Facilitators
Meet the people who have facilitated our programs around the world.
Tanka Gurung
Tanka was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. He has been working as a trek leader in Nepal for the past 11 years. Whilst studying at university, he was leading trips in Nepalese Himalayas. He has a degree in business from Tribhuwan University. He is also a certified mountain climber and has climbed Mount Manaslu (8163) in 2018 and other 6000 meter peaks. Since he was born in a multicultural and multireligious country, he is always excited to learn and observe new cultures.
Connor Read
Bouncing between big cities and beachside suburbs, Connor grew up exposed to a diverse America. Inspired to help create a more empathetic and equitable world, he spent a year working with underserved students in New York City schools, and eventually studied Social Justice Education in university. He developed a passion for youth advocacy and a love of building strong, supportive communities. As a program manager in Japan and the US, he devised workshops on leadership and social-emotional learning for young adults and outdoor professionals. In his spare time, Connor enjoys exploring our beautiful planet, watching a lot of comedy, and expressing himself through writing, filmmaking, and performing.
Magdalena (Mag) Michalczuk
Mag is an outdoor educator currently leading a nomad lifestyle. She is a traveler and a global citizen and calls many places in the world Home. Mag is originally from Poland but she caught the travel bug pretty early and moved around quite a bit. She studied Tourism management in the Netherlands and after graduating decided to explore Asia. When she is not out adventuring she likes to cook, eat, read and watch movies. She also enjoys playing volleyball, kayaking, hiking, and yoga. Mag is also a diver and avid ocean lover. She is passionate about outdoor and environmental education and experiential learning. Her mission is to raise environmental awareness amongst young people and inspire them to make a difference.
Noel Young
Noel was born in the jungles of Borneo and grew up in the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur. A curious child who was ever inquisitive and loved exploring the world around him. At the age of 17, he discovered his love for rock climbing and the great outdoors. After attaining a bachelor of commerce, Noel set off on his childhood dream to explore the world. His journey has brought him around the globe, from the amazing limestone karsts of Halong Bay to the gorgeous landscapes of Patagonia. While he was traveling, Noel chanced upon his first experience working in experiential and outdoor education. He was inspired by the impact he could make on the participants. He now believes in making a positive change in the world by sharing his love for the outdoors and creating opportunities for growth.
Thidarat Srimanas (Jing)
Jing was born and raised in the Northernmost part of Thailand, on the border of Myanmar, in the city of Mae Sai. Growing up in such a small but diverse city, she is very easily adaptable and interested in cross-cultures. With the love of traveling and meeting new people, she then started working as a local tour guide showing tourists around Chiang Mai in 2014. Although it was fun, it wasn’t enough for her. Jing decided to develop herself more in the realm of volunteer tourism, encompassing both conservation and community development projects. There, she can focus more on environmental sustainability and socially responsible travel. She also loves to share her passions for personal development with young people and the belief that small positive actions can make big impacts in the community they live in. Jing is ready to Jump! with you again this year!
Lars Nielsen
Lars is Danish but has been living overseas for the last 15 years, either as a Peacekeeper in Bosnia & Kosovo, a summer camp Counselor & Director in New England, or an outdoor experiential education Instructor, Coordinator, Manager & Director in Hong Kong and Thailand. He is a teacher but quickly switched the classroom with the great outdoors, feeling that youth needs to learn more than what’s taught in school to be successful. With a young son, Lars interests of flying and caving have recently been superseded by more paternal endeavors.
Chhayrotana Prak
Tana as born and raised in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. As a deeply creative person with a love for everything art, she studied and became an Interior Designer. She creates her own designs for New Khmer Jewelry Brand & Collections and home-design decoration products with handmade crocheting and knitting. For the past 4 years, she has been joining seasonally with Ayana Journey, the team who introduced her into Jump! Experience. Tana currently lives in Siem Reap, where she’s been for nearly the past six years. Tana loves to share her passion for design, art, and travel but her diverse experiences have led her to become especially passionate about learning about human mindsets and the environments around them. She hopes to share her knowledge through her work within her home country and around the globe.
Rohith Suresh
Rohith is a freelance outdoor professional who spent his early ages exploring rainforests, backwaters and the biodiversity of Kerala, India. He is also a Chartered Accountant who has done a year of circus school and also developed safe spaces to spread awareness about STIs and HIV. His attachment to nature overtook the benefits of working in an office very early on in his financial career. Rohith has now worked over four seasons in Canada with different organizations and wished to continue engaging, teaching and learning from nature.
Samantha Grill
Of all the books in the world, Sammy believes the best stories are found between the pages of your passport. Sammy was bitten by the travel bug at an early age, and she has yet to find an antidote. With the belief that life is not meant to be lived in one place, her passion for adventure has led her to live in the USA, Ireland, China, Myanmar, and Thailand (so far). With experience in various fields across several countries worldwide, Sammy has recently joined the JUMP! team to help others experience what she considers to be wonders of the world, to ensure everyone returns home with a story to tell, and to discover that it doesn’t matter where you are going… it is who you have by your side.
Pimpilai Sonia Rumthum
Sonia was born and raised in Udon Thani of northeastern Thailand, so she understands both Laos and Thai. She is passionate about sociology, which drives her traveling across South East Asia to experience the differences between the neighboring countries. Working 2 years as a student leader, Sonia likes discussions and exchanges, especially if they are about humanities and societies. She is looking forward to gaining a better understanding of globalization and human relation based on her roles and relationship with others.
Monthicha Piyasakulchai
Mon grew up in central Bangkok, Thailand. Originally, her great grandparents came from the South of China but she can speak only basic conversational Chinese. Her young life was quite limited. She spent her time many different part-time jobs whilst studying in school and university. That’s why today she loves learning, reading, playing Thai music, hanging out with friends, and working on self-improvement. After deciding to quit her permanent job, she decided to commit her life to learning in order to improve herself and develop her community while staying near family in Thailand.
Somsanid Inthongsai
Somsanid from Lao and had been traveling around the country since he was 3. His father owned a topographic surveying company. Somsanid worked with his father from the age of 16, in the wild jungle of Laos’ back-country. Somsanid then achieved a Higher diploma in English and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management in the year 2010. Somsanid has 10 years of experience working in the realm of experiential educational travel and tourism as a guide and cross-cultural educator. He speaks 5 languages, Lao, Thai, English, Khmer, and Chinese to varying degrees of fluency. He has traveled extensively within Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Southern China. Somsanid is very ambitious about history and Buddhism, two topics that he loves to teach and discuss with his students. As a Laotian, he practices Buddhism as a way of living.
Seavyi Yonn
Seavyi is originally from Battambang, a city full of art and culture in the western part of Cambodia. Prior to working in tourism, Seavyi spent some time working with NGOs and is very passionate about exploring the complexities of foreign aid and the development sector. He believes that creativity and profound ideas come from the exchange of stories and experiences from one another. Personal growth is the result of the challenges that we face in life, which result in us gaining new experiences. Hence, he likes to surround himself with a diverse group of people from different backgrounds and cultures. From this belief and practice, it allows him to see the bigger picture of the world we live in and how connected we are as a community. Over the years, Seavyi has been hosting many different high school and university groups from all around the world who wish to explore and learn about Cambodia.
Kate Johnston
Born and raised in Singapore to a Dutch mother and English father, Kate is the definition of a Third Culture Kid. It is a label that she wears proudly and sees as a large part of her identity. With a keen interest in learning about people, Kate holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and Sociology. This background helps inform her perspectives towards Outdoor Education and Experiential Learning. Over the last few years, Kate has translated her love for travel, adventure and learning into a career that allows her to share this passion with others.
Lydia Liu
Lydia grew up and went to college in Maryland, and after graduating, she decided to try working in the outdoors. She started an internship with Outward Bound’s At-Risk program in Florida, which showed her just how impactful outdoor experiences can be. From there, she instructed abroad, then most recently in California, where she discovered a love for the mountains. She has continued to pursue this field because she wants to help make these experiences accessible to young people where they can be challenged, encouraged, and immersed in a place away from their everyday lives. It is a dream to be able to work outside and grow as a facilitator every day, and she looks forward to learning from and leading participants through reflective, fun, and transformative experiences as well!
Pooja Rani
Pooja Rani was born in raised in Toledo, Ohio, USA. After graduating from Northwestern University outside Chicago, Pooja spent two years as a communication researcher with Apple’s Graphic Design team. Loving the work but wanting to explore new places, Pooja gave in to the travel bug to connect with her familial roots and venture into a new kind of research in 2008, Pooja moved to India as a Fellow with the William J. Clinton Service in India Fellowship where she worked on increasing access to livelihoods and improving access to clean drinking water technologies. Nine years later, Pooja continues to live in India having worked and traveled in various cities, small towns and villages, including the Andaman & Nicobar Islands off the eastern coast of India where she worked as a professional SCUBA diver and organized nature and bird-watching walks. Now living in Goa, she continues to explore and learn about the local biodiversity, ecology, and culture by organizing outdoor experiences for students and adults. She continues to explore diverse ecosystems across Asia and enjoys organic farming, world beats and being outdoors.
