Jennifer Brown (Intensive Beginning Mandarin, Issues Facing Modern China): Wesleyan University, B.A. East Asian Studies and Government.  During her time at Wesleyan, Jennifer spent six months in Beijing and Hangzhou studying Chinese language, culture, and history; and trying to navigate Chinese traffic on a bicycle.  In her senior year, she directed an outreach program for grade school students in Connecticut, which introduced them to aspects of East Asian culture through hands-on activities.  After working for a small non-profit in Washington, DC, she finally relocated to China in summer 2006 to be part of the Excel staff.  She has since been working in Beijing for a travel specialist, directing their educational group travel department and leading student trips all over China.  She is an avid traveler who has visited over 25 countries.  In her free time in Beijing, she enjoys running, playing Frisbee, and photographing the city’s diverse street scenes. Jennifer is fluent in Mandarin.

Mark Chapman (Assistant Director): Colby College, B.A.; Hopkins Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, graduate diploma.  Originally from Zimbabwe, Mark has studied abroad since high school when he attended Pearson United World College in B.C., Canada.  He majored in international relations and religious studies at Colby, where he graduated as class valedictorian.  During his junior year, Mark studied abroad in Beijing and with the help of a grant from the Freeman Foundation undertook field research for his senior thesis on the relationship between Chinese Muslims and Muslims in the rest of the world.  Mark taught Chinese religions and co-instructed Chinese cuisine on the Excel China 2006 program and is back for his second summer with Excel.  In the interim, Mark has worked at a Chinese market research firm in Shanghai. He greatly enjoys outdoor activities and travel and has backpacked on four continents. Mark is fluent in Mandarin.

Jiang Dan "Danni" (Mandarin 2, Chinese Cuisine): Harbin Normal University, B.A. Management. Danni is originally from Harbin, a northern Chinese city famous for its Ice Lantern Festival and ski resorts. Between 1999 and 2005 she lived in Beijing where she taught Mandarin to American university students. In 2004, Danni went to the UK to travel and study English, during which time she lived with a host family and visited many cities and castles in Scotland and England. Last summer she worked as an Administrative Coordinator and Chinese Cuisine instructor with Excel China, leading students on mouth-watering expeditions. Danni currently operates her own Chinese language private tutoring school in Shanghai. She will head back to the UK to study Linguistics at the University of London at the end of the summer. Danni enjoys backpacking, has traveled extensively in China and hopes to do the same abroad.

Megan Featherstone (Administrative Coordinator, Survival Mandarin): Kalamazoo College, BA, double major in English Literature and Chinese Language and Culture. A native of Detroit, Megan's fascination with China began when she enrolled in her first Mandarin class merely to try something new.  After studying the language for two years, she moved her studies abroad to the Beijing Language and Culture University in the fall of 1999.  Upon receiving her B.A. she returned to China to teach English for a semester at BLCU, and journeyed throughout the country perfecting her Chinese travel and survival skills.  Megan then worked in education and franchise development until moving to Vermont in 2006 to pursue a Master’s Degree in International Education at the School for International Training, where she prepares for a career in experiential education abroad.  Megan enjoys cooking, crafting, taking road trips and spending as much time biking and running outside as possible. Megan is fluent in Mandarin.

Cameron Jahn(China and the World Economy). University of California, Davis. BA with Honors. Cameron spent his junior year outside Madrid, Spain at the University of Alacala de Henares studying literature. After graduation, Cameron spent nearly 6 years chronicling life in California's Capitol for The Sacramento Bee.  As a journalist, Cameron covered murders, helicopter crashes, political and land use matters, cultural affairs and everything in between.  Already fluent in Spanish, Cameron started learning Chinese in order to prepare for his dream job: covering China's rise as a foreign correspondent.  Currently, he is pursuing a Master's Degree in International Trade Policy at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California with an emphasis on U.S.-China trade relations and Mandarin.  Cameron has traveled to 18 countries, and he basketball, photography, rock climbing and cooking for crowds. Cameron is fluent in Mandarin.

Jeff Jorve (Director): Wesleyan University, B.A. East Asian Studies.  During his time at Wesleyan, Jeff was captain of the men’s lacrosse team, a member of the theater community and an applicant interviewer with the Office of Admissions.  He studied abroad in the Chinese cities of Beijing and Hangzhou during the summer and fall of 2002 through the Duke University program, and upon graduation in 2004 returned to Shanghai, where he continues to live and work.  Jeff takes summer breaks from his job as a contributing editor for the Economist Intelligence Unit and a freelance journalist to join Excel China.  He was Administrative Coordinator for the inaugural Excel China program.  In his spare time Jeff continues his study of the Chinese language and travels the Asian region with the Shanghai ultimate Frisbee team.  He is fluent in Mandarin.

Kerren McKeeman (Resident Advisor, Art of the Sketch): Kerren is a Middlebury College senior majoring in East Asian Studies with a focus on the Chinese language.  She is an avid dancer, and enjoys co-directing and choreographing for Middance, a club that performs bi-annually at Middlebury College, where she also writes for the school newspaper and works as a member of the resident life staff.  She is a graduate of the Middlebury Summer Language School’s intensive Chinese immersion program and in 2006 she spent the spring of her academic year studying abroad in Beijing and Hangzhou with the Middlebury College/C.V. Starr School.  Before attending Middlebury she performed for five summers with Circus Smirkus, an internationally renowned youth circus troupe.  Kerren is also an alumna of the Midnight Circus in Chicago. She is fluent in Mandarin.

Peter Robbins (Resident Advisor): Kenyon College B.A.  Peter began studying Chinese during his sophomore year at Kenyon and later majored in Chinese Language and minored in Religious Studies.  His interest in Mandarin brought him to Middlebury for the Middlebury College Summer Language School intensive Chinese program, and to Beijing and Hangzhou where he studied abroad at the CET and Middlebury programs.  After leaving Hangzhou, Peter backpacked through rural parts of China in Guangxi, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces, living with farmers and learning about their way of life.  Peter originally hails from Maine, where he has volunteered at English Courses for Chinese Immigrants and worked as a camp counselour in nearby New Hampshire.  In his spare time Peter enjoys hiking, skiing, sailing, playing Frisbee and photography. He is fluent in Mandarin.

Tara Sun Vanacore (Mandarin 2, Modern Chinese History): Middlebury College, B.A., Summa cum Laude. At Middlebury Tara majored in Chinese Language and Literature and wrote a senior honors thesis on the 1940s Shanghai woman writer Su Qing.  She attended the Middlebury College Language School for Chinese in the summer of 2004 and studied in Beijing and Hangzhou with the Middlebury College/C.V. Starr School in China during her junior year.  Tara also took several creative writing classes and worked as a peer writing tutor at Middlebury, where she won a student scholarship to attend the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference.  Tara grew up in Bridport, VT just up the road from Middlebury and moved to Portland, OR after graduation, where she currently is an assistant coordinator for the Portland Public Schools/University of Oregon K-16 Chinese Flagship Program.  Tara is happiest when swimming in Vermont rivers, spending time with friends and family, cooking, reading, writing, and running. She is fluent in Mandarin.

Huicong Zhang (Chinese Religion, Survival Mandarin): Nankai University, B.A. English and American Literature and Chinese Literature; University of Colorado, M.A. East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Harvard University, Ph.D. expected in June 2009, East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Huicong grew up in Harbin—the “Ice City” of northeastern China—and competed at provincial and national levels as a young swimmer. At Nankai University she majored in both English and Chinese Literatures to satisfy her love for language learning and reading. She also served as chief editor for a campus English newspaper and founded and hosted the Nankai English Broadcasting program. Currently she is at Harvard University conducting research for her Ph.D. dissertation on Chinese yuefu-style poetry. When she is not reading or teaching, Huicong enjoys swimming, yoga, good tea, and traveling around the world.