Travel Staff

Take a look at our 2008 leaders to get a sense of the strength behind our programs. A majority of staff return to lead again and many of the bios include staff member's history with Windsor Mountain. All our leaders are at least 23 years of age, have experience working with high school age students, and are certified in first aid, CPR and lifeguard training. In June, our leaders participate in an intensive training program that has been developed over our 48 years of experience.

Angus Whyte: Student Travel Program Director
Angus has worked with Windsor Mountain since 1997. He led too many Windsor Mountain Traveling Theatre programs to count, joined us for the epic Lord Of the Rings Theatre Festival in 2003 and has worn many other hats around the campus including resident yoga instructor, one on one shadow, and our Master of Ceremonies, "Experiential Ed". Angus is a graduate of the Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake CA. He has worked extensively in Theatre and Theatre Education in his hometown of Atlanta, GA, and at various places around the USA. In addition to being active in the theatrical world, Angus is an avid cyclist, hip-hop advocate and spaghetti eater. Having recently finished a three-year stint working for the Frantz Lab at the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Georgia State University, Angus is happy to be leaving immunocytochemistry, autoradiography, and the study of cell surface receptor proteins back at the lab for a while!

SUMMER TRAVEL STAFF 2008

Bridge Caribbean

Adam Aronovitz

Adam is ecstatic to be returning to Windsor Mountain to be leading his third student travel program.  He has a passion for world travel and especially for international street food.  He has traveled (and visited exotic food-stalls) throughout Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.  Adam attended Tulane University in the wonderful, wonderful city of New Orleans and is madly in love with everything New Orleans, particularly the culture, food, and music.  Following his undergraduate career and an extended expedition throughout Central America, Adam earned his Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Westminster in London.  When Adam is not on the road he teaches Middle School Math and Outdoor Education in East Boston, Massachusetts.  He is especially proud of the sailing program that he spearheaded last year, and he looks forward to any opportunity to spread his love of travel and the outdoors to students of all ages and backgrounds.  Adam has a passion for all things out-of-doors and especially enjoys sailing, hiking, scuba diving, skydiving, cycling, and long swims on the Cape Cod National Seashore. 

Kelly Morr
Kelly is excited to be leading her first trip for Windsor Mountain! Her relationship with the company began back in 2000, when she was a camper and actor on the European Traveling Minstrels program. Since her days vagabonding around France, Spain, and Portugal, Kelly has moved from her childhood home in Denver, Colorado, graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and relocated to Los Angeles to be a screenwriter. She has traveled extensively—to 35 US states (37 if you count airport layovers) and 17 countries—and worked all sorts of odd jobs. She has been a math and filmmaking teacher, a private tutor, a downhill skiing instructor, a film editor, a tech-copywriter, a web designer, a costume constructor, and a professional pumpkin carver. When not padding her eclectic resume, Kelly enjoys figure skating, improve comedy, and playing with her ironically named cat, Turtle.

BRIDGE CHINA

Yi Zheng recently graduated from Bowdoin College with a double major in Asian Studies and Psychology and a minor in Economics. Yi immigrated to the United States at the age of 10 from Fujian Province, China, and has been living in New York City ever since. She is fluent in English, Mandarin and Fujian dialect. Yi loves adventures and traveling and one of her dreams is to travel around the world—so far she has been to London, Paris, Geneva, Aruba, China and Canada. She is proud of these accomplishments! Her hobbies include volleyball, badminton, biking, reading, writing, and listening to music. She likes to listen and sing along to Chinese music even if she does not know the lyrics. She cares a lot about her family and friends. She loves to experiment with all kinds of food, and although she is not great at cooking, eating has never been a problem. She is an energetic and enthusiastic person and is passionate over even the simplest matters. Yi is extremely excited about the Windsor Mountain Bridge China Program and looks forward to the adventurous days to come!

March is a middle school teacher who works at the Confucius Institute house at Coan Middle school in Atlanta Georgia.  Currently, he is teaching sixth and seventh grade Chinese and eighth grade Math.  March spend the first 12 years of his life living in Beijing China.  Then he moved to American first living in San Francisco then Atlanta.  March loves to travel.  He already visited North Korea, Burma, Australia, Argentina, Japan, Taiwan, Tibet, Mongolia, all over Europe, Southeast Asia, and North America.   He plans to go visit South Africa in 2010 for the World Cup.  March just graduated from Emory University with bachelor degrees in Philosophy and Chinese study.  His favorite TV show is when animals attack two. His favorite book (at the moment) is Survival of the Sickest.  March’s favorite musician is Jay Chow.  March is fluent in Chinese and English.  His dream is to translate the essence of Chinese literary classics into English and other languages.  His goal in life is to bring happiness to his family and friends.  March really loves eating sashimi and hot spicy tofu.  March served as the graduate assistant for Emory University CIPA summer studying abroad in China for the past three years.  He is familiar and has contacts in cities such as Hong Kong, Xi’an, Beijing, and Shanghai.  March is on face book, just type in his email ymwang330@gmail.com and you’ll find his page.  Feel free to contact him. 