Tindy Chen
Tindy has a BA in acting and performance from Guangdong Ocean University. She was born and raised in a small village surrounded by breathtaking nature in China’s Jiangxi province, which instilled tremendous respect in her for mother earth. Tindy is a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, a certified yoga teacher, an artist, a gender equality activist, an experiential and global citizen educator. She has been traveling around the world seeking natural healing, indigenous culture, and art. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, cooking, discovering music, dancing, and just being silly.
Sullivan Rhoads
Sullivan’s homeland is the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Seattle, Washington. He loves being outdoors, hiking through nature, and enjoying our beautiful world. Growing up, Sullivan’s passion was in theater and choir. He loves performing so much that it led him to work in Entertainment at Walt Disney World. Making thousands of dreams come true left an everlasting magical impression. He loves sharing his magical attitude with other humans. After Disney World, he opened 15 restaurants across the U.S. from D.C to Florida, Arkansas to Ohio. The connections he made meeting the diversity of America forever changed him. Sully loves to help people, listen to their stories, and grow his community. He is now studying Global Studies and Social Entrepreneurship at Thammasat University in Thailand. He wants to use his love of performance to help empower the future leaders of tomorrow.
Andy Lin
Andy was born and raised in the southern Chinese city of Nanning. He spent much of his childhood there before moving to England at the beginning of his teenage years. Through the Duke of Edinburgh Award program, he trekked through the stunning landscape of the Brecon Beacons and has been in love with being in nature ever since. He has also spent time volunteering in Galle, Sri Lanka helping children from underprivileged families. These experiences led him to start pursuing a career in the outdoor education field, seeking to encourage more young people to embrace nature and find a fresh perspective in this ever more digital world.
Pawsansoe Bree
Paw is from upstate New York. She has a Bachelor of Arts in international studies from Hartwick College and a Master’s degree in international relations from Webster University. She worked with youth as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. She loves traveling and has visited about 30 countries through her own studies, along with also working abroad. Paw can speak Thai, Karen, English, some Burmese, Moroccan Arabic, and Tamazight. She enjoys outdoor activities like hiking, running, rock climbing, camping, cycling, swimming, yoga, and meditation.
Nicholas Rio
Nick grew up in California, USA, lucky to spend time in the mountains, along the coast, and in a generally very temperate climate. Ironically it was while living in New York City that he became involved with outdoor education, leading canoe trips and going backpacking with friends. At JUMP! he hopes to continue exploring experiential education’s unique capacity to transform participants’ lives. He looks forward to facilitating programs in many places that are new to him, becoming a more intentional teacher and learner. A lifelong dancer, Nick is passionate about the arts and hopes to incorporate them into his life in Bangkok, either on JUMP! programs or on his own time.
Ramphai Noikaew
In Thai, Ramphai means the sunshine after the rain is gone, which, to all who know her, is rather appropriate. She received her B.A. in Business English from Uttaradit Rajabhat University and holds a diploma in international air travel from London Technology College. She currently lives on Pun Pun Organic Farm, in Northern Thailand. She has worked with many youth groups to raise their awareness of health, community, and nature. Ramphai is a long-time practitioner of traditional Thai holistic healing modalities and herbal medicines. In her free time, she can be found gardening, doing yoga, biking, hiking, or simply being out in the wilderness. She loves sharing her love of cooking organic food because she strongly believes that food is medicine. Ramphai believes that we can enjoy life in the present moment, everywhere we go, we grow by wisely developing our inside as well as out, and we find peace by letting go.
Gregory Pettys
Gregory has been immersed in a world of socially engaged, politically active, spiritually driven vibrancy since early childhood. As a teenager, Gregory was introduced, through Hip-Hop music, to the world of Tibetan Buddhism. Determined to experience the “Land of Snows” firsthand, Gregory began traveling internationally during his university years, first to Nicaragua, where his passion for social justice and indigenous land rights was first ignited. He eventually landed himself in Eastern Tibet where the desire to integrate mindfulness into political activism took root. Having served as a raft guide, a writer, a mountain biking instructor, a radio DJ, a ranch hand, an organic farmer, a ski guide, a dishwasher, a jazz musician, a baker, a candlestick maker, and an international experiential educator for over 15 years, Greg brings a smorgasbord of differing perspectives to each trip he leads.
Mimee Sounthone
Mimee grew up in Luang Prabang province, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Northern Laos. She finished her studies in hotel management and tourism in 2017. She has worked seasonally in the experiential education industry for three years. She speaks Laos, Thai, and English. She learned English by practicing with her English-speaking students. Her first program with Jump! was with NIST’s year 9 group in Chanthaburi, Thailand.
Perrin Duncan
An Edmond, Oklahoma native, Perrin Clore Duncan graduated from DePauw University Cum Laude in May of 2017 with an Economics and Studio Art double major and Spanish minor. Though she’s proud of her roots, she continuously seeks out international immersive experiences. She received her Master of Fine Arts from The Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland in April 2019. Perrin is an avid cyclist and runner, always on the hunt for a good read, and given the choice, she’d rather be outdoors than inside. Perrin’s personal blog and website can be found at perrincloreduncan.com. She is a proudly certified Wilderness First Responder, passionate about pursuing a life of purpose, and deeply believes in the power of education.
Kwanpanus Thantongdee
Mai was born and raised outside the city of Udonthani, the northeastern part of Thailand. Mai graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Mae Fah Luang University. In university, she created cross-cultural communication workshops for international students in order to help them to better understand the culture. Mai has 2 years of experience working with students and schools from around the world. Also, she had so much fun working with a study abroad program which made her gain lots of passion for working in the field of education. Lately, Mai has also worked with NGOs from the north and northeastern part of Thailand for 6 months. She has learned about agriculture, mining, immigration, refugee, conservation, urbanization, and homelessness. Today, she hopes that her experiences and knowledge will impact and benefit communities and students in positive ways.
Marcella Giovani
Marcella was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her passion for education, nature, and culture led her to conduct research in environmental psychology. She also plans to continue her study in the same field. She’s been working for several organizations that work on development in the realms of peace, education, and environmental sustainability. In 2016, she began to focus more on experiential learning and outdoor education as a facilitator. She likes traveling, reading, swimming, and cycling in her spare time.
Jordan Rykert
Jordan sprouted up in the foothills of Monrovia, California, just outside of Los Angeles. The city life could not contain him for long. The coastal redwoods lured him to study outdoor recreation and world music at Humboldt State University. After graduating, Jordan began to live a seasonal life becoming a wilderness guide and naturalist instructor. He has lead students snorkeling through the Kelp forest of Catalina Island and lead families on white water rafting trips in Denali Alaska. Jordan is thrilled to be expanding his horizons into South East Asia with Jump!
Andrew Peterson
Andy hails from Northern Texas but has been around the world a few times since. He studied earth science in university, which deepened his adoration for nature and the environment. Since then he has worked everywhere from cleanroom laboratories to mossy creeks. After the hurricane season of 2017, he decided to offer his time and energy to those in need. He learned that ingenuity, community, and optimism can be found even in dark places and he seeks to bring that light to outdoor education.
Nguyen Ngoc My Linh
Born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City, Linh always seeks out different opportunities to escape the bustling big city life, in exchange for a more natural view and fresh air in the morning. After finishing her Asian Studies degree in Australia in 2016, Linh has been working in Vietnam, Malaysia and Russia. A passionate individual who always eager to learn and to grow, she enjoys reading and traveling, long walks and deep talks. Linh also has a big passion for language, culture, and history. She speaks fluent Vietnamese, English, Chinese and currently taking on Russian.
Desiree Lopez
Desiree was born and raised in NYC where she obtained her Bachelor’s in Health Care Management. After joining the workforce, she then decided to join the U.S. Peace Corps as a Health Volunteer in the Republic of Vanuatu for two years. Realizing her passion for teaching, sustainability, and cultural exchange she began passing this on to teens in the realm of experiential learning abroad. Desiree loves to travel and connect with local customs and culture, as well as helping out wherever she can. She is a lover of all things crafty and looks forward to continuing leading students.
Chutima (C) Nutyra
Chutima, known as C, was born in Thailand and grownup in Hong Kong, with a multicultural background, she decided to go travel after graduating high school. She took advantage of a working holiday visa program to live and explore in 5 different countries. After 4 years in Europe, she recently has moved back to Thailand. There, she wants to explore and share her knowledge and experiences with everyone. Besides traveling, cooking is also her favorite hobbies of all time.
Oktavia Zamharin
Oktavia was born and raised in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She has an interest in local traditions, art, and culture. She had taught the theater (drama class) for several years until she graduated and holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology. Her passion for learning about experiential teaching methods in the field of training and development is very much in line with her current profession as an Experiential Learning Facilitator. Oktavia first joined JUMP! in 2016 during the J! Experience program in Yogyakarta. She enjoyed activities in the outdoor with various adventure, education, and development programs. Oktavia likes to sing and dance, swim, explore the beach and travel. She likes to try and learn new things and make new friends. Oktavia wants to learn scuba diving and she plans to continue her studies in the field of positive psychology and collaborate it with Experiential Learning methods.
Lidiia Demchenko
Lidiia, originally from Ukraine, got her Master’s in China Studies from Peking University. She lived in four countries (Spain, Italy, Ukraine, China) and she speaks 7 languages. Her educational background is interdisciplinary and she has experience working in education, start-ups, NGOs and the private sector. Her passions are as diverse as her background, she loves arts, sports, outdoors, exploration, sustainability, cultures, and languages. She has a dozen things to surprise you with, for example, Lidiia is very strong as she does CrossFit, she can lift 80 kg in the deadlift and 40 kg in power clean.
Jacob Hirata
Jacob grew up in the tropical island of Maui, Hawaii. He grew up with two nephews as if they were younger brothers, teaching them everything from how to better their soccer skills to doing their chores. Jacob was an avid soccer player and is still an active skateboarder. After completing high school Jacob pursued higher education at The Art Institute of California in San Francisco. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in digital filmmaking and video production. He then continued his knowledge further by filming secret music performances with an internationally known organization called Sofar Sounds. As his ambitions grew, Jacob shifted gears to pursue a modeling career in Southeast Asia. Currently, Jacob resides in Bangkok where he is now getting ready to launch his own nonprofit that centers around education through skateboarding.
Emily O'Shea
Emily is a dance artist from just outside Manchester in the UK. Within her work, she choreographs and creates her own shows, performs, and works within the community as a dance teacher and facilitator. She is very passionate about continued personal and professional development and loves to pass on her knowledge and experience to others, creating environments for people to discover more about themselves and grow as a global citizen. Emily’s work has taken her all over the world and she has a huge interest in storytelling and cross-cultural collaboration.
Georgia Thompson
Georgia grew up in Vancouver, Canada before she moved to Scotland to obtain a Masters of Arts in Social Anthropology and International Relations from the University of St Andrews. She then began her career as an Experiential Educator with youth in Hong Kong and has since continued to work in the field for the past four years around China, Borneo, Canada, and Spain. She holds her Wilderness First Responder certification and has completed training as an Emotional Intelligence Instructor in the Outdoors. She is happiest when hiking, climbing, reading, traveling and smelling like a campfire. Preferably all at the same time!
Suthasiny "Moh" Sudprasert
Moh is from the North of Thailand. She is a master’s student in Global Studies and Social Entrepreneurship. She spent the past years in university traveling to explore and make impacts on social innovation and social entrepreneurship around South East Asia and Nepal. Making social change is difficult, yet, it allows her to develop the skills to pass on positive energy to people in the room and motivate others around her to be optimistic. She believes in creating space for young people to unlock their full potential.
Gayatri Nadya
Nadya was born and bred in Jakarta, Indonesia. She graduated from the University of Indonesia with a degree in Indonesian Linguistics. Through the university, she had the opportunity to partake in an exchange program in Taiwan and became a facilitator for grade school students there. She once thought traveling was just about going from one place to another until she had a life-changing experience when she joined a peace education organization back in 2013. She has since learned that there’s always more to get out of travel than just leisure. To be with people and feel the warmth of the culture itself has been the most important thing about her journey. Currently, Nadya is focusing on film as a platform to forge deeper connections between people. Nadya enjoys film, yoga, food, and art, as well as the deep conversations that can evolve from those topics.
Ami Oktari
Ami was born in West Sumatra Indonesia, which is famous for its Padangnese Cuisine such as “Nasi Padang”. She grew up in a culture in which she’s told she has to stay at home and take care of all the family needs. However, she doesn’t want to cross her legs and sit tight always waiting for instructions. She would rather get out seeing the word and embrace it to the fullest. She has been leading outdoor educational experiences since 2014 with international Schools around the world. During that time she has served as a bridge between local and international students to help them better understand and appreciate culture and diversity. In her free time, she loves to see and learn new things by talking with people from different backgrounds and cultures. She is also passionate about her traditional food and she loves to cook and share what she makes with friends.
Alisara Christensen
Alisara (Ally) was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, and she even attended JUMP! programs when she was a student at NIST International School. She went on to study Studio Art and Design, and Environmental Studies in university, however shortly after graduation she found herself leading international trips for youth as a Wilderness Leader and Educator. She spent this past year serving under the AmeriCorps where she provided academic and social-emotional support to underperforming students and at-risk youth at a high school in Minnesota. She has developed a passion for mentoring and coaching youth and is currently exploring opportunities in the areas of youth development, counseling and generational educational support. In her spare time, you can find Ally boxing, playing basketball or tennis, or training for her next mountain bike expedition! She loves to travel and build connections with people everywhere she goes!
Yohanes Batista Hanes
Hanes was born in Indonesia and grew up in Timor Leste. After having Graduated in psychology from a university in Indonesia, he focused on work as an outdoor educator. He is a certified experiential learning facilitator and Wilderness Advanced First Aid. He has been facilitating group dynamics for over 10 years around Indonesia, most of his clients are adults. In 2018, he was eager to challenge himself to handle youth programs and joined JUMP!’s program for the first time in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Recently, he works with an NGO in Indonesia whose mission is about developing people in remote areas around Indonesia through the economic sector.
Bikash Tamang
Bikash grew up in Hetauda, Nepal. He worked very hard to become a Mountain Guide. He trained in outdoor school and ran many school trips in Nepal. He has been working for many different companies in Nepal and India for 8 years. He loves to spend time in the mountains and meet new people. These experiences gave him more knowledge about mountains and nature. He currently works as a Rock Climbing guide and wall climbing instructor and has just become a national mountain leader in Nepal.
Nick Gredin
Nick was born and raised in the US and started his global journey by spending a semester in college studying abroad in Nepal. This experience inspired new passions in him in experiential education and travel as a tool for change. Nick went on to study and work at Naropa University, a Buddhist-inspired institution that emphasizes experiential learning. He earned his master’s degree in religious studies, with a focus on Sanskrit language and the contemplative traditions of the Himalayan region. He then trained as a Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician and returned to Nepal during the aftermath of the 2015 earthquakes to work for one year in rural Sankhuwasabha District. He joined the JUMP! Foundation in 2016 as a facilitator and program manager in other countries including Cambodia, China, and Malaysia. For the past few years, Nick has been leading international education programs in Bhutan, India, and Nepal, and he is happy to continue with this exciting work!
Ilana Gordon
Ilana was raised in Argentina and holds degrees in Teaching and Environmental Sciences. Since she was a teenager, she has been backpacking around the world. It was in March 2015 that she left her country to travel around the world and discover new cultures. Since then, she has lived two years in the South of Mexico, where she worked in rural schools helping provide water. Those experiences cultivate her passion for women’s empowerment and social change. For the last two years, she has been working in Experiential Education in China, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, and Peru.
Arienta Gita Wardhani
Arienta was born in Bandung West Java, Indonesia. She graduated from the Tourism Institute in Jakarta. She’s been to 20 cities in Indonesia as a local guide and tour planner. She’s also traveled to Europe on several occasions for a peace education program involving teenagers. Her passion for educating young people led her to become a camp director in Indonesia for peace education. These experiences have broadened her perspective on the importance of empowering people through understanding & acceptance. She also received her certification from Indonesia’s professional certification authority in Training Methodology. She enjoys watching movies in her spare time.
Sun Shu
Sun Shu grew up in a small town in Central China and during his college time, he decided to seek views around all of his motherland. For over 10 years he has left his footprints in every province in China. He has had the honor of contributing as an author of Lonely Planet’s guide on China and in doing so he can continue his endless exploring. For the moment, he is living in his favourite part of the expansive country, West Yunnan. There, he travels often between Dali, Lijiang, Shangrila, Tengchong, and other beautiful places.
Wigoto Prihadi
Though Wigoto was born in the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta, he now lives in a village very close to Gunung Salak, Bogor, Indonesia. In high school, he was active in social and humanitarian activities and joined the Indonesian Red Cross volunteer organization. He was involved in various Natural Disaster Management Teams in Indonesia. As a rescue team and post-trauma facilitator, he has been a medical team member in outdoor activities. These experiences led him to be a facilitator in experiential education, several international schools, and companies in Indonesia. He also loves to swim and now he is a swimming coach and does swimming therapy for adults who cannot swim. One of his other hobbies is to move to any rhythm, he really wants to be a dancer.
Malvo He
Malvo was born in Sichuan province in China. He used to work in the international trade industry, but he found out he didn’t like his face in front of a computer every day. He began working as an outdoor facilitator in Yangshuo and enjoys nature and education. He devotes himself to outdoor education and focuses on how to lead remarkable programs.
