featured at the UN Youth Assembly and the Global Issues Network in Geneva and as a commencement speaker at Rutland High School and the International School of Luxembourg. In his spare time, he loves eating Ben and Jerry's, rowing, and mountain biking. |
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Carolyn Engel, Spain (2011), Peru (2012) Carolyn Engel is a 2009 graduate of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where she received a BA in film and Spanish. Over the past four years, Carolyn has taught English in Peru, worked on a farm in Chile, and lived with a remote jungle Kichwa community in Ecuador. Throughout this time, Carolyn has also led two Experiment trips, one to Spain in 2011 and one to Peru in 2012. Carolyn is enthusiastic about international travel and exchange and is currently working as the program manager and internship coordinator of a small nonprofit organization in the Ecuadorian Amazon called Fundación Runa. Carolyn is originally from Evansville, Indiana, but feels as though she was meant to live in the Amazon. She loves beaches, rivers, horses, and new experiences! |
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Grace Greenwell, Mongolia (2012) Grace Greenwell, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, is completing a Master of Human Rights and International Law at the London School of Economics. She graduated magna cum laude from Sewanee: The University of the South, earning an interdisciplinary degree in international studies and a minor in gender studies. There, she received the university’s highest honor for character, leadership, and service for her work in various capacities, including director of the Sewanee Women’s Center. In 2010, she traveled to Mongolia with SIT Study Abroad and returned in 2012 as a group leader for The Experiment in International Living’s program there. Her field research there led to her publication and recognition at several conferences. She has experience in Swaziland, the Dominican Republic, China, and Bulgaria partnering with micro-financing groups, UNICEF, and other development projects. Grace currently works in London as a legal advocate for young people, including refugees and asylum seekers and conducts research for an economic survey and consultancy firm. In addition to her international focus, Grace is passionate about transitional development, education, and community building in Kentucky and the rural South of the US. |
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Alexandra Halpern, Turkey (2012) Alexandra Halpern is from Charleston, South Carolina. She fell in love with traveling after spending a gap year after high school volunteering in Israel. She majored in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies and English at Brandeis University, where she was lucky enough to have the opportunity to study abroad in India, Nepal, Tibet, and Jordan through SIT Study Abroad. That year abroad only whetted her appetite, and, after graduating, Alex embarked on a solo trip around the world. During this yearlong adventure, Alex worked in a market on a remote island in Tonga, on an organic farm in Fiji, as a librarian in Bali, and at an orphanage in Kenya. She traveled extensively around the Pacific Islands, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Currently, she works with international high school students in Charleston, helping them integrate into American society, and plans to continue working in international education. Aside from traveling, Alex enjoys running, African music, Bollywood movies, and reading. Alex led an Experiment in International Living trip to Turkey in 2012. |
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José Eduardo Huerta, Chile (2012) Eduardo Huerta was born and raised in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. Six years after moving to California, he was the recipient of the Incentive Awards Program (IAP) scholarship to attend the University of California Berkeley from which he graduated in 2011 with a BA in Latin American studies and a minor in education. Eduardo will start graduate school in fall 2013, pursuing a master’s in counseling and student development in higher education. He currently works as the career track project coordinator with the County of Monterey in California where he’s collaborating to develop the county’s first career development program; additionally, he works as a substitute teacher and a math and literacy tutor for an afterschool program in Salinas, California. Eduardo began his traveling “experiment” as a junior in college, when he studied abroad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for one semester. While in Rio, he learned Portuguese during the day and taught English and Spanish in the afternoons to adults and youth in underprivileged areas. Eduardo is tri-literate in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. His travel experiences include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico, where he has journeyed through most states in the country. Additionally, in summer 2012 he led the Experiment program Chile: From the Andes to the Pacific. In his free time, he enjoys being outdoors, running, biking, swimming, and practicing martial arts such as karate and capoeira. Besides his love for adventure, adrenaline, and learning, Eduardo enjoys drawing, painting, cooking, and trying new foods. |
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Jarmila Kavecanska, France (2012) Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Jarmila Kavecanska grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She earned her BA from Xavier University in 2009 with a double major in French and classical humanities and a minor in history. She received a scholarship to study abroad in France for a year as an undergraduate, spending this time in Grenoble. She graduated with her MA in French literature and culture from Ohio State University in 2011. While at Ohio State, she was selected as a resident director for the university's summer study abroad program in Dijon, France, leading 26 undergraduate students during their first stay abroad. She is currently working on her doctorate in 20th-century French literature with a doctoral minor in musicology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has traveled extensively throughout much of France and Europe, including trips to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, England, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. She is fluent in English, French, Czech, and Slovak; has also studied German, Italian, and Latin; and has dabbled in Spanish, Qur'anic Arabic, and old Occitan. Her greatest interests include traveling, experiencing new cultures, languages, teaching, playing tennis, writing, anything related to music, reading, and cooking. In 2012, she led a group of Experimenters to the Camargue in France. |
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Heili Lowman, France (2012) Originally from Hockessin, Delaware, Heili Lowman graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, in May 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry and French and Francophone studies. During her junior year of college, she spent a semester abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France, with the Wellesley College program at the Université de Provence where she focused on anthropological and literary studies. She is also fluent in Estonian and has dual citizenship between the United States and the European Union. Since the age of six, she has been an avid international traveler, and her extensive travel experience includes journeys throughout North America, Europe, and northern Africa. Her past leadership roles include summer camp counselor, college tour guide, and captain of Vassar’s synchronized skating and ski teams. She currently works for a healthcare consulting firm in New Haven, Connecticut, but in the near future, she hopes to obtain her master’s in environmental management and go on to focus on environmental policy and education. Aside from traveling, her interests include running, dancing, skiing, and hiking. |
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Alana Miller, Thailand (2012) Alana Miller grew up on Long Island, New York, where her family introduced her to the art of traveling by putting her in the backseat of their car every weekend and driving up to Vermont for some fresh mountain air. In 2010, Alana graduated cum laude from Washington University with a degree in fine art photography and psychology. Soon after graduation, she moved to Thailand to teach English as a Second Language at a Buddhist school. Since returning to the States, Alana has been working as an installation artist for music festivals while pursuing her master’s in expressive art therapy. Alana fell in love with living and traveling abroad her freshman year of college when she studied photography in Florence, Italy, for a summer. Since that experience, she has lived in the UK for five months and has traveled extensively around Thailand, India, Laos, Argentina, Cambodia, Vietnam, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, and Israel. When she is not on an adventure abroad, Alana can be found making art, enjoying live music, skiing, hiking, cooking spicy Thai food, and doing yoga. |
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Edward Narea, Ecuador (2012) Edward Narea was born in Chicago, Illinois, to an Ecuadorian immigrant father and Philadelphia-native mother who grew up in Mexico. With his culturally Latin background, he graduated from Cornell University in 2008 with a BA in English, concentrating in Latin American literature, and with a minor in Spanish. After graduation, he traveled across Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and Ecuador. In 2009 he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he managed a budding restaurant chain called the Grilled Cheese Grill for three years but could not manage to shake his travel bug. So, in the summer of 2012, he led the Ecuador trip for The Experiment in International Living. Upon returning to the States, he began working for the nonprofit organization International Carpe Diem Foundation, where he helps prepare a small at-risk youth cohort for international travel and eventual college enrollment. After regularly practicing yoga for two and a half years, he is currently undertaking training to receive his yoga teacher certification. Like most Portlanders, he is grateful for the city’s bicycle-friendly atmosphere and generally commutes by bike year-round. |
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Emily Robbins, Morocco (2010, 2012) A native of Ashland, Oregon, Emily Robbins graduated from Swarthmore College near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2007 with a major in anthropology and a focus in Middle Eastern studies. She has traveled to Syria and Lebanon several times for research and as an intern with the United Nations Refugee Works Agency (UNRWA). From 2007–2008, Emily was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to Syria for research on technology in Syria’s sacred spaces. From 2008–2009 she taught high school drama and English with Teach for America in Philadelphia. Emily began her travels as an Experimenter to France in 2001, and in 2002–2003 she was an AFS exchange student to Argentina. She has traveled widely in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, including Chile, Belize, Costa Rica, Romania, England, Germany, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Tunisia. Besides her love of culture and languages, Emily enjoys movement theatre, creative writing, and ultimate Frisbee. Over the years, her family has hosted foreign exchange students from Germany, Argentina, and Japan. She was a group leader to Morocco with The Experiment in 2010 and returned as a leader to Morocco in 2012. |
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Jennifer Rosenbloom, Italy (2012) Jennifer grew up in Venice, Italy, and later enrolled in an American high school, pursuing linguistic studies in French and Spanish. This became the foundation of a passion that she has carried with her throughout her life. In 2012, Jennifer graduated from Rider University with a double major in French and Spanish language and literature and Latin American studies. She lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for two years, studying human rights with SIT Study Abroad and working at an international school. Jennifer continues to work in the field of education in New York City while preparing to attend graduate school. In 2012, she led a group of Experimenters to Italy. Besides her love of languages and culture, Jennifer enjoys painting, printmaking, and writing poetry. |
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Ansley Rubinstein, United Kingdom (2012) After spending a semester abroad in Scotland when she was 14, Ansley Rubinstein developed a wanderlust that has propelled her to continue traveling ever since, from teaching dance and volunteering in Peru to working at a high school in Jordan. At Harvard University, she studied Near Eastern languages and civilizations with a focus on Arabic literature and journeyed to Cairo, Egypt. Over three summers, she wrote for the student travel guide Let’s Go, traveling to Australia, Greece, Germany, and Austria to explore both cosmopolitan cities and undiscovered islands. During her time at Harvard, she took another semester abroad as part of the International Honors Program, traveling to India, South Africa, and Argentina to study urban issues around the world. Presently, she is an academic advisor for an educational company based in China and works in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. In 2012, she led The Experiment's program to the United Kingdom. Besides travel, film, and education, Ansley loves the performing arts and makes it her mission to take a dance class in every country she visits. |
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Miguel Angel Segura, Spain (2012) A native of Los Angeles, California, Miguel Angel Segura graduated from California State University, Northridge, in 2009 with a BA in political science and a minor in Chicano/a studies. Presently, he is teaching Pre-K through Teach for America and last year received his master’s at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Miguel has traveled widely in Mexico, South Korea and in Europe. Besides his love for adventure and sharing in new cultures, Miguel enjoys hiking, playing sports, watching movies, and hanging out with family and friends. |
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Gretchen Wagner, Switzerland (2012) Gretchen Wagner was born and raised in Newark, Delaware. She graduated from Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana, in 1997 with a double major in international interdisciplinary studies and French. After college, Gretchen went into the Peace Corps and spent two years in Senegal, a Francophone country, where she used her French to teach environmental education in rural schools. Gretchen also had the opportunity to learn Wolof, the local language, by living and doing community development projects in a village. Gretchen went back to Senegal in 2002 and 2003 to train new Peace Corps Volunteers and to conduct research for her master’s thesis. She received a master’s degree in dispute resolution from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a second master’s degree (in education) at Harvard University after working for five years in a Boston public high school as the coordinator of an attorney general–funded peer mediation program. Prior to her return to school, Gretchen spent six months in Kenya, coordinating a public health project there. She has had many opportunities to travel to much of Europe, several countries in Africa, Guatemala (where she studied Spanish), Japan, and Australia. Currently, Gretchen works as a consultant for family mediations and as a mediator trainer/coach. She is also a research assistant for SERP, where she examines and develops curriculum for youth to ameliorate their reading and comprehension levels. In her free time, Gretchen loves swimming and Latin dancing. |