BRIDGE HAWAII

Kate Berge
Kate is so excited for her third year working with Windsor Mountain. Last year, she led the Leaders In Training (LIT) program and love every minute! This summer she can’t wait to join the Student Travel staff and fuel her greatest passion – traveling. Kate caught the travel bug while studying abroad with Semester at Sea. She circumnavigated the globe in 100 days and had some truly wonderful experiences such as hearing Fidel Castro speak, going on a Tanzanian safari, visiting the Taj Mahal and climbing the Great Wall of China. After graduating from Ithaca College in 2005 with a degree in Psychology she spent some time backpacking through Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and taught English in Northern Thailand. Kate is currently living in Boston, MA and work towards her Masters Degree in Higher Education at Northeastern University. She is eager for warmer weather so she can start wearing her favorite item of clothing, flip flops!

Taya Win
Taya has recently graduated from Bard College with a degree in classical singing and music education. During his last semester, he sang and/or played guitar in many shows, including a few operas, Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, and a couple of original concerts. He has also been working part-time as a cook and a nursery school teacher, and doing plenty of hiking and cross-country skiing in the Catskills. An employee of Windsor Mountain since 2001, Taya is excited to be leading a Bridge Program after so many summers at ISC. Also, recently Taya made a scarecrow—all by himself!

BRIDGE MEXICO

Darren Ovitsky
An avid world traveler, musician, and educator, Darren is primed and ready to lead an amazing Bridge Mexico program.  In the past two years, his travels have taken him through Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Canada, Alaska, and New Zealand.  He spent the past winter exploring the deserts of Arizona with a group of high school students, and will be coming to Windsor Mountain fresh off of his first season as a naturalist in the verdant land of California.  When he’s not hunting [small] sharks in the Pacific or playing drums in a Yup’ik Indian Funk Band, he enjoys reading, listening to music, and being outside.  Darren believes that the opportunity to travel and immerse oneself in another culture as a teenager is an invaluable experience which resonates throughout one’s life.  He’s looking forward to helping his students through what promises to be a challenging and rewarding experience this summer on Bridge Mexico.

Becky Carberg is thrilled to return to Windsor Mountain International this summer. Becky started her career at WMI as a camper at age ten and stayed until she was 20 (ISC staff 1997 and 2000). She recently graduated from Bank Street College of Education in New York City with a dual Master’s degree in Early and General Childhood Education. After living in Brooklyn and teaching in charter, public, and private schools for five years, Becky is thrilled to put on her traveling shoes again. While in college at Bard, where she studied creative writing and photography, Becky spent a semester in India with the School for International Training. This whet her appetite for exploration, and she has since traveled to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Costa Rica and Guatemala. After Bridge Mexico, Becky will move to Pune, India for two years to work on Education Reform with an NGO called the Akanksha Foundation. Becky loves to sing, hike, play guitar, dance, write, take photographs and eat good food!

BRIDGE PUERTO RICO
Kate Koehler
A proud Oregonian, Kate grew up in a house with six siblings and no TV. She recently graduated from University of Oregon's Honor College, with a degree n Spanish and a certificate in Outdoor Leadership. Kate also developed and maintains a website designed for students looking for educational opportunities beyond the classroom. She experience these opportunities hands-on by spending her first seven months out of high school in Europe, volunteering, traveling solo and attending language school; working three spring at an outdoor science school; studying in Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico; spending a semester hiking and kayaking through rural Montana; building trails in Idaho; and teaching inner-city summer school in Washington D.C., among other things! In her spare time Kate loves to fire dance, speak Spanish, sleep outside, spend time with her family, laugh and learn – always in all ways. Kate fell head over heels in love with Puerto Rico while studying there last fall, and is excited to share her love of Puerto Rican culture, la gente, la musica y la playa with Windsor Mountain Students this summer.

Andrew Rothman
Andrew Rothman here, proud San Francisco native, though my friends believe me to be a bit of a gypsy, having attending 4 different undergraduate institutions, traveled on 4 continents, and worked every job from mechanic to masseuse. I recently returned from Northern Uganda where I worked on a project aimed at reintegrating former child combatants into their former communities, and subsisted on a diet of sikuma and ugali. In the fall, I plan on beginning graduates studies in Sustainable Urban Development.  I also consider myself to be a sports Buddha, with 2004 being the best example when I believe my karma was more or less the deciding factor in the title runs for the Red Sox, Patriots, Greece in EuroCup Football Tournament, and Maccabi-Tel Aviv in the EuroLeague Basketball championship; so if your team is down on its luck, I'm a good person to know (exception: Dodgers and Yankees).

BRIDGE PERU
Jim Whitmore
Jim is always trying to meet interesting people and go to interesting places to keep him excited about life and the world around him. This can be seen in his wide travels that include studying world views in a rural school in Jamaica, five months in Austria exploring European culture, and his most recent five years teaching at different schools in Honduras. This 2000 graduate from Ball State University hopes to work with Windsor Mountain for a few summers and then pursue his Masters Degree in International and Comparative Education. He enjoys hiking and camping, kayaking, scuba diving, and loves photography. This will be James' fourth program with Windsor Mountain (RAK '03, LIA-Bequia '04,'05). With last summer off to study, Jim wants to return in order get back to WMI and get to know another great adventurous group.
Katie Colby
Katie is excited to help students improve their Spanish language and learn about la cultura Peruana. Katie began working with kids as a camp counselor and horseback-riding instructor in the United States, and continued these activities abroad when she spent her junior year of college studying in France. Katie received her B.A. in Cultural Area Studies from the College of Wooster, in Ohio and her M.A. in Intercultural Relations from Antioch University McGregor in Ohio. For the last seven years she has developed and led international education programs for college, high school, and junior high students. Her work and travels have taken her to numerous countries in four different continents, most recently teaching English in Ecuador. When she's not involved in some intercultural endeavor, you can find Katie performing as a swing dancer, rummaging through thrift stores for vintage clothes, or practicing yoga. (Bonjour Quebec '04, Decouvrez la France '05, '06, Bridge Peru '07-08).

BRIDGE SOUTHERN AFRICA
Thatcher Glode

Thatcher currently lives in Jackson, Wyoming where he is a youth counselor in a group home for high school students. After growing up in the beautiful mountains of Colorado Thatcher attended the Colorado College in Colorado Springs. During his junior year he had the amazing opportunity to study abroad on Semester at Sea, visiting 16 different countries (including South Africa) over a span of 8 months. It was on this program that Thatcher fell in love with travel and education. He had the chance to hear Castro speak in Cuba, go on a safari in Tanzania, visit the Taj Mahal in India, and climb Mt. Fuji in Japan. This program has forever impacted Thatcher's life and greatly opened his eyes to the vast world around him. When not traveling or working, Thatcher can be found fly-fishing the Snake River under the Tetons in Jackson, or skiing in the back country on Teton Pass. Thatcher has led the Bridge Hawaii programs for Summers 2006 and 2007 and is eagerly anticipating a terrific and fulfilling program in South Africa for Summer 2008.

Susannah Malarkey
Susannah lives and works in Jackson, Wyoming, where she is a youth counselor and mentor at the Van Vleck Group Home for Teenagers. She grew up in a tiny town called Aurora, Oregon, and went to grade school on a farm. After graduating from high school, she attended Seattle University, and fell in love with traveling during a semester abroad in Sevilla, Spain. Intrigued, she signed up for service trips to Mexico, Belize, Belgium, and Poland. After earning degrees in Economics and International Studies, she decided to put her education to the test and joined the Peace Corps. After two years in Ghana, West Africa, she is hungry for more!  Susannah is incredibly excited to be on board as a leader with Bridge Southern Africa this season, and cannot wait to share her knowledge of Africa with a motivated group of Windsor Mountain adventurers. In addition to world travel, Susannah loves skiing, hiking, horseback riding, and hanging out with her incredibly awesome extended family. 

James Evans

Since Graduating from college in 2005 with degrees in Outdoor Education and Psychology, James has been working his way around the world trying to gain a little more perspective on our wonderful planet. He currently writes this bio from his rain forest (no rain though) home in Australia, where he works as an outdoor education instructor. He was also just working for Clowns Without Borders traveling as their Logistics Coordinator for performances throughout South Africa and Lesotho, visiting some of the same places the Bridge Southern Africa group will visit this summer. Since 2001 he has been working for WMI. His first travel program in 04' was Random Acts of Kindness in New England, followed by Alaska Odyssey in '05 and last year with Leaders in Action, Teach Caribbean. While he is an Australian his accent lacks in authenticity but it is still audible when imitating Steve Irwin's Legacy. He loves the work that he does in traveling the world showing it to teenagers, and he looks forward to another year of experiences with Windsor Mountain International.

Sarah Foster
Among Sarah Liane Foster's favorite things in the world are traveling and learning new things, and she is quite excited to be leading her sixth (!) Windsor Mountain travel program this summer. Sarah graduated from Brown University with honors in creative writing in 2001, and from the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre in 2002.  Since then, she has been creating, teaching, and performing theatre. After touring with a mask and puppet show across the United States in 2003, she has been based in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches physical theatre, circus skills and playwriting all over town and, as Co-Artistic Director of the Nomadic Theatre Co, creates original shows and performs them around the Pacific Northwest. Sarah is also an organizer and performer for Clowns Without Borders. She has traveled to Haiti, South Africa and Swaziland to bring laughter to people in need of it, and will be teaching and performing in South Africa this spring. Besides traveling and theatre, some of Sarah's other favorite things in the world include biking around Portland, playing the trombone, ice cream, stilt walking, dance parties, jumping in the ocean, and balloons. (New England Traveling Theatre `02 and `03, European Traveling Theatre `04 and `05, California Traveling Theatre '06. Bridge Southern Africa ‘07)