Reha Bublani
Reha suffers from “I can change the world” syndrome and is constantly working to establish personal connections with people she meets. She was born and brought up in India, but views herself as a citizen of the world. Sense of community and empathy are the two most important ways of life for her. Reha has been working with children and young adults in India and many other countries, with a focus on life-skills education, value-based leadership, and global citizenship. She believes that it is experiential education which can help us get past the crisis of community and crisis of character, which we are currently facing. Reha is an amateur star-gazer, enthusiastic bird-watcher, a proud dog mom and a serial people and tree hugger.
Zachary Schweitzer
Zach grew up in Philadelphia, where it is in fact always sunny. After graduating from university in Boston he moved to Southeast Asia, where he worked as a paralegal on the Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia. Since then he’s lived and worked in Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand for a variety of social and environmental non-profits, picking up languages and trying his best to maneuver myriad cultural intersections along the way. When he’s not working, Zach is bounding around in nature, climbing rocks, cycling, trail running, and indulging in his inability to sit still.
Jesse Keca
Jesse is a Canadian-born alpinist with a love of all things outdoors. Her adventure-based lifestyle was passed down from her parents, who cultivated her passion for traveling, culture, exploration, and mountains from a young age. She’s now found her second-home in Nepal, where she can wander endlessly through the Himalayas. As much as she can, she encourages those around her to explore nature and share in her enthusiasm for creating a healthy, sustainable planet. When Jesse isn’t guiding, climbing, barefooting, or drinking Chai, she’s working towards becoming an Osteopathic Practitioner.
Kim Casipe
Kim grew up as an advocate and a lover of life. She recently graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology in the Philippines. As a biologist, she has always seen the gap between scientists and people from local communities when it comes to scientific information being translated to address environmental and socio-economic dilemmas. That observation led to her passion for environmental education with an emphasis on interconnectivity and ecological understanding. She is an alumna of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) academic fellowship.
Kevin A. Aertsen
Kevin was born and raised in Andalucia, southern Spain. When he was a child, he could look through his window to see a whole other continent on the horizon. With this as his inspiration, he began to explore the Mediterranean. Over these years, he fell in love with the people and cultures he encountered along the way. He studied Arts and Photography in Granada, and his love for history and anthropology encouraged him to travel the world. Throughout this life-long adventure, he worked in Torres del Paine, traversed the Himalayas, cycled the Andes, walked the Pamirs and lived in the Australian outback. So, stay alert – you may have already crossed paths with him.
Coco Chen
Coco grew up in a beautiful countryside village in Southern China and finds herself deeply connected to nature. Coco cares about everyone around her. She enjoys supporting other people and being supported as well. Since beginning to work in experiential education and innovative education five years ago, Coco has developed the belief that everyone in the world is a unique treasure, and one’s life mission is to unlock it. Coco moved from Beijing to Guangzhou in 2017, and now she is continuing to explore herself as well as explore the world.
Rick Dobbie
Rick is an ex-Australian Army Officer with extensive leadership training and facilitation experience. Military appointments included command of a Leopard Tank Squadron and he was the inaugural Director of the Australian Defence Force Peacekeeping Centre. Rick has held a variety of specific training appointments that included responsibility for the personal development and leadership training of naval and military officers within the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and for regional defence forces as instructor and guidance officer.
Vanessa Nsouli
Growing up in South America, Vanessa dreamed of traveling the world to explore new cultures. Her first big move was to Canada. Vanessa is now pursuing an MBA at IE-Madrid with a focus on social impact. During this time of self-reflection, she also understood firsthand the value of learning by experience. She hopes that youth across the globe can have access to similar developmental opportunities/experiences. This is why she finds JUMP!’s work so inspiring and sees how impactful JUMP! can be in developing the region.
d’Arcy Lunn
d’Arcy Lunn is from Australia. He is a global citizen educator, communications expert and keynote presenter who is passionate about teaching, sharing, volunteering, traveling, and learning. For the past 16 years, his passions have taken him to more than 85 countries around the world – including Kyrgyzstan, Arctic Canada and throughout Africa working with UNICEF and others. Since 2009, d’Arcy has delivered a mix of information and inspiration in over 700 presentations and workshops to a blend of audiences from schools, universities, and hospitals.
Rebekka Flam
Born in Finland and raised in sunny Florida, Rebekka developed a love for travel at a young age. In high school, she embarked on her first solo journey in Taiwan. Since then, she spent a semester in Italy, worked summers in Finland, and volunteered as an environmental educator in Nepal. In 2015, Rebekka graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. in International Affairs and Environmental Studies. Her international experiences and her job at the FSU Center for Global Engagement sparked her interest in experiential education.
Lu Yi
Lu Yi was born and raised in Hunan, a province in Southern China. He participated in some charity associations in college and did an internship at a Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR) enterprise. In 2011, he graduated from Sun Yat-sen University and after, his passion for public welfare had led him to join Teach for China as a volunteer teacher. After two years as “Mr. Lu” in elementary school in the mountains, he stayed for another year in Teach for China as a program manager, whose priority is to train and support teaching fellows.
Megan Preston
Megan is from London, UK. She has facilitated 7 previous YPO Board of Directors Meetings and is looking forward to joining the JUMP! team again for another adventure. Megan is the Founder of Move The World, a charity focused on supporting personal and community development in the UK and Ghana and works for her father’s consulting business RISE Beyond.
Katharina Kirk
Katharina was born in Moldova, grew up in Germany, lived in the USA for 6 years and has spent the last 7 years around Thailand and Malaysia. She loves to discover new places, learn about the culture there, and try new delicious foods. After Kat graduated from Utah Valley University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science, she returned to Thailand and started implementing movement and experiential learning in her English Teaching Classes. Kat has worked as a corporate employee trainer, a Fitness Boot Camp, and Zumba Instructor.
Soel Winarno
Sulistyo grew up in Yogyakarta. He earned his degree in English from a Catholic university in his hometown. Sulistyo’s love in character building, combined with a passion for adventures, led him to outdoor activities. He came to JUMP! in September 2016, with years of experience in a variety of facilitation programs, from educational urban tours to wilderness expedition trips in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the USA. Sulistyo now works for JUMP! running programs on character development and environmental awareness.
Jacqueline Aldrovandi
Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Jacqueline is living the dream trying to find a balance between her love for working with youth and her passion for international development. Jacqueline was a full-time member of the JUMP! team in Beijing from 2011-2014, acting as a Partnership Manager, China Program Director, and most recently as the Global Program Director. Before moving to China, she spent eight years working at a summer camp for girls and volunteering in Thailand at a children’s home. Jacqueline has also worked as an intern at Free The Children in Toronto.
Bozy Lu
Bozy hails from Singapore. She is currently a 3rd-year law student at Yale-NUS College. A novice at improvisational theatre, Bozy finds pleasure in listening to stories and using humour to connect with people around her. She is extremely passionate about experiential education and has engaged in community work with youth for many years. During her free time, she roams around on her bike and with her camera. She enjoys capturing moments and snapshots of life.
Dan Kinzer
Dan came to JUMP! after several years of working as an international school educator in the Caribbean and East Asia, where he taught Theory of Knowledge, IB Psychology, Humanities, and History. Additionally, he was the faculty advisor for the Global Issues Network student group and coached several varsity basketball and volleyball teams. Dan has also spent time in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Suriname, Peru, and the Philippines, working to empower youth. Before joining the international school scene, Dan taught in a large public high school in northwest Florida.
Aveleigh Gateman
Aveleigh was raised in the quaint rural setting of southwestern Ontario, Canada. In a high school surrounded by cornfields, she devoured all of the global issues and art classes she could and her passion for positive social change was ignited. She’s been traveling her own unpredictable path ever since. Aveleigh has a degree in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa, as well as an MSc. in Arts & NGO management in France. She has spent the last 7 years turning into an ex-pat, traveling throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Mei Lum
Raised in New York, Mei Lum spent most of her childhood in the back kitchen of her grandparents’ Chinatown antique shop. Through her grandfather’s teachings of Chinese poetry, Mei became inspired to pursue her studies in Chinese language and culture as well as her passion for education and community development. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 2012 with a B.A. in East Asian Studies, Mei flew to the small quaint town of Phang-nga in southern Thailand and started her first year as a Princeton in Asia (PiA) Fellow.
Elise Tong
Elise is from Kuala Lumpur. She enjoys catching up on the newest films and television series, reading, travelling around the world, and meeting new people. Elise has spent a gap year visiting Cambodia, New Zealand, and France. She also has gone from working at an NGO, obtaining her ski instructorship certification, and getting a diploma for Basic Cuisine and Patisserie in Le Cordon Bleu.
Frank Cohn
Originally from Canada, Frank has worked with youth and community groups in over 100 rural villages and urban neighborhoods in almost 20 countries in Latin America and Asia. He is the founder of Global Potential, a youth leadership organization with 120 volunteers operating out of offices in 3 cities. Since 2007, Global Potential has provided over 2500 youth in New York, Boston, Paris, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua, with transformative life experiences through travel, cultural exchange, service learning, and experiential education.
