Join our inspiring Excel staff on a journey to Oxford, Paris, and Florence.
 

We here at Putney are always incredibly grateful to the impressive group of people who lead our Excel programs. These instructors, resident advisors, and program directors love sharing their passion and knowledge with our students each summer. That’s what brings them back year after year.

Never has this description been more accurate than on the Excel Oxford/Tuscany program. Director Tom Kane will return in 2009 for his 13^th summer with Excel. This will be the 10^th summer for Architecture and Art through the Ages Instructor Lutz Robbers. Ph.D.s, teachers, broadcast journalists, writers, actors, archaeologists, photographers, and speakers of French and Italian are part of this staff—the roster is impressive.  Additionally, the fact that the entire staff is made up of experienced Excel instructors and Putney leaders means that they know how to plan enriching, field-based activities in and around the cultural centers of Oxford, Paris, and Florence.  Good day, a bientôt and ciao!

The Excel Oxford /Tuscany 2009 partial Staff Roster:

Tom Kane: (Director) Northwestern University, B.S.; American Conservatory Theater, M.F.A. Tom is an educator and theater professional with extensive educational leadership experience. For over twenty years he has worked with teenage actors at the Storm King School in New York, the American Conservatory Theater and the Hamlin School in San Francisco, Camp Laurel in Maine, and the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. Tom has been directing the Oxford/Tuscany program since 2000; previously he co-directed the theater program at Excel at Williams. Tom is currently the Head of the Theater Department at the Middlesex School where he lives with his wife, Samantha, and daughter, Zoe. This will be his thirteenth summer with Excel.

JP Obley: (Drawing and Painting, Travel Photography) California College of the Arts, B.A. JP lives and works in Oakland, CA. He has exhibited his photographs nationally and internationally. His most recent exhibition was the juried group show, Pacific Overtures, which traveled from San Francisco, CA to Osaka University in Osaka, Japan. JP works with non-profit groups such as San Francisco Camerawork and the Center for Art and Public Life at C.C.A. to make arts education available to economically challenged students in the Bay Area. Before working in education he was a commercial photographer and was part of the photography department for the internationally circulated Transworld Snowboarding Magazine. Currently, JP is laying the initial groundwork to start a scholarship fund for students pursuing a degree in the arts and also working with artist Bayeté Ross Smith on a project that documents high school proms as a right of passage in American society. In his free time, JP likes to ride bikes and snowboard.

Erika Prahl: (Assistant Director, Administrative Coordinator) Kenyon College, B.A. Erika majored in Spanish and Italian at Kenyon, where she was a member of the Kenyon College Chamber Singers and lettered in both Field Hockey and Lacrosse. She spent two summers working for Case Western Reserve University's Upward Bound program, most recently as Residential Director. Erika has worked as the Director of Diversity at the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, and is currently Assistant Director of Admissions and Director of Financial Aid. Erika also coaches lacrosse, sings karaoke whenever she gets the chance, and consumes sushi frequently and voraciously. Erika has traveled extensively in Italy and Spain and is fluent in Spanish and Italian. This is her sixth summer with Excel.

Lutz Robbers: (Art through the Ages, Architecture through the Ages) Universitat Bonn, B.A.; Freie Universitat Berlin, M.A.; Princeton University, Ph.D. candidate. Lutz is currently pursuing his doctorate in Architecture at Princeton, where he has been a teaching fellow instructing Princeton undergraduates in architectural theory and history. A citizen of Germany, Lutz is fluent in German, French, and English. He has worked for the Red Cross and Mercedes-Benz in Delmenhorst, Germany, and as an assistant to the editorial staff of several German radio and television companies. He was the founding coordinator of Studentenwerk Bonn, a student housing organization. Lutz enjoys soccer, basketball, running, and windsurfing. A resident of Paris, he worked at the “Cité de l’architecture et de la patrimoine”, France’s national museum of architecture, and at the German Forum of Art History. He is currently teaching for Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Paris. This will be Lutz’s tenth summer with Excel.

Damen Scranton: (Creative Writing; Journalism and Print Media) University of California at San Diego, B.A. and M.F.A. Damen was one of two U.S. recipients of a Princess Grace Award for Acting in 1996. Since 1997, Damen has worked as an actor and teacher for the Irondale Ensemble Project - an improvisation-based, political theatre company in its 25th season in NYC (www.irondale.org). As an actor, he has performed at the Lincoln Center Theater in NYC, the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, and the Granary and Firken Crane Theatres in Cork, the Republic of Ireland, among others. As a playwright, Damen has had four plays produced in the U.S., Ireland, and Northern Ireland. He has taught courses in Shakespeare, acting and playwriting at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, UC San Diego, Marymount College in Manhattan, numerous NYC public high schools, the Port Stewart Community Center in Port Stewart, Northern Ireland, and at Riker's Island (a prison facility in Queens, NYC). This is Damen's seventh summer at Excel Oxford/Tuscany.

Jesica Thavarajah:(International Relations, History of WWII) Florida International University, magna cum laude, B.A. International Relations and certificates in National Security Studies and Law, Ethics, and Society. American University, Masters Candidate, International Peace and Conflict Resolution. European history has always been one of Jesica’s great passions, which is what led her to focus her degree on Europe and the European Union. She volunteered at a refugee camp in Slovakia as it entered the European Union and was able to see first hand the impact of the European Union on its member countries. Jesica began traveling internationally when she was two and has traveled all over the world including extensive travel in Western Europe, Sri Lanka, Australia, and Hungary. Jesica’s personal interests in music and art have led her to be a radio DJ and to curate an exhibition of Miami artists. In addition to her current pursuit of a Masters degree at American University, Jesica also volunteers for the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She is proficient in French.