|
Team VA |
| |
 |
 |
| |
|
Denver Office |
| |
|
 |
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
 |
|
 Jean-Marc Alberola, Founder
Jean-Marc Alberola is the founder of Volunteer Adventures and its Latin American sister organization, BridgeVolunteers. Jean-Marc was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he spent most of his youth before moving to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Jean-Marc began his career in the language business as Director of the Washington, D.C. office of Linguex/Telelangue Systems, a France-based |
|
language company catering primarily to US government agencies. He then returned to South
America where he spent the next 10 years co-founding Linguatec Language Centers and
opening language schools in Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
Linguatec’s acquisition of Bridge International, a Denver, CO-based language company, brought Jean-Marc to the US. He now acts as President of the resulting merger: Bridge-Linguatec. His
work in the field of language education, particularly in Brazil, led to the establishment of the very
first Teaching English and Youth Outreach volunteer projects in the favelas (shantytowns) of Rio
de Janeiro.
Jean-Marc has backpacked and traveled extensively in Central and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. He has a BA in Economics from the University of Vermont and is fluent in English,
Spanish, Portuguese and French. |
|
| |
| |
| |
|
 |
|
Bob Wurmstedt, Senior Advisor
Bob served as the U.S. Peace Corps Country Director in Kenya from 2003 to 2007. As director
of one of the largest and oldest Peace Corps
programs in Africa, Bob was responsible for administration, programming, and safety and security for a staff of 35 Kenyan and American professionals, as well as 150 American Peace Corps Volunteers assigned to public health, education and small enterprise development projects. In Kenya, Bob |
|
|
also served as a member of the U.S. Ambassador’s Country Team and the U.S. Embassy
Emergency Action Committee.
Prior to his post in Kenya, Bob worked as a bureau chief and foreign correspondent for Time Magazine and Business Week, managing news coverage from 15 countries. He also co-founded
the Center for the New West, a Denver-based non-profit public policy institute, where he served as director of communications and publications until 2000. Currently, in addition to his
responsibilities as Senior Advisor of Volunteer Adventures, Bob serves on the board of directors
of the Aspen-based 10th Mountain Division Hut Association. |
| |
| |
| |
|
 |
|
Carrie Bennett, International Outreach Coordinator
Carrie has been involved in many areas of international education for over 10 years. After high school, she served as a Rotary Ambassador to the Netherlands. She received her BA degree in Latin American Studies from Claremont McKenna College and studied abroad in Buenos Aires to learn more about human rights issues. Carrie spent two and a |
|
half years in Barcelona, Spain teaching English before pursuing her MA in International Education
at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT. She also taught English to immigrants
while in Vermont. Prior to working for BridgeVolunteers, Carrie was the on-site director for LanguageCorps in Quito, Ecuador where she also served on the Board of Directors in an organization to help street children. |
|
| |
| |
| |
 |
|
Laurel Kalish, Travel Advisor
Laurel graduated from the University of Colorado in International Affairs with an emphasis in Corporate Social Responsibility. She caught the traveling bug by the time she was 9 years old when she visited Honduras—from that moment on, her passion in life has been to travel the world. She has traveled and volunteered all around Latin America, Europe and Asia. As a university student, she worked for the United Nations’ International Labor Organization. In |
|
2006, Laurel worked to rehabilitate former child combatants in the war zone of Sri Lanka. Now
she is a Volunteer Adventures Travel Advisor working on campus outreach programs—and traveling as much as she can! |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
South American Offices
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
 |
Lisa Rooney,
Director – Argentina
Originally from Rhode Island, Lisa studied Secondary Education at the University of Rhode Island and received her MA in French from Middlebury College in Vermont. She began her career teaching French and Spanish to American adolescents, and taught English in France on a Fulbright Teacher Exchange. She also taught French and Spanish to preschoolers in Maine for her own company called Global Kids.
|
|
| Lisa joined our team in 2003, first as an English teacher at BridgeChile, and then as a BridgeTEFL trainer in both Santiago and Buenos Aires. She assumed the role of director at BridgeArgentina in 2005, and is always ready to help students and volunteers in any way she can. In her free time, Lisa can be found dancing, listening to music, and playing the flute or the guitar. She also loves to cook and to spend time with her dog, Pogo, whom she rescued from the streets of Santiago. |
|
| |
| |
| |
 |
|
Alejandra Lombardo, Volunteer Coordinator – Argentina
Alejandra was born and raised in Argentina, and completed her higher education in the United States at Northeastern University in Boston. She earned her BA in Modern Languages (French and Spanish) with minors in Latin American Studies and Cultural Anthropology, and her MA in Higher Education
|
|
| Education and Counseling. She is very happy to have the opportunity to work with us in Buenos Aires and to be living back in her home country. |
| |
| |
| |
|
 |
|
Regina Szwarcfing,
Volunteer Coordinator – Brazil
Regina grew up in Brazil in a very traditional family. It has always been their tradition to thank God for their blessings through volunteer work to help the underprivileged. At a very young age, she taught the illiterate maids at their home how to read and write, and since then she has always been engaged in some kind of volunteer work. Regina graduated
|
|
in Political Science and Economy at Candido Mendes University, and has worked in retail all her life, mostly with international clients, as she is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Italian! She has
also lived for short periods of time in NYC and in Paris. |
| |
| |
| |
|
 |
|
Carlos Pizarro Navia,
Volunteer Coordinator – Chile
Carlos obtained his degree in Spanish Language
and Literature from the University of Chile, Santiago. He also has a degree in Education and is currently completing a degree in Public Policy. Prior to working with us, Carlos lived and studied in Europe for three years. His experiences traveling through both Europe and Asia have provided him with first-hand insight nto being a foreigner in different countries and cultures.
|
|
|
iCarlos has worked with people in need for many years, particularly in Santiago and Viña del Mar, Chile. While in college, he worked for the University Work Center to help organize and find jobs for students experiencing economic hardship. In addition, he has volunteer experience in many
different Chilean organizations dedicated to working with youths, the elderly, and poor communities throughout the country.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
English teacher training
programs and job placement in great locations worldwide. |
|
| |
Online TEFL certification
course accessible from any computer, anywhere in
the world. |
|
| |
Intensive French,
Spanish, Italian, German & Portuguese courses
in Europe and Latin America. |
|
| Volunteer Adventures belongs to the following associations: |
| Volunteer Adventures is affiliated with the following organizations: |
|
TEFL
& CELTA Certification