Jillian Hamby
Jillian grew up in Maryland, USA, and spent her childhood traveling to soccer tournaments and playing outdoors with her 3 siblings. During college, she spent a semester in Florence. Her experience sparked a fascination with living abroad. Upon graduation, unwilling to settle for a 9-5, she decided to move to Prague where she earned a TEFL degree. After more traveling and networking, she was led to a teaching job in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Chiang Mai has been her home now for over 4 years. Hiking, camping, and eating are some of her favorite things to do in Southeast Asia.
Lawrence Smaller
Lawrence was raised in England. He loves sailing, kitesurfing, and surfing. Lawrence worked as a harbour patrol officer rescuing water users, as well as wildlife. He has a business degree and has a passion for meeting new people and sharing adventures.
Tina Zhao
Tina has worked in the outdoor education industry for 5 years. She is very passionate about working on experiential education trips with kids. She has worked in many different programs with several different companies. She is climbing instructor, certificated PSIA ski instructor, Wilderness First Responder, and PADI diving rescuer.
Andreas Patria Krisna
Andreas is inspired by the work and the impact of JUMP! on youth and joined in Jogjakarta in 2016 and Bintan in 2017. In the past, he volunteered as an English teacher for garment workers. Andreas has also handled corporate and outdoor training programs in Indonesia and led expedition teams to the peak of Mt Carstensz in West Papua. Andreas is a certified Wilderness First Responder and has a degree in theology and philosophy. Andreas loves yoga, digital art, photography, writing, and watching movies.
Larissa Chen
Larissa is an experiential learner and health innovation strategist, dedicated to community engagement and global exploration. Her passions lie in connecting with diverse individuals and identifying areas of strategic collaboration, empowerment & support. She’s completed her BSc in Population & Quantitative Health at SFU with specialties in gerontology, social equity, and health management, and currently works as the Business Development Associate at an immuno-oncolytic therapeutics R&D company called Virogin Biotech, and assists local businesses and non-profits with developing effective digital marketing & communications strategies. Larissa enjoys traveling, photography and learning about life-hacking and innovative systems change.
Pheerawitch Munsawang
Pheerawitch is from Chiang Mai, Thailand. He works as manager and facilitator at Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures.
Prashant Sharma
Prashant is an outdoor educator from the mountainous region of Darjeeling, in India. He started rock climbing when he was 14 and hasn’t stopped since. Prashant had climbed several mountains in the Himalayas. He loves to travel, beach, coffee, and motorbike. He has a degree in humanities.
Jackie Dodd
Jackie is an experiential educator and nature lover who has worked to foster communication and conservation in countries including the Philippines, Cambodia, and Indonesia, mostly with coastal communities, and often underwater. She also loves using the arts, especially singing and dancing, to open people up and bring them together. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA double major in anthropology and dance and is a scuba instructor.
Anna Roesler
Anna comes from Australia. She studied nutrition dietetics and exercise science at the University of Wollongong. Anna went to Nepal as an Australian Youth Ambassador for a year and enjoyed trekking and biking. She worked in health education throughout Southeast Asia. Anna is in Thailand now completing a PhD in health behavior change. In her free time, she likes doing laughter yoga, ultimate frisbee, and hula hooping dance. She also started facilitating TeamUp mindfulness groups.
Tan Cheng
Tan was born in Penang, Malaysia and developed a love for the outdoors since his first camping trip at 7 years old. But it was much later in life, after he observed the powerful effect of a 5-day outdoor challenge course on 14-year-old students, that he realized that facilitating learning is his true passion. That was in 2004. Since then he has not looked back and has worked with more than a thousand students in Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, and Australia.
Adhi Pramudya
Adhi had been roaming on mountains in Indonesia since he was a schoolboy has been completely captivated by experiential learning since 2002. Since then he has been working with thousands of people from business people, government employees, community members and students in many settings: indoor, outdoor, urban and wilderness. Although his career in experiential learning also shares a space with his other passion as a graphic designer for several years, he came back fully to the facilitation field in 2009 and put his whole heart in it. Adhi joined JUMP! in 2016 and has been working in facilitating and program managing for a wide range of students in different countries and different types of activities. He enjoys his time with good friends, good food, exploring nature, trying new fun things, karaoke and Instagram.
Monika Piasecka
Monika began exploring the world right after she earned her degree in Sociology from University in Poland. Ever since she’s been making her own path. The potential of a single human to make a change is what drove her passion for experiential learning. Monika lives by the motto that “adventure is a mindset” and she incorporates this attitude in the programs that she runs. She found her home in India and for the last 4 years, Monika has been facilitating programs all across south-east Asia and China.
Nigel Mojica
Nigel is an artist, facilitator, convener, and writer based in Vancouver, BC. He brings insights from his diverse experiences with hip hop, public health and social innovation to his work as a facilitator. In addition to the above-mentioned pursuits, Nigel is also an experienced voice narrator and emerging screen actor.
Zoe Paddon
Zoé is half-French and half-American and grew up in Miami, New Caledonia, Key West, Madagascar and France. After finishing her B.A. in Spanish and Global Studies, she worked in Switzerland, leading outdoor education trips, and then spent a year teaching English at a university in Santiago, Chile. She is passionate about travel and writing and hopes to pursue a Master’s in Creative Writing next year. Until then, she will keep exploring and diving into new environments and cultures, extending the limits of her comfort zone!
Satish Man Pati
Satish came from very humble beginnings – not of a mountaineering or Sherpa family or clan – and through hard work, a consistently positive attitude and a true passion for the mountains, he has built his life as a highly respected mountaineer and guide.
His story is compelling in light of Nepal’s many faces. On one hand, a mountain tourism mecca with Mount Everest presiding over breathtakingly high and beautiful peaks, and on the other an earthquake-prone country of devastating poverty – still trying to recover after 2015’s massive quake devastation.
He has summited Mount Everest (8848m), Cho Oyu (8201m), Manaslu (8163m), Lobuche Peak (6145m), Ama Dablam (6858m), Mera Peak (6476m), Island Peak (6160m), Nireka Peak (6159m) and many more. He also climbed Mount Denali (6190m) in Alaska where he participated in a National Park Exchange program, doing ranger patrols on Denali, in the Grand Tetons, and in Yosemite USA, supported by the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation.
He also has a great passion for working with young people from International Schools in South East Asia, with focus on personal development and experiential learning in the mountains.
Ge Qin
Ge Qin is from Yinchuan, Ningxia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Management. She previously worked as a director with Hunan TV and CCTV. Ge Qin loves to travel. For example, she went to Prague for an exchange program and traveled across Europe.
Emeline Gillingham
Emeline is a dynamic and enthusiastic French-Australian young professional interested in people, culture and sustainable development, and working in project management and stakeholder engagement in the fields of global education and Australia-Asia relations. Emeline is passionate about inspiring and empowering people, particularly young people, to create positive change and make the world a better place. Outside of her work at the Asia Education Foundation and her volunteer committee role with the UN Association’s Young Professionals Network, Emeline is currently learning Mandarin at the University of Melbourne’s Confucius Institute. Emeline has a Master of International Relations with Honours from La Trobe University. She was a delegate of the China-Australia Millennial Project 2017.
Lois Woodward
Lois is originally from the south coast of Wales but feels privileged to have been able to call Cambodia home for the last five years. She spent two years living in the Cardamom Mountains in the rainforest running an eco-lodge and taking guests on adventurous activities such as trekking and kayaking. These days she is settled in Kampot and enjoys being part of the community there. She has a passion for running and adventure and enjoys competing or exploring off the beaten track with her running shoes and a race pack at sunrise or sunset. Lois holds an MA in the developmental and therapeutic use of play and is experienced in using the outdoor environment for educational or therapeutic means. She is also an activity facilitator for climbing, kayaking, mountaineering, and yoga.
Darby Richards
Born in Florida and raised with love, Darby grew up adventuring. From trying to make homemade ravioli to biking across the southeast, she believes that anything can be a glorious adventure to be learned from if treated right. She attended the University of Florida for Visual Arts, specifically printmaking, which she likes to think of as a degree in creative, out of the box, thinking. After college, she “worked” as a Lego master builder, building large scale Lego sculptures now on exhibit all over the world. But sending Legos all around the world was not enough, Darby wanted to see the world too. She moved to Thailand to teach English for a year and has been traveling ever since. She has worked with youth both in and out of the classroom, leading outdoor adventure programs all over the US and internationally, she is excited to be joining us at JUMP!
Phanupong Somboon (BO)
After graduating from Phitsanulok University with a B.A. in Tourism Industry, Bo has been a rock climbing and outdoor educator for 6 years and has enjoyed every minute of it. Over the last 4 years, he’s had the opportunity to work with international students around the world – helping them explore Thailand and giving them the ability to get in touch with his home country’s culture, nature, community, and lifestyle. He hasn’t only stayed in Thailand but has had the chance to go to China and has had other adventures throughout SE Asia – immersing himself in cultures and languages along the way.
