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.A., Bilingual Special Education. Vanessa Santiago Schwarz is 25 and lives in Monteverde, Costa Rica.  At Barnard, Vanessa organized an orientation program for over 1,000 incoming first year college students, tutored fifth graders at a College Preparatory Charter School in New York, and assisted a teacher in a pre-nursery school.  In 2004, she spent six months living in Sevilla, Spain working as a teacher’s assistant at a language institute.

After graduating with a Bachelors degree from Columbia and receiving a New York State Teaching Certification, Vanessa continued as a full time dual language teacher in an inclusion classroom at Public School 75 in New York City.  She taught here for three years, and completed her Masters in the field. She is currently teaching at a Bilingual School in Costa Rica’s Cloud Forest community. Vanessa has traveled to 15 countries, is fluent in Spanish and is certified in CPR and First Aid.