Adam Elliott Wilson

Brown University B.A. Latin American Studies. In 2006, Adam received a Fulbright grant to spend ten months in Merida, Venezuela, where he taught English and gave lectures at various universities and private institutions. During his junior year at Brown, Adam studied abroad in both Chile and Cuba, where he undertook a research project on the oral and musical traditions of the Afro-Cuban religion, Santería.

Fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese, he has spent the past five years traveling to seventeen countries, nine of which were in Latin America. He has worked for a number of years as a private tutor and he loves to learn anything from cooking recipes to philosophy. A children’s fiction novelist and trained musician, Adam has recently moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he plans to work as a bilingual counselor before pursuing graduate studies in educational linguistics.

Aaron Bono

University of Kansas, B.A. Humanities and Western Civilizations. Aaron arrived in China in early 2005 to visit friends. After five months in the scenic mountain village of Dali, he enjoyed the lifestyle and culture so much he then began learning to speak and read Mandarin. A year later, Aaron moved to Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province in southwestern China. Here, he taught English to Chinese children ranging in age from 4 to 16 years old.

Towards the end of his tenure as an English teacher, Aaron was hired by a Dutch-based travel company and began guiding tours to Yuanyang, in southern Yunnan, near the Vietnam border. In the summer of 2007, Aaron oversaw an intensive Chinese language study program back in his Chinese hometown of Dali. In 2007, Aaron became the China Program Director for Walking Tree. Aaron is fluent in Mandarin and is certified in CPR and First Aid.

Alissa Hoffenberg

Illinois Wesleyan University, B.A. in Hispanic Studies and double minor in Education and Psychology, Magna Cum Laude. In college, Alissa spent a semester abroad in Guadalajara, Mexico. A year later, she went on to complete an independent study in Mannheim, Germany. Upon graduation, she was awarded the Technos International Prize for outstanding academic performance and commitment to the cause of international understanding.

Alissa went on to complete her first teaching assignment in Chicago, where she taught Spanish and Psychology. Soon after, however, she headed back to Mexico where she took on a teaching position at el Technológico de Monterrey, where she taught Communications, Literature, and Comparative Cultures to college prep students. After spending 4 years in Mexico, Alissa returned to Chicago in 2006 to embark on her career in corporate learning consulting. Nowadays, Alissa takes time away from her work to stay involved in education and international awareness by volunteer teaching and traveling as much as possible. She has been to 18 countries over the past 6 years, is fluent in Spanish and German, and is CPR and First Aid certified.

Anna Demmler Kane

Fordham University B.A. in Sociology and Spanish Language & Literature. Anna’s love of the Spanish language started at East High School in Denver, Colorado and then further grew when she studied abroad her junior year of college in Alcala de Henares, Spain. After graduating, she worked for an international education organization in New York City, working to bring students from Latin America to the United States for cultural and language exchange programs.

Her job then took her down to Argentina where she lived, worked, and traveled for almost a year. She has traveled extensively throughout South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her experiences traveling and learning about other cultures has led her to pursue an M.A. in International Development at the University of Denver where she is currently studying in hopes of addressing inequality and poverty in Latin America. She is fluent in Spanish and certified in CPR and First Aid.

Christine Henning

University of Colorado-Boulder B.A. Spanish Language and Literature, Secondary Teaching License for the State of Colorado. During her junior year at CU, Christine lived in Barcelona for six months and studied Spanish Literature at the Universidad de Barcelona. After graduating in May of 2007, Christine was a Spanish instructor for Upward Bound at the University of Colorado, a program designed to support Native American high school students from underprivileged backgrounds and to promote their future success in higher education.

In the fall of 2007, Christine completed her semester of student teaching at East High School in Denver and is a licensed Spanish teacher in Colorado. Christine has traveled extensively and is fluent in Spanish and certified in CPR and First Aid.

Jonathan Yutzy

Arizona State University B.A in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus in Latin American History and Creative Writing. Jonathan first visited Costa Rica with a student group in 1999, where he was introduced to the beautiful and dynamic Latin American culture that has played such an important role in his life ever since. Jonathan later traveled throughout Latin America including a year spent as an exchange student in Quito, Ecuador and a year spent working in a bi-national center in Merida, Venezuela.

In Venezuela, Jonathan was a full time English teacher working with students from elementary level ranging up to adult education, as well as organizing TOEFL prep classes, and extra-curricular activities like a debate club for political science students. With his experience as a creative writing major, Jonathan enjoys writing fiction and creating short films. He understands the importance of personal growth through first hand experience, and tries to find creative ways for his students to learn more about themselves and the cultures they are immersed in. Jonathan is fluent in Spanish and is certified in CPR and First Aid.

Lesleigh Gennace

Syracuse University B.A. Spanish and Geography. Middlebury College, Masters in Spanish. Lesleigh is a Spanish teacher at Trinity School in Manhattan. After completing her undergraduate degree, she landed her first Spanish teaching position at her former school, Montclair Kimberley Academy in New Jersey. While there she received a grant to study in Cuernavaca, Mexico for the summer to develop lesson plans.

She completed a Masters Degree in Spanish at Middlebury College in Madrid, Spain in 2005. Before teaching at Trinity School she was an Administrative Assistant at the Instituto Cervantes in New York, a non-profit Spanish cultural center. Lesleigh is fluent in Spanish and certified in CPR and First Aid.

Vanessa Santiago Schwarz

Barnard College, Columbia University B.A. Psychology. Bank Street College of Education M.S., Bilingual Special Education. Vanessa Santiago Schwarz is 26 and lives in Monteverde, Costa Rica. At Cold Spring Harbor, Vanessa was elected class president for four years and became involved with the local community’s schools. She spent a generous portion of her time working with students in elementary school. This is when she first became interested in education.

Shortly after arriving at Barnard, Vanessa became heavily involved in tutoring and teaching children of all ages. She spent a semester as a student teacher in a fourth grade dual language classroom and was certain that Bilingual Education was her calling.

After graduating with a Bachelors degree from Columbia and a New York Teaching Certification, Vanessa continued on as a full time dual language teacher in an inclusion classroom at Public School 75 in New York City. Upon completion of a Masters in Bilingual and Special Education at Bank Street College, she moved to Costa Rica’s cloud forest, Monteverde, where she works as a fourth grade teacher in a bilingual inclusive school.

Vanessa has traveled throughout Latin America, Europe, and parts of Asia. She continues to find pleasure in learning about other countries and breaking down the language barrier throughout the world. Vanessa speaks Spanish fluently and is certified in CPR.

Tracy Motz

Northwestern University B.A. Learning & Organizational Change. Having spent a summer studying in Hakodate, Japan and a year in Paris, France, Tracy moved to New York City after her graduation in 2002 to pursue an internationally-focused career, working first in French public relations and later for a Swedish consulting company. Guided by a general sense of wanderlust and intrigue, she left the business world in 2005, learned how to ride a motorcycle, and left for a solo, two-wheeled journey that would unexpectedly take her through 19 countries and last for almost three years. During this time she learned Spanish and organized an earthquake relief effort that resulted in the building of houses for 84 displaced Peruvians.

In 2008 she left her motorcycle in Argentina and returned to NYC, settling in Brooklyn to establish herself as a photojournalist. She continues to pictorally document the stories in the world around her, and is set to try her hand in cinematography this summer. Tracy is fluent in Spanish and French, and good enough with basic Japanese to entertain tourists.

Ceiwen Bushey

University of Washington B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature. Born in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, Ceinwen Bushey grew up with the Rocky Mountains as her backyard, and the Blackfoot River as her swimming pool. After graduating from her small-town high school, Ceinwen was ready to get out and explore what the world had to offer, so at 17 she took off on a summer study abroad program in Quito, Ecuador. From that moment on, she found her passion in travel, language, and cultural studies. Upon her return to Montana, she studied Spanish and Nature-Based Tourism at the University of Montana. This let her to an outdoor adventure internship in Antigua, Guatemala, where she lived for a year and a half and worked as an outdoor adventure guide and elementary English teacher. Before returning to university, she took time to travel to various countries including El Salvador, Scotland, Sweden, Spain, and Colombia. Ceinwen transferred to the University of Washington, where she worked as a medical interpreter and graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish Language and Literature. She is fluent in Spanish, is learning Portuguese, is becoming TEFL certified and plans to move back to Latin America to teach English before pursuing graduate studies in International Relations.

Connor Coombs

University of California at Santa Barbara B.A. in Global Studies and Spanish, minor in Portuguese. Connor Coombs was first bit by the travel bug when he ventured to Costa Rica solo at age 18 to attend an intensive language school. Connor then went on to study at the University of California at Santa Barbara where he double majored in Global Studies (with emphasis on Latin American socioeconomics and politics) and Spanish and minored in Portuguese. While working towards his BA, Connor studied abroad in Cuba, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. As a result of nearly 2 years of living and studying in Latin America Connor speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese. After graduating UCSB in June 2008 Connor relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area where he is currently working as a translator/interpreter. He loves working with youth and is excited to share his passion for cultural exploration and Spanish with high school students in Costa Rica.

Shannon O’Halloran

Georgetown University School of Foreign Service B.S. Regional Studies of Latin America. Shannon first fell in love with travel and the Spanish language in her senior year of high school at Phillips Exeter Academy when she studied in Cuernavaca, Mexico during her winter semester. She went on to study international relations at Georgetown where she focused on language and cultural studies of Latin America. She studied in Buenos Aires, Argentina during her junior year and received the Hispanic Studies Award upon graduation.

Shannon grew up in a small town on the seacoast of New Hampshire, but has spent her adult life living in Washington, DC, New York and Boston. After graduation from college she was hired as a Spanish Teaching Fellow and crew coach at Tabor Academy, a boarding school on the coast of Massachusetts. She continued teaching and coaching field hockey and softball at a day school outside of New York City for the next two years. She is currently pursuing her masters in International Educational Development at Boston University and hopes to one day academically and financially support underserved high school students who want to participate in experiential travel programs. She has made numerous trips back to Mexico and has traveled throughout Europe, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Puerto Rico. Shannon loves the planning trips, writing, spending time at the beach, and challenging both herself and others to try new things.

Flora Mendoza

Yale University B.A. Latin American Studies, Humanities Concentration. Flora was born in Manhattan to a Mexican father and Spanish mother and raised in rural Pennsylvania. In college, she studied abroad and interned in Argentina, Brazil, and India. As an undergraduate, she studied at the School of Music, sang in a cappella group, and worked as a multicultural recruitment coordinator for Yale University’s admissions office. Upon graduation, she was awarded a Humanity in Action Fellowship that gave her the opportunity to research Islamophobia in Denmark. In collaboration with Libraries Without Borders, she also worked to supply a new middle school with learning aids in a village of the Dominican Republic where she served as a medical translator. Most recently, she represented the U.S. Youth Network for Sustainable Development at the UN’s Commission for Social Development. As a resident of New York City, she volunteers for the Queens-based Brazilian health care NGO, Mundo Real, and is pursuing a career in the performing arts. She never ceases to be interested in exploring the intersections between her love of music and academia, and was recently accepted into the Emerging Young Artists Program at the Hemispheric Institute of Performing Arts and Politics, sponsored by NYU. She is fluent is Spanish and Portuguese, and is conversant in Italian. She enjoys making jewelry, composing and writing short screenplays, and is an avid performer of opera, musical theatre, and jazz.

Erin Butler

Northern Illinois University B.S. in Family and Child Studies, minor in Psychology. Erin’s deep interest in other cultures inspired her to travel, and in the summer before her senior year of high school, she spent time studying Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Upon graduating college, she worked in a social service office offering help and support to mainly Spanish-speaking families.

Her desire to better learn the language led her to apply to WorldTeach, a non-profit organization based at the Center for International Development at Harvard University. Erin was accepted and spent all of 2008 living in Costa Rica as a volunteer English teacher at a small elementary school. During this year, she also taught Spanish to adult tourists and was involved in many extra-curricular activities in the community. It is in Costa Rica that she truly fell in love with the Spanish language and teaching. Erin is currently taking classes to become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language, and is pursuing a Master’s in Education to become a bilingual teacher. Erin is fluent in Spanish and certified in CPR and first aid.

Katie Laird

University of Notre Dame B.A. in Spanish and minor in Journalism, Cum Laude,; M.Ed.in Secondary Education. Katie spent a semester abroad in college in Toledo, Spain where she studied Spanish literature and lived with a host family. While in Spain, Katie volunteered at an ESL school and assisted with adults learning English. She was able to travel throughout Spain and other European nations. After college, Katie moved to Phoenix, Arizona as part of a service-teaching program where she received a Masters in Secondary Education while teaching Spanish at the high school level. During her time in Phoenix, Katie served as a leader on a mission trip with her school to Tijuana, Mexico. Together the group of students, teachers and parents lived in tents for five days and built a total of six houses for underprivileged families living in poverty. This past year Katie returned to Chicago and is currently teaching Spanish at Montini Catholic High School. She is certified in secondary foreign language teaching in both Indiana and Illinois and plans on working towards her English as a New Language (ENL) certification in the near future. She is fluent in Spanish and CPR/First Aid certified.

Bretton Rodriguez

Brett received his B.A. from the University of Chicago in History and English Literature. While an undergraduate, he worked as a teaching assistant in the Chicago Public Schools and as an after school program coordinator with After School Matters. During this time, he also made several trips to Spain, which included spending time in Malaga studying Spanish and working on an archaeological dig at the former Roman city of Tiermes outside of Segovia.

After graduation, Brett moved to Santiago, Chile, where he taught English for six months to a wide variety of students before backpacking through Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Argentina.

Upon returning to the United States, Brett worked as an English instructor and newspaper correspondent before leaving to do an M.A. at the University of York in England. Having received his degree, he briefly returned to Chicago before moving to Huajuapan de Leon in the Mexican state of Oaxaca to teach English at la Universidad de la Technologia de la Mixteca. Recently, Brett has returned to the United States and is currently pursuing his doctorate at the University of Notre Dame.

Zacarias Barnes

University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire B.A. Latin American Studies. Americorps VISTA and Farm to School member for the last two years in Eau Claire, WI with community organizing and anti-poverty work focused on food security, local food systems and transportation. Since graduation Zacarías has assisted in student research linking Veracruz, México and Western Wisconsin and has done interpretation/translation work in rural communities with the Puentes/Bridges program.

Spanish fluency and appreciation of the Cultures of Latin America came young from attending Minneapolis’ Emerson Elementary Spanish Immersion program. Zacarías continued speaking Spanish by traveling to Quito, Ecuador for ten months at the age of 16, a one week adventure to Costa Rica at the age of 18 and for another ten months to Buenos Aires, Argentina at the age of 20. Zacarias now focuses on maintaining and expanding linguistic and cultural connections to Latin America through the enjoyment of indigenous and mestizo food, books and online newspapers, music and film and is excited to be a part of the Walking Tree Team.