Neha Sadananda
Fearless to the ‘T’ and a driver by nature, Neha has a Masters in Psychology with over 10 years of outbound training and leadership experience. She truly believes that the way to learn is through one’s experience and thus the close nit association with Experiential Education. She has extensive experience in leading groups in wilderness settings, facilitating life skills and curriculum-based programs. Most of her experience has been in leading education programs in various settings with children across various age groups and of both rural and urban backgrounds. She holds a trainers certification in Outdoor Ethics with Leave No Trace, is a certified instructor in Experiential Learning, certified Wilderness First Responder, and an advanced scuba diver. Her other interests include fire poi, outdoor course design, community service and seeks to be challenged in all aspects of work.
Chris DeLacy
Academic curiosity and a passion to share his international perspective are core values shape the way Chris communicates and how he wishes to inspire through education. Chris’ first exposure to China came as a student abroad in Shanghai and Yunnan during the 2012 – 2013 school year, culminating in a short research project for his Cultural Anthropology thesis written in NW Yunnan. Princeton in Asia invited Chris back to China for two years of a service-based fellowship after graduating from the University of Oregon, where he taught several humanities classes at Shihezi University in Xinjiang and played a substantial role in the Linden Centre’s Travel Curating and Programming departments in Yunnan from 2015 – 2017.
Mandy Kota
Mandy was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. She completed a degree in Bachelor of Applied Science (Speech Pathology). She worked with children and families as a speech pathologist for 2 years but went through her quarter-life crisis where she questioned her passion for this field. In 2016 she realized how her passion started to shift towards empowering and the journey of young women to discovering their true identity. This passion led to moving to Melbourne, Australia and founding an organization called Twnty Something. Twnty Something is a movement to empower young women to become their full and complete selves in today’s world, where it tells women how they should act and look. She achieves this through her social media presence and face to face workshops run throughout Melbourne. Mandy is excited to see Twnty Something grow from strength to strength and continue to empower young women across the world.
Peter Liu
Peter has been working with international schools for over two years and helped thousands of students from all over the world to explore nature, the outdoors and also teach them new skills during different activities. These include rock climbing, kayaking, and archery to name a few. His passion for the outdoors comes from trying to get students out of their comfort zone, challenging themselves and building their confidence. During winter, Peter works in a resort as a skiing instructor, he teaches all different ages and different ski abilities. He is constantly looking for ways to better educate and run outdoor experiences. He is also a qualified WAFA, WFR, Leave No Trace Trainer and Level 1 PSIA instructor.
Joshua Devan
Joshua was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Developed a passion for football at the age of 7. He has been playing football ever since and wanted to become a football player. Over time he made many other sports his life and decided to major in Sports and Exercise Science in college and university. While studying he was really interested in Rock Climbing, so working in a local gym called Camp5 was the best thing to do. There, he has been guiding people and teaching children how to climb. After graduation he worked for an events company, but when JUMP! called him up to be on one of their programs, Joshua left his full-time job, and been on a growth curve with JUMP! ever since. While not on JUMP! Programs, he does advertisements as well as manage event in Malaysia.
George Vallis
George lived a nomadic life as a child, his parents’ work meant that he got to live in Hong Kong, Cyprus, and Saudi Arabia all before he was 10 years old. He eventually moved back to his native England and stayed there until he finished his school life. George graduated from the University of Plymouth with a degree in Marine Biology, and so the natural next step was to work in the Swiss Alps. Since finishing University, George has been involved in outdoor and experiential education in Switzerland, England, Spain and is adding to that list by coming to South East Asia. George also spent 3 months this year working with a charity based on developing businesses and entrepreneurs in a quiet rural town in the Kenyan Highlands. George is a huge football fan (it’s the one thing he misses about home) and loves basically any sport.
Shannon Beisley
Shannon grew up in Port Orchard, Wa and studied finance in Bozeman, MT. Where she found a passion for the outdoors. She enjoys hiking, biking, skiing, playing soccer, and ran two marathons in 2016. Since graduating Shannon has worked in Switzerland and Spain and cannot wait to explore more of the world.
Kristen Sherman
Kristen grew up about an hour north of Toronto, Canada. After spending a summer in Northern Ontario when she was 16, going on canoe trips, helping maintain a provincial park, and learning how important it is to get outside of your comfort zone, she embraced her love for adventure. She graduated from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Social Sciences, and in 2012 decided to relocate to Jaipur, India for six months. She worked as a Blogger and ESL teacher while traveling as much as she could around the country. In 2014 she moved to Seoul, South Korea to teach English. Kristen has lived in Seoul for almost three years (minus a few months here and there spent traveling and visiting home) and is excited to apply her experience to being a JUMP! facilitator, as well as continue to learn about different cultures and contribute to the personal development of youth. In her spare time, she loves eating all foods, reading, writing, exploring, doing yoga, and dreaming of being a surfer (she’s done it twice but will someday be a real surfer girl).
Rowan Hess
When not Jumping with JUMP!, Rowan is currently living in Australia teaching Outdoor Education and working in various schools as a relief teacher. He has been involved in Outdoor Education for the past 6 years of his life in various parts of the states and the world! When Rowan is not working for JUMP! he loves doing just about anything outside. Volleyball, Ultimate Frisbee, and rock climbing are a couple of his favorites.
David Ormsby
David started his career in Outdoor Education 5 years ago, studying at TAFE Western in Australia’s Blue Mountains. He has worked for numerous Outdoor Education and cultural immersion organizations in Australia and enjoys showing groups of young people the beauty of the natural landscape and teaching students about the indigenous people of Australia. David has also hiked in Nepal, snorkeled in Fiji, portaged in Canada, cycled through Laos and backpacked through more countries than he can remember. He is currently living in Laos and looking forward to facilitating with JUMP this season in the Southeast Asia region.
Fabricio Arguedas
Fab was born in San José, Costa Rica where he developed his love for the outdoors and nature. He loves being active and outdoors because he finds himself best in nature. He is convinced that learning how to respect yourself, nature, and other perspectives leads to a better world. It was upon traveling to Asia that he found his passion for Outdoor education. He knows that there is no better way to improve and grow than to step outside of his comfort zone and face his fears one at the time, always with a positive mindset. He has been also working in Central America, leading experiential learning trips in Costa Rica and Panamá. Fab also holds the Wilderness First Responder, First Aid and CPR, Technical Ropes Rescue: Operations, International Rafting Federation Guide Class III and PADI Open Waters Scuba Diver certifications as well as the Instructor`s Judgment and Sea Kayak Training.
Conrad Bergeron
Conrad’s passion for working with youth and the outdoors began at camp in Wisconsin. While going to university to study marketing Conrad spent his summers as a camp counselor and the school year working at the Boys and Girls club. After graduating, moving to Texas, and using his degree to work for a company selling advertising he knew he had to find something more meaningful. He took some time to explore Southeast Asia, before returning to the Midwest where he travels to grade schools teaching leadership lessons to students. Conrad has facilitated trips in Fiji and the Colorado Rockies. Conrad believes in living in the moment, making the best out of any situation, and helping others find their passion. He is thrilled to be a part of this community and facilitate with JUMP!
Racha Kerdsilp
Racha is originally from Thailand. She has spent the past several years living in Chiang Mai and working in the volunteer tourism industry where she has run and managed sustainable volunteer projects in both conservation and community development. Racha has traveled extensively throughout Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa. She enjoys nothing more than to embrace herself in new cultures, try local food, speak the local language and interact with local people. She is also very passionate about her country, Buddhism & meditation and love sharing it with people from all over the world. Fall season 2017 was Racha’s first JUMPing experience.
Casie Chalman
Casie is a passionate, motivated and enthusiastic educator from Australia. She has been working as an outdoor educator and experiential facilitator worldwide for over 15 years, with 5 of those years spent lecturing outdoor education at Victoria University, Australia. Along with holding a BA in Education, Casie is currently completing her Ph.D. thesis on helping young people to develop resilience and adaptive coping skills through outdoor education, assisting them to cope better with the stressors of today’s society. It is her vision to empower youth, impart knowledge and give opportunities for all young people to be a part of real life, meaningful experiences across cultures. In her spare time, she loves practicing yoga, meditation, personal development training, being active and exploring the world. Casie loves everything water! Frozen water for skiing, whitewater for rafting, and saltwater for swimming.
Sarah Louise Kristiansen
Sarah Louise Kristiansen is an international choreographer and movement director. She also runs Making Dance Happen, which brings dance and arts to communities globally. In addition to holding a BA (Hons) in Dance from Kingston University, Sarah Louise has travelled the world dancing and has worked in prestigious venues including The Royal Albert Hall (London) The Kremlin Theatre (Moscow), the Gwangju Biennial (Gwangju, South Korea) and has completed further training at Millenium Dance Studios and EDGE Pac in Los Angeles. Sarah Louise is known for her work with the Gwangju Biennale (South Korea), Awareness Through Dance (Ghana) and a series of her own work in venues in London and across Europe.
Oktavia Zamharin
Oktavia was born and raised in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She has an interest in local traditions, art, and culture. She had taught the theater (drama class) for several years until she graduated and holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Her passion for learning about experiential learning methods in the field of training and development is very much in line with her current profession as an Experiential Learning Facilitator. Oktavia first joined JUMP! in 2016 during the J! Experience program in Yogyakarta. She enjoyed activities in the outdoor with various adventure, education, and development programs. Oktavia likes to sing and dance, swim, explore the beach and travel. She likes to try and learn new things and get new friends. Oktavia wants to learn scuba diving and she plans to continue her studies in the field of positive psychology and collaborate it with Experiential Learning methods.
Teodoro Angelo Villanueva
Ted was born and raised in Bacolod City, Philippines. He started facilitating leadership and team-building programs back in 2013 with the Youth Empowering Youth Initiative, a local organization he co-founded. He has a passion for the arts, outdoors and youth empowerment, which led him to become a Physical Education teacher. Even with a full-time job as an educator, he takes time volunteering and organizing different programs for community development and empowering the Filipino youth.
Rianna Warkentin
Rianna is from Vancouver, Canada and has spent her life hiking or snowboarding on the mountains, or lounging by the lakes. Rianna has her degree in Social Work as she has a passion for community development. During her schooling, she spent time in South Africa helping to pioneer an anti-child trafficking NGO. She also spent time studying in Austria, where she mixed her passion for the outdoors with her curiosity for engaging in new cultures. Rianna’s love for engaging with people and cultures has brought her to work as a child protection social worker in Canada which allows her the time to help with JUMP! initiatives over in Vancouver.
Aie Darmawan
Aie was born and raised in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. She has graduated with a degree in Dutch from the University of Indonesia. Being outdoors is her thing! With the love of the outdoors, she spent years working with youth, leading backpacking trips, facilitating experiential learning and cross-cultural programs in several countries with various organizations. She loves traveling! When traveling, she enjoys nothing more than diving into new cultures, trying local foods, speaking local languages, and interacting with local people. She is also passionate about her country and loves sharing it with people from all around the world. Aie is an incurable optimist and has boundless energy, mainly fueled by caffeine from her tea and coffee drinking habit.
Emily Dymond
Emily grew up in Essex, England before her family emigrated to New Zealand when she was seventeen. A change of pace and a country full of natural beauty saw Emily develop a passion for the outdoors and adventure. After graduating from University with an Arts Degree she packed her bags and moved to Asia to begin working seasonally as an Outdoor Educator moving destination every three months. Emily is happiest when laughing with friends, walking around a new destination or searching for good food.
Dust Wang
Dust was born and grew up in a small village in central China. She was trained as an accredited social worker in Hong Kong and continued her overseas study tour to Europe later on. She has lived in Xiamen, Hong Kong, Singapore, U.K., Portugal, Denmark, and France. She is quite a traveler and has been to more than 30 countries. She works for NGOs and has a special interest in children and families, especially for child protection issues. She has been active in the work with children, youth and child protection workers. She is experienced in participatory training and facilitating group work. As a person, she is energetic and open-minded. She enjoys doing outdoor sports such as hiking and mountain trekking. She loves the connection with nature, as well as with people during different journeys!
Georgina Bourne
Georgina was born in Chiang Mai, Thailand, however grew up as a third culture kid between the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Thailand. She is an outdoor educator, with a University degree in Disaster Management. Since finishing high school she has spent her time volunteering and has gained work experience in Thailand, India and Nepal working with organizations supporting human rights, women empowerment, Water Sanitation and Hygiene, and community development based projects. She loves traveling, photographing people and livelihoods, outdoor swimming, exploring nature, volleyball, diving, and recently after a year in New Zealand, has a new found love for cycle touring and hopes to further explore the world by bike.
Alyson Chun
Born and raised in Michigan, Alyson has a strong background in Middle Eastern Studies and is proficient in Modern Standard Arabic. Alyson completed her B.A. in International and Area Studies at Kalamazoo College and received her M.A. in International Development at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. For many years, Alyson co-coordinated an after-school program focused on creative expression at Kalamazoo Central High School. Alyson continues to focus on the role of youth in the development process.
Ekkampon Jampa
Ekkampon is a passionate professional full of charisma and with superb communication skills. He has worked in multi-cultural environments with diverse groups and knows how to take initiative and how to make sure every voice is heard. He is a flexible, reliable, and inspiring Facilitator who is always open to hearing the opinion of others.
Sondang Amelia Karansiska Situmorang
Born and raised on the island of Sumatra with many diverse cultures in Indonesia, Sondang is really into cross-cultural understanding to reach harmony with each other. She studied tourism and her passion is making good and positive impacts on any work she does and every person she meets. She has been leading outdoor school experiences since 2010 with a variety of ages and schools from all over the world. Each coming to experience a little part of Indonesia on the small islands of Riau territory through social projects or teaching English. She also took university students to be immersed in the local community during homestays for cross-cultural studies. She has now been with JUMP! just over a year, running programs in Indonesia and China. She loves people, traveling, learning new things in life, singing and eating all kinds of desserts.
Samson Swanick
Samson Swanick grew up on a small farm just outside Phoenix, Arizona. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Global Studies, he moved to Java, Indonesia as part of a Fulbright scholarship. He was then awarded another Fulbright scholarship and lived a year in Sulawesi and went on to help design the summer camp program at the internationally acclaimed Green School. Inspired by the biodiversity and cultures he explored throughout the archipelago, he pursued a Master’s degree in Sustainable Communities with a focus on education. For the last four years, he has been designing and running experiential education programs for sustainability in Southeast Asia and running a permaculture farm. When he is not traveling, you can find him offering Tea ceremonies, meditating, building aquaponic systems, performing positive hip-hop, and seeing clients for transpersonal hypnotherapy sessions. Besides having a great passion for sustainability and transformational education, he is also a connoisseur of puns and dad jokes.
Wiebke Nedel
Originally from Germany, Wiebke lives in South Africa. She works as a freelance facilitator worldwide devoting her work and life to personal development and leadership in a global context. As International Programme Manager of Educo Africa, she runs wilderness and community-based Social Justice and conscious global citizenship courses for groups of academics, professionals and young people from all over the world. Experiential methodology and the use of wilderness as a tool for growth and self-recognition are central in her work.
Rachel O'Sullivan
Rachel comes from a small village on the west coast of Ireland and has always dreamed of big things. After years of volunteering and working as a swim teacher and swimming aid for children with disabilities she decided to go and study Sociology and Film Studies at University College Dublin. In 2011 she took her first steps into the Outdoor industry and quickly fell in love. In 2012 she moved to Hong Kong to pursue her dream career and has been working, volunteering and traveling ever since all over Europe, Asia, and Australia. She loves fairy lights and Christmas.
Liz Heller
Originally from North Carolina, Liz received her BA in Chinese Language and Literature with a minor in Sociology from George Washington University in Washington, DC. She spent her semesters interning at several child-advocacy non-profit organizations and her summers outdoors in the north Georgia mountains as a camp counselor and supervisor. She is currently pursuing a Masters’s degree in International Development and International Economics at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Tanya Dodgen
Originally from the USA, Tanya has spent the past several years living in Australia and working at the University of Queensland Global Change Institute where she coordinates online courses. Her role often branches out to allow her to explore the many ways to communicate science: from creating videos and facilitating workshops with school groups, to doing background research for policy documents. In her spare time, she likes to play frisbee, read, hike and volunteer for science projects, like the Flinder’s Reef Ecological Assessment.
Nabeela Abdullah (Ella)
Ella is from Malaysia. She discovered her love for the outdoors when she joined her school’s Explorers Club. She developed her skills while working with Nomad Adventure – coordinating and leading adventure-based learning programs that involved whitewater rafting, trekking, caving, and high ropes courses. This was further reinforced with her Master’s degree in Outdoor Environmental and Sustainability Education from the University of Edinburgh. Ecological literacy and a sense of adventure are the fundamentals of how she wishes to inspire students to build better human-nature connections. Reading, climbing, traditional dancing, yoga, jigsaw puzzles, and chocolates are some of her favorite things. With JUMP!, she hopes to empower students to believe that they can make a positive difference in the world in their own unique way.
Tawun Gregory
Tawun is half Thai and half-English and grew up in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Uganda, and Thailand. Growing up in a number of countries sparked his interest in experiencing different cultures and the outdoors. He holds a degree in Ecology from Bournemouth University and after graduating, returned to Thailand where he played professional football for a year in Bangkok before moving to Chiang Mai where he works at a fitness boot camp and as a downhill mountain bike guide. Tawun enjoys being active and can be found outside more often than not, either mountain biking, fishing, surfing or hiking.
Serafina Tane
Serafina was born and raised in a religious cult in Aotearoa, New Zealand until the age of 17. When the cult fell apart she set off on a journey across continents to discover life in the real world. Her daily life is dedicated to helping create a world where every person is empowered to own their freedom and to be who they choose to be. A world that embraces all of humanity as one community, with the same access and opportunity for everyone, everywhere. She loves to connect, listen, learn, share and co-inspire with people from all cultures, backgrounds, and ages.
Skott Taylor
Skott was born in Canada. He studied and worked as a professional actor before moving overseas in 2003. Upon arriving in Beijing, Skott founded NewSeed Theatre which, at the time, was the city’s only English-speaking contemporary theatre company. It was here that Skott moved behind the scenes and into the producer and director chairs. Between 2006 to 2010, Skott left China to pursue a music career in London, UK before heading back to Canada to continue his studies at Concordia University in Montreal.
Randall Coleman
Randy grew up in NYC and studied public policy and jazz in Washington, DC. During school, he discovered a love for the environment and went to work at the U.S. Green Building Council. After working in the green building world for a few years he set his sights on another industry that impacts the environment, agriculture. Randy co-founded an international NGO called Can YA Love that helps communities grow sustainable food using vertical gardens. He is also the Creator and Lead Facilitator of The Food Trade Game, an experiential learning tool to facilitate dialogue and action, to create a more just food system. He currently lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife and works at the Non-GMO Project as a business analyst.
Titus Kuria
Titus is one of the founding leaders of CMETrust, an organization working to advance education by providing secondary school scholarships to students in Nairobi. He grew up in the Mathare Valley in Kenya and has a good understanding of what life is like in the slum. Titus, popularly known as Tito, believes that to say life in Mathare is challenging is an understatement. It’s these barriers that he endeavors to alleviate through his contribution and participation in CMETrust and other initiatives so that the upcoming generations could have easier access to a better future.
Lewis Jepson
Lewis was born by the beach in Edinburgh, Scotland. Shortly after leaving school, he started teaching SCUBA diving. Diving led him to develop a love for the underwater world, but after 1000 dives he was ready for new things. He branched out and made sailing his new passion. Soon he was teaching offshore sailing to teenagers in the Caribbean. Lewis has spent over three years working in Asia and has worked with youth in Hong Kong, China and Cambodia, and the Caribbean. He has also lead a marine conservation project in rural Cambodia and been on expeditions in the Pacific.
Brendan Ternus
Brendan grew up moving around the world. He lived in Bahrain, Costa Rica, Estonia, Washington DC, Vienna, San Diego, Munich, and London before settling down for 4 years of university in the USA. After that, he taught photography and creative writing for a year in New Orleans before moving to Beijing to help start an experimental learning center there. Since early 2016, he has been traveling, taking pictures, and seeking out new projects and education collaborations – so he is thrilled to be working with JUMP!
Chérie Eliana
Originally from Hong Kong, Cherie was raised in California and has lived/worked in Azerbaijan, Romania, and Sri Lanka as a trainer. She coaches because she experienced a transformational journey at an early age when she made a 180 degrees turn in service of her passion and meaning she has defined for her life. Inspired by her facilitation experience in Romania in 2012, she decided to move away from a career path in marketing & management and instead became a professional certified coach. She aspires to pay it forward by empowering individuals (especially youths and young adults) to look for inspirations in their own lives and to coach them to make moment by moment decisions that would lead them to live a more meaningful life. When she is not at work, she practices Muay Thai, hiking, and camping. She also loves experiencing different cultures and has backpacked (mostly solo) to 45 countries so far.
Amar Singh
Amar is a dreamer, doer, community builder, systems thinker/shifter, and hugger who is born and raised in Vancouver, BC Canada. One of the reasons Amar is excited to be apart of the JUMP! team is because he gets to bring out the potential of others to catalyze positive change. When Amar is not facilitating programs with JUMP! he can be found working on creating system change (he is currently working on amplifying his universities ability to be a Change Maker campus and foster a culture of social innovation and entrepreneurship), reading/writing poetry, going for walks and exploring the beauty of Vancouver, or spending time with friends and family. Some of Amar’s past experiences include being head Coach for his old high school soccer team, mentoring with YELL! Canada, RADIUS Fellow, teaching assistant, business mentor for first-year students at his university, and coordinating volunteers for his local Rotary clubs annual fundraising gala.
Manuel Iniesta
Manuel was born and raised in Mexico City, where he graduated with a degree in Industrial Engineering. After 10 years of experience and training in Chinese martial arts, he followed his passion and ventured to China to learn more. While in China, he also studied the language and traditional Chinese medicine. For the past six years, Manuel participated in many cultural exchanges and volunteer programs in China, in multiple leadership roles. He has facilitated several experiential education programs for The Jump! Foundation in China and Southeast Asia. He currently works as a hiking and camping guide for the un-renovated sections of the Great Wall of China.
Brittney Woodrum
A proud Kentucky native, Britt graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2015 with a degree in Arts Administration, Spanish, and Theater. She first experienced the benefits of experiential education eight years ago when she attended a unique summer camp for rising seniors. She left feeling truly inspired and has since served as a facilitator for the past five years at that same camp. In her free time, Britt enjoys being in, around, or on the water. Her passions have taken her all over the world from lifeguarding at Disney World to training dolphins in Bermuda. For the past year, Brittney has been living in modest isolation at a Buddhist nunnery in Myanmar where she taught English and basic computer skills and, in return, learned about meditation and the simplicity of happiness. In addition to her work internationally, Britt helped found Art in Unlikely Places, a nonprofit which continues to serve the Lexington community through art therapy and creative workshops. Ultimately, though, Brittney is a student at heart.
Amalya Megerman
Amalya is an artist and educator from New Jersey, USA. Currently based in Beijing, she has taught, done research and traveled throughout China. She completed teaching fellowships with Princeton in Asia in both Xinjiang and Hunan and conducted independent research on women’s education and career paths in rural Hunan. Her art, which can be viewed at www.amalyamegerman.com, makes use of organic and recycled materials, including eggshells, bones, walnuts, sand, and shirts. Her experiential education work has included leading trips with Princeton University’s Outdoor Action program and facilitating arts and anthropology workshops with Gakko, a global, interdisciplinary education collective, in Japan and Romania. She can usually be found biking around Beijing, cooking up a storm, or reading.
Bun Khim
Bun Khim is the lead participatory facilitator and trainer at Agile and has over 5 years of experience developing, designing and delivering training for major organizations. Highly sought after, her key focus areas include skills, knowledge, economic empowerment, and cyberbullying for youth; financial literacy and sexual health for women; and low literacy financial literacy training for rural farmers and people with disabilities. Recently, she has been developing her own content for female-focused financial literacy, communications, and awareness as part of her new female-focused taxation advisory business, LadyTax. Working across gender and age brackets, Bun has experience running micro-enterprises and also mentors other women entrepreneurs. She’s currently designing a Khmer language disability social venture accelerator.
Chayot Nujan
Chayot was born and raised Yala, a beautiful and culturally diverse province in Southern Thailand. He recently received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a focus in International Relations. When Chayot was in college, he worked as a coordinator of the Thai homestay program for foreign exchange students at the Institution of South East Asian Affairs at Chiang Mai University for 2 years. Besides keeping tabs on current global affairs, he enjoys arts, languages, cultures, outdoor activities, and dancing. He is currently working as a nutritionist and cooking instructor as well as a dog runner.
Devin Perno
Devin grew up in the sunny state of Colorado, where he developed a passion for the outdoors. Devin completed a BS in Environmental Science with two minors in Geology and Geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He pursued experience in this field working at the US Geological Society and Colorado State Parks. With an urge to see more of the world, Devin moved to Hawaii before venturing further afield to work at an outdoor education company in Yangshuo, China. Devin discovered that working in outdoor education allowed him to be in nature, sharing with others the same experiences that he loved, and the valuable learning and personal growth implicit in this. Four years later, Devin is still based in China while working as an educator all across Asia. In his free time, he is climbing, hiking, playing music, studying Mandarin, and exploring the hidden corners of Asia.
Douglas Massel
Born in Nova Scotia, but growing up in Ontario, Doug has a wild drive to explore Canada. Water has always been a huge part of Doug’s life but adventures really began after he graduated high school and sailed across the Atlantic on a tall ship. Doug then went off to university to study Outdoor Adventure Leadership with a minor in Geography. After graduation and some soul searching in the North West Territories, he decided to make the move to Rossland, BC, to pursue his love for snow and snowboarding. Doug is the class clown, believing that a good laugh solves almost anything, because if you can’t find a reason to smile with those around you then what is the point in doing it. With a very competitive family, he loves to play any and all sport, game or puzzle.
Sofia Grego Mora
Sofía was born and bred in Barcelona, alongside her two brothers, but her enrollment at an international school gave her a taste for traveling and discovering the world. She has recently graduated from university with a degree in organizational psychology, including an exchange in Hong Kong and an internship in Bogotá, Colombia. She loves singing and playing her guitar and will go crazy for animals in general. Sofia does not know what her next step is going to be, but is eager to find out.
Aditi Agrawal
Aditi got her first taste for entrepreneurship when she started and grew her first NGO at the age of 17. Since then, she has worked across the globe in the education sector, as a program manager, curriculum designer, and facilitator, teacher, researcher, