¡Buenas días! We hope that this letter finds you finishing up your school work, brushing up on your Spanish and getting excited for an amazing summer filled with new friends and exciting adventures. By deciding to come on Bridge Puerto Rico you have already decided to make this summer a memorable one.
On Bridge Puerto Rico, we will spend the month of July enjoying all of the wonderful adventures that this beautiful island has to offer while also having the opportunity to experience its culture by creating and running our own friendship camp and through daily interactions with locals. Whether you are leading an activity for a group of young children, kayaking on the biobay or flying across the canopy on a zipline, we are confident that you will be challenged to grow and learn about yourself and others all while enjoying the summer of your life.
We are unbelievably excited to meet you and to learn all about you, but until the trip begins here is a little information about us.
Combined, we have 5 years of experience working at Windsor Mountain International base camp. Travis has worked in the Cabins as the Living Unit Coordinator and on the Waterfront Staff. Leah spent a summer working in the Tent Unit as the Community Service counselor. This past summer, we worked together in the Wilderness Tripping Department, leading three day trips around New England. We enjoyed working together so much that we decided to lead together again this summer. We both attended Windsor Mountain as campers (during different sessions) and since we were campers, we have both always wanted to lead a Bridge Trip. We are so excited this summer to finally have that opportunity. We can’t wait to share the experience with you!
My name is Leah and I grew up in Easton, Massachusetts, but when I was around your age I moved to Providence, Rhode Island to finish Middle School and High School. I attended college at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts where I studied Social Anthropology with a focus on Political Ecology. Basically I am interested in studying how certain groups of people or cultures interact with, use and understand their natural environments. Since college this has translated into my being really interested in the ideas of “local” and “organic” and has led me to start my own urban gardening project, therefore I am really excited that on Bridge Puerto Rico we are going to have an opportunity to work in an organic garden.
When I am not in my garden, in my free time I can be found rock climbing, backpacking, going on long runs or chasing down a Frisbee during an Ultimate Frisbee match. When the weather keeps me inside I love watching movies, curling up with a book or keeping my hands occupied with my latest knitting project. Since January, I have seen a lot of rainy weather as I was assistant teaching at a bilingual school in Monteverde, Costa Rica which is located in a cloud forest, which means there are two seasons: the rainy season and the even rainier season. Luckily the rain didn’t prevent me from getting to explore all of the amazing hiking throughout the various cloud forest reserves and when I needed some sun I went to the beach for the weekend, where I tried to learn to surf.
I am super excited to be leading Bridge Puerto Rico. I can’t wait to meet all of you, help you with your Spanish and explore this beautiful island with you!
My name is Travis and I grew up in Miami, Florida and Redding, Connecticut. I graduated from Bard College where I majored in fine art photography, hopefully we’ll get to spend time taking amazing photography during our time in Puerto Rico. I spent this past winter in Vancouver, Canada working for NBC’s Today Show for the 2010 Winter Olympics. During the show I worked as an assistant cameraman and was able to be a part of some amazing gold medal interviews. Once the games ended, I headed off to India and Thailand for three months trekking through the Himalayas and rock climbing in the jungles of Thailand. I recently returned to United States for another amazing summer at Windsor Mountain.
When I am not rock climbing or following around snowboarders as their photographer, I usually find myself working on community based service projects. During my time at Bard College, I was project leader for a project that worked very closely with a neighborhood in New Orleans. During my time with the project I was able to help start a summer camp, as well as year long tutoring programs in the local elementary school. Besides working in New Orleans, I have spent a lot of time in Central and South America working on community service projects.
I am really excited to be part of the Bridge Puerto Rico experience. I look forward to meeting all of you, creating an unforgettable adventure, and having an amazing and fun time along the way.
If you have time, it would be great if you could come up with a list on why Puerto Rico is different then the 50 States of America. You can use any means to generate this list, dinner table discussions, books, teachers, or even the Internet. Hopefully we will all have a lot to share and learn about Puerto Rico during the first days of the trip.
As your leaders we will be there to support you and make sure that the trip is safe and fun, however as a group we will also need each one of you to support one another. Each of you will have the chance to lead the group and contribute to our collective experience in meaningful ways. We ask that you come prepared to participate, engage your minds, and ask questions. Active participation is key on a trip of this nature and we guarantee that the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.
If you have any questions about the trip, we will be up at camp and would love to hear from you. We can’t tell you how excited we are to meet you!
Sincerely,
Leah and Travis
