My name is Adam Aronovitz, I will be leading the Bridge Caribbean trip this summer with Kate Berge and Max Mor. We are so excited to have you joining us while basking in the glory of St. Vincent and the Grenadines during our summer expedition. I am sure you are as excited as Kate, Max and I are for this summer and I would love to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about me.
I grew up in the Boston area, spending my early years in Newton and the majority of my youth in a town called Sudbury, Massachusetts. I spent my undergraduate career at Tulane University in the majestic city of New Orleans where I fell heads-over-heels in love with the jazz, the magnificent food, and the unique culture of New Orleans and its inhabitants. I majored in International Political Economics, investigating the realities between international governance, the international marketplace, and all the invisible behind-the-scene forces that govern our international community.
I had a life-changing experience during the fall of my Senior year. I enrolled in an abroad program called Semester at Sea. For 100 days I lived and studied on a ship while circumnavigating the globe. Our ports of call were Japan, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, and Cuba. I could spend years recounting my adventures but highlights included volunteering at orphanages in Vietnam, India, and Kenya, and seeing Fidel Castro speak in Cuba. Since this voyage I have constantly been seeking out opportunities to immerse myself in the unbelievable offerings of our planet. You could say that I have had “itchy feet” ever since.
Since graduating from Tulane, I earned a Masters Degree in London, taught 6th grade math, and created an outdoor education program at a middle school in East Boston. My school is a fascinating place. 70% of the student population is from Latin America and I really enjoy learning about their rich cultures and introducing them to the offerings of the natural world through the outdoor education program that I designed. During the past school year I have been on a Leave of Absence to travel in Nepal and India where I spent the last 10 glorious months diving deep into the subcontinent, pursuing culinary adventures, tramping around the high Himalayas and working on a handful of incredible educational projects with Nepalese and South Indian youth.
This is my fifth consecutive summer leading a student travel program with Windsor Mountain. In the summer of 2006 I led a program to Puerto Rico which was an incredible experience. The highlights of this program were volunteering at a rainforest reforestation project and surfing on the West Coast of Puerto Rico. In 2007 I lead the Project Mexico trip in Central Mexico. This program had a community service and cultural focus. One of the highlights of my time on our fine, fine planet was organizing a ‘Medical Brigade’ for indigenous communities in Mexico that had no access to medical care. The last two summers I led the Bridge Caribbean program and was so enamored with the culture and island life that I jumped at the chance to lead this program for the 3rd time, and the second consecutive year with travel leader extraordinare, Kate “Bickles” Berge!
Kate here! Time to tell you a little bit about me! Traveling has been a great passion of mine (or the “itchy feet” syndrome as Adam says) ever since I also studied abroad with Semester at Sea!! I grew up just down the road from Adam in a town called Natick, MA and graduated from Ithaca College, in Ithaca, NY in 2005 with a degree in Psychology. Just after graduation from college, I worked that summer to earn enough money to purchase an around-the-world plane ticket and explored some exciting places such as Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia and even spent some time teaching English in a rural village in Northern Thailand.
In Summer 2006, I led the "Leaders in Training" program at Windsor Mountain. I had a wonderful time creating team-building challenges and initiatives for two wonderful groups of students. I was also fortunate enough to be able to teach some Sailing and boating lessons down on the waterfront. During the Summers 2007 & 2008 I led the Bridge Hawaii program. In Hawaii, we were able to help in the fields at an organic farm on the Big Island, volunteer at a youth center on Molokai and surf, snorkel and enjoy nature on Maui.
I finished my Masters in Applied Educational Psychology and Counseling from Northeastern University in May 2008. That fall, I lived in Granada, Nicaragua, where I was enrolled in a Spanish Immersion program in exchange for teaching English classes to local children and adults. In spring 2009, I was able to return and work on Semester at Sea as a Living-Learning Coordinator. I was in charge of the nightly social and academic programs aboard the ship, and had the chance to lead a number of exciting trips while in each dynamic 12 ports-of-call. Most recently, I have been working for the Houston, TX school district's Outdoor Education Center where I teach science and history classes to groups of 5th graders.
This will be my second consecutive summer leading Bridge Caribbean with Adam, and I am so excited to be returning to those beautiful islands! THIS SUMMER, Adam and I are psyched to have Max Mor, (Windsor Mountain’s 2009 Leaders in Training Counselor) joining the trip as a Junior Leader!!! It's rare that the LIT counselor follows up the next year as a trip leader, and we are so excited to have him along.
Hi everyone, Max here….I am so excited to re-connect with last year’s LITs and meet the six new faces on our trip this summer. This is my 4th summer working at Windsor Mountain, but my first on travel, and I couldn’t be happier. Traveling has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember, but my experiences on the 2005 LIA trip to the Caribbean gave me a better understanding of the value in cultural immersion. Since that trip I have traveled extensively around the United States, Ecuador, Peru, and Canada. While in Peru I spent 5 months teaching English in an after-school program for impoverished children. In all of those travels, however, I kept longing for the island way of life. I can’t wait to introduce all of you to the warm and friendly nature of the Caribbean peoples, the music, and the bountiful fresh food. I’m also looking forward to challenging all of you to step up and push yourselves while running our friendship camps. This will be a very different experience for all of you, even the LITs, and I know that you will rise to the occasion and truly rock out!
We (Adam, Kate and Max) have just arrived in Windsor, New Hampshire for our staff orientation, and are in high gear as we finish up planning our Caribbean adventure! This summer, we hope everyone is prepared to learn, to be challenged, and to face new situations. And most importantly, prepared to have fun!! You will be living and working with friends you will have for a lifetime, on beautiful Caribbean Islands …how much better can it get?
We will all be taking this journey together soon and we will have an opportunity to talk before the expedition about certain details. In the next few weeks, try to spend some time thinking about your personal goals for our journey. What do you hope to get out of this program and more importantly, what do you hope to leave behind in the Caribbean??
As you know, a huge piece of our expedition involves designing, implementing, and running a summer camp program for the children of St. Vincent. Please come prepared with AT LEAST 10 ideas for activities that you could lead as part of the summer camp program. We will be working with teenage youth in St. Vincent and also with younger children so keep this in mind as you brainstorm successful camp activities. These could include games, songs, arts and crafts activities, and just about anything. Be creative!! If you need any specific supplies, please contact us and let us know! We will try to purchase a number of camp supplies before heading south!
Hope you are enjoying your summer so far; we cannot wait to meet all of you!!!
Amor y Paz,
Adam Aronovitz, Kate Berge and Max Mor
