TIM GHAZZAWI

University of Maryland–College Park, B.A., English, Language, and Literature; University of Maryland–College Park, M.Ed., Secondary Education (English)

Tim has spent much of his time in classrooms, serving as a teacher, coach, tutor, and mentor during his time as a student at the University of Maryland and during his travel in Ecuador and Uganda. After his first trip to Ecuador, Tim founded the organization Bilingual Backpacks as a way to sustain and foster his relationship with an indigenous community he became close with. Tim has since returned to Ecuador three times with supplies for community-based projects that included the planting of a local garden and the formation of an after-school tutoring program. Tim currently serves as a ninth grade English teacher and head tennis coach at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He is proficient in Spanish and has led Putney’s Community Service Ecuador and the Galápagos program.

CAILEY OEHLER

Bowdoin College, B.A., Spanish & Teaching, B.A., Art History

While at Bowdoin, Cailey focused on Medieval Art History and Latin American fiction, and completed her teacher training in the public expeditionary learning schools of Portland, Maine. She won several academic awards, including the Bowdoin Teacher-Scholar Award, Most Promising Sophomore Spanish Major, and the Philip C. Bradley Spanish Prize. She spent a semester in Salamanca, Spain, studying the history of art and film as well as literary theory. Cailey spent two summers as a cook and artist-in-residence at Bowdoin’s Scientific Station on Kent Island in Canada’s Bay of Fundy. There she developed an interest in natural building that led to her completing a Psi Upsilon Sustainability Fellowship at the permaculture center Pio Pio in Reñaca, Viña del Mar, Chile, teaching permaculture workshops and working as an apprentice to a master earthen builder. After graduating from Bowdoin and receiving her teaching certificate, Cailey moved to Cliff Island, Maine, serving as the coordinator for the Cliff Island Corporation for Athletics, Conservation, and Education, as well as baking and selling sourdough bread and made-from-scratch pastries. Cailey currently lives and teaches in Bogotá, Colombia, promoting cultural exchange and bilingualism with a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. She is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese.