Home > Volunteers and Staff > Region 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Region: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
Region 3
• Bakhchisaray
• Belgorsk
• Feodosia
• Kalanchak
• Kerch
• Kherson
• Novotroiske
• Saki
• Sevastopol
• Simferopol
• Sudak
• Tavrinck
• Yalta
• Yevpatoria
Bree Oswill graduated from Oberlin College in 1998 with a BA degree in Environmental Studies. Prior to joining the Peace Corps, she worked in London at a publishing house and in Boston as a faculty assistant at Harvard Law School. She is currently serving as an Environmental Educator in the town of Bakhchisarai, Turkish for "garden palace." Bakhchisarai is located in the Autonomous Region of Crimea and has a population of 45,000. As the first Peace Corps Volunteer in her town, Bree is teaching an integrated curriculum of English and environmental education at the Bakhchisarai School-Lyceum. She likes traveling, writing, yoga and - now - ketchup on her pizza.
Scott Ahrens is living in the small town of Belgorsk, located in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. As the first American living in this town of 70,000 people, he is transferring business skills through the Belgorsk Business Center. He is utilizing his degrees in General Business Management and Human Resources Management as well as lessons learned while volunteering for a suicide prevention hotline and conflict resolution and mediation program. He is also teaching his staff business English and a small class of local residents conversational English. As Belgorsk is considered a crossroad to nearby tourist areas he is working to increase interest in this area.
Sandra Tacina spent the last three years working as a financial analyst in the Latin American and International Utilities groups of Deutsh Bane Alex Brown. Sandra has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago. Currently, she is teaching finance, marketing, economics, and business English of the Feodosia Institute of Finance and Economics. Feodosia is a picturesque resort in Crimea on the Black Sea.
Somer Bessire somerbessire@hotmail.com graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Social Work and worked in a mental health center after graduation. She will be working in Kalanchak in the Kherson Oblast at the Secondary School No. 2. She looks forward to the third, seventh, and eighth grades she will be teaching.
Cathey Bernhard
Mark DeTray is working as a teacher of ecology at the Kherson Oblast Lyceum in Kherson, Ukraine. Kherson is a city of roughly 350,000 people and is situated near the delta of the Dnipro River. The Lyceum is essentially a high school, where students come to live and study at during the week, but then return home on the weekends. Through the Lyceum, Mark is also involved in local environmental monitoring and conservation projects. Mark has a BA degree in Russian and Environmental Studies.
Dan McMinn, age 23, graduated from the University of California Berkeley with a major in History and minor in business. Before joining the Peace Corps, he worked in the non-profit sector for the administrative department of a student housing and community site for Berkeley students. Dan also volunteered his time at a low-income housing program and drug rehabilitation organization called Jubilee. More specifically, he has experience in administration, web site development, non-profit organization and grant writing. If you are looking for him, you'll probably find him playing ultimate frisbee as he loves the sport more than any healthy individual should. Dan serves as a business educator in the city of Kherson, located at the mouth of the Dnipro River. In Kherson, he teaches classes in International Business and Organizational Behavior at the Kherson Inter-Regional Business Institute.
Matthew Olsen is currently serving in the city of Kherson, instructing courses in the areas of Marketing, Management and Economics at the Kherson Institute of Economy and Law. In addition, he is involved in developing a curriculum that will be used in the Institute's new Marketing Department. Matthew is from North Easton, Massachusetts and has been known to have a heavy Boston accent. He graduated from Stonehill College with a BS degree in Marketing and Environmental Studies. Matthew also enjoys playing basketball and long walks on the beach.
Manohar Sardeshpande, from Fenton, Michigan, with a Bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering and MBA in Business Administration, worked ten years in steel manufacturing and 25 years in automotive production and quality control, technology transfer, management and supervisory development. At Kherson's NewBizNet Center, he conducts management development programs for personnel and managers in nearby small and medium size businesses. He is arranging seminars for business managers to share success and mutual problem areas and how to help each other improve. Kherson, which means peninsula, is where the Black Sea Fleet's first ship set sail in 1783.
Troy Shank, from Michigan, with degrees in international business and finance, worked in commercial banking and taught English as a foreign language in Salt Lake City, Utah, before joining the Peace Corps. At Kherson State Technical Univeristy (KSTU), he teaches American studies, economics, entrepreneurship and management to the first three years of students in a new program in global economic relations. Troy is helping design the curriculum for this program's fourth year students, who will be the first to graduate in this program, having had three previous Peace Corps teachers since their entering KSTU in 1997. Troy is a community activist and hopes to create an awareness of community values by working with credit unions and banks as well as establishing associations for the advancement of neighborhoods within Greater Kherson. Kherson is Ukraine's watermelon capital and is central to southern Ukraine resorts.
Deanna (Dee Dee) Fickes deedeefickes@hotmail.com is a PCV from Group 19 who loves butterflies, photography and laughing. She was born in Ohio and graduated from Youngstown University with a degree in Social Work. After graduation she decided to join Peace Corps TEFL in Ukraine to gain strength, independence, experience and to have a little fun. DeeDee will be spending her two years in a small town in the Kherson Oblast, Novotroiske Gymnasium No. 2, which specializes in foreign language. She is also looking forward to creating an HIV/AIDS seminar and presenting it throughout the country.
Melvin van Houten is a retired foreign-service officer who served nearly 30 years with the US State Department in an administrative and financial capacity. He was posted to nine foreign countries. He holds a masters degree from the University of Oregon in International Business. Melvin is serving at the Crimea International Business Center in Saki, Crimea, working with the center's director in an effort to revitalize Saki's position as an international spa attraction and medicinal mud treatment center.
Emily Bhaler graduated from Indiana University in May of 1998. She worked for a year with Kohl's Department Stores in the buying office. Motivated by an interest in other cultures and working in a developing market, she decided to leave Kohl's and join the Peace Corps in Ukraine. She is working for the Pilgrim School in Sevastopol as a Junior Achievement Applied Economics instructor.
Amy Daniels is TEFL volunteer currently serving in Sevastopol. Amy graduated from the University of Michigan in 1999 with a Bachelor’s in Asian Studies. She is originally from Connecticut. She works at a State Secondary School and Sevastopol’s Youth Center for Social Services.
Jolene Elyse Kellenbeck works for the Center of Ecology and Nature in Sevastopol. She teaches ecology to students in an after school program. She also helps institute the GLOBE program into the curriculum. Her center records information about soils and hydrology from Sevastopol into the GLOBE program's Website. She is helping her center get a computer lab so students can participate more actively. Her center has recently entered into the EEIU (Eco-Ethics International Union) and received a grant to teach Eco-Ethics to 9th and 11th forms. At the University of Biological Sciences University she and several scientists are studying the local bird populations (mostly seabirds) to determine the reason for declines in population over the past 10 years. Also, she is working to find industrial water filters to efficiently clean water for the city of Sevastopol.
Russell James is teaching at the Sevastopol Commercial College. His courses include Food Management, Accounting, English and Western culture for students in the first and second year. Sevastopol is named "The City Of Heroes" for the brave men and women who defended it during the Crimean War and World War II. Sevastopol is a city rich in history and culture.
Sommer Rentmeesters works in Sevestopol Secondary School N30 in Balaklava teaching fifth through tenth form students about ecology and the environment through English. Balaklava is a picturesque seaside town that is rich in history and natural beaches (if not Saturday night entertainment).
Amy Smith lives in the sometimes sunny city of Sevastopol. Since September 1999 she has been teaching Ecology, English, American Culture, etc to 2nd,3rd,7th,10th and 11th formers. She also participates in an English Club at a nearby school and gives private tutor lessons.
Alyson Sowers is from Rolla, Missouri. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a B.S. in Education (Secondary Social Studies). She teaches Conversational English at Gymnasium #2 in Sevastopol, Crimea.
Ken Forrester, group19vac@yahoo.com, is a 1984 graduate of Bellevue University, Bellevue, Nebraska. He is also a 20-year veteran of the United States Air Force. Ken taught history and technologies at Reading High School, Reading, Michigan before volunteering for duty with the Peace Corps in 2000. He is assigned to the Crimean Teacher Re-certification Institute where he teaches methods, error correction and feedback, learner assessment and country studies. His major passion of hiking and backpacking is satiated with excursions into the mountain range that crosses the Crimean peninsula.
Bill Haynes moved to Ukraine from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and is serving as a business educator at the Crimean Academy of Environmental Protection and Resort Construction in Simferopol. He is a faculty member of the Economics Department at the Academy and is working on a variety of community projects. Bill has a BS degree in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh. In his spare time, he enjoys reading business books, listening to music, and playing tennis.
Erica Knight, ericaandnate@yahoo.com, is a recent graduate from the University of Virgina with a degree in American Government and Spanish. Newly married to PCV Nate Martin, she considers living and working in Ukraine to be a second honeymoon. She teaches Conversational English in the culturally rich city of Simferopol at Gymnasium Number Nine.
Michael Marsh is from western North Carolina. He graduated from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina and received a BS degree in Community and Regional Planning with a minor in Sustainable Development. Michael is serving at the Crimean Republic Ecology-Naturalists Center for Youth in the city of Simferopol, where he teaches Basic Ecology, Environmental Science and Sustainable Development. During his summers in Crimea, he teaches ecology, swimming and American Studies at a camp in Yalta. In addition, Michael is working to develop a model methodology for environmental education in Crimea and an exchange program for ecology club students that will enable them to travel throughout Ukraine to witness a variety of environmental challenges.
Dennis O'Donnell is the first Peace Corps volunteer working with the United Nations Organization Crimea Integration and Development Program in Sudak, Crimea. Sudak is a city of 36,000 east of Yalta. This region is in the process of peaceful reintegration of former deported peoples returning to their ancestral homeland from Central Asia. Dennis will be helping U.N. personnel in training and teaching trainers in the principles of small/micro business management to clients of a credit union, which is also part of the program.
Lindsay Wilson, linzoid55@yahoo.com, has an interest in metallurgy. She is in Tavrinck where she teaches English. She hope to be a DJ for her first time at a Urainian school dance.
Judy Johnson brings thirty years of experience as an educator, trainer, and entrepreneur to the Business Development project in Ukraine. She is a consultant with the Crimean Tourism Development Center in Yalta, currently working to introduce customer service skills within the popular Crimea tourist sector. Judy is a grandmother from San Diego, who has wanted to be in the Peace Corps all her life.
Katja Miller, privet3@gmx.net, is a German American who has lived in several countries including Switzerland and Germany. She enjoys traveling and learning languages. After graduating from Penn State with a degree in Biochemistry she joined the Peace Corps. Currently she is working in Yevpatoria, a beautiful city boarding the Black Sea. She teaches English in elementary and high school. As a secondary project she is organizing a summer camp from the local sanatoriums and other schools.