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Excel Madrid/Barcelona Alexa Brooks (Drawing and Painting, Spanish Art History - Art of The Sketch): Salve Regina University, B.A.; Maryland Institute College of Art, M.F.A. F.A. Alexa is an artist and instructor at the Maryland Institute College of Art as well as an independent graphic designer. She specializes in realist graphite drawings and is a frequent visitor to Spain where she finds artistic inspiration in Spain’s art and culture. Alexa’s first visit to Spain was a summer spent in Salamanca as a college sophomore, but it wasn’t until her graduate studies when researching the work of Spanish artist Antonio López García that a great passion for all things Spanish took hold. Alexa has traveled extensively throughout Spain and is proficient in Spanish.
Rebecca Gordon (Resident Advisor, Conversational Spanish): Williams College, B.A. Rebecca will be graduating in June 2009 from Williams College with degrees in English and Art History. While at Williams, Rebecca was the editor-in-chief of the Williams Literary Review, the co-director of Williams Peer Health, the Opinions editor for the Williams College newspaper, and a 4-year member of the Williams JV Women’s soccer team. In her third year, she was one of a select group of Advisors that mentored and lived with first-year students as part of the Williams entry-system tradition. After receiving the Mary and Nathaniel Lawrence Travel Fellowship last summer, she traveled to Spain and walked the Camino de Santiago, a 1,000-year-old pilgrimage that spans over 900 km of the northern part of the country. Next year, she will be teaching middle- and high-school English at a private school in Puerto Rico, and hopes to go to graduate school. Rebecca is a two-time Putney participant who traveled to Ecuador in the summer of 2003 on a community service trip and to Spain on Putney Excel Madrid/Barcelona in the summer of 2004.2004. Jorge Castillo (Intermediate Spanish, Conversational Spanish): Our Lady of the Lake University, B.A., Spanish and Mexican American Studies, University of Connecticut, M.A., Spanish, PhD. candidate. Jorge lived in Mexico for over ten years and has traveled throughout Latin America. During his undergraduate career in San Antonio, Texas, Jorge created cultural programs as a resident assistant while also working as a tutor. At the University of Connecticut, he teaches elementary and intermediate Spanish as well as cultural studies courses including Latinos in the U.S., and Film in Spain and Latin America. Jorge’s doctoral dissertation examines the cultural production (focused on literature and film) of the Caribbean and its representation of gender and sexuality. When not teaching or studying, he enjoys foreign and independent films, spending hours in used bookstores, road trips, and cooking. ing.
Eli S. Evans (Director): University of Wisconsin, B.A.; University of Arizona, M.F.A.; Art Center College of Design, M.A. Eli graduated with honors, and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Wisconsin, where he received an English Department Scholarship, a p, a p, a Hilldale Resarch Grant, and the University Bookstore Award for his Creative Writing Thesis. In 2001, he graduated with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona, where he was the 1999 Fiction Fellow. In 2007, he graduated from the Art Center College of Design, in Los Angeles, with an M.A. in Theory and Criticism. He currently lives and writes in a barn in the Ojai Valley. He has a book of essays forthcoming from Zg Press in 2009, and a more commercial manuscript will be making the rounds in New York this summer. He publishes regularly in the literary and cultural magazine N+1, as well as in the storied Spanish literary magazine Quimera. You can find an interview he conducted in 2006 with the Spanish novelist Javier Marias finally published in this summer's issue of Glimmer Train. He is represented by McCormick & Williams Literary Management. This is Eli's ninth summer with Excel Madrid/Barcelona.
Haley O'Neil (Assistant Director): Skidmore College, B.A magna cum laude, dual degree in Spanish and Anthropology; University of California, Santa Barbara, M.A., Ph.D. candidate. At Skidmore she Haley received the Sonja P. Karsen award for excellence in Spanish and was inducted in the Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Delta Pi, and Periclean honors societies. She spent her junior year studying at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and has spent her summers in Spain ever since. Haley is pursing a doctoral degree in Hispanic literature and is currently completing her dissertation on contemporary Spanish literary journalism. This is Haley's seventh year with Excel Madrid/Barcelona.
Ana Raquena (Advanced Spanish: Language and Culture, Advanced Spanish: Cuisine and Culture of Food): University of California, Davis, B.A., Comparative Literature & Spanish; University of CA, Santa Barbara, M.A., Spanish; University of CA, Santa Barbara, Ph.D. candidate. Ana recently completed the second year of a doctoral program at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she is pursuing a degree in Hispanic Literature with an emphasis in Applied Linguistics. At UCSB, Ana has taught first, second, and third year Spanish courses as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Davis, Ana discovered a passion for the Spanish theatre of the Golden Age; this led to a senior honor’s thesis funded by an undergraduate research fellowship. Also, while at UC Davis, Ana was awarded with a Departmental Citation for Excellence by the Spanish Department, and was recognized as an Outstanding Senior by the university. She has spent summers in Spain and loves its culture, food, and people. This is Ana’s second year with Putney Excel Madrid/Barcelona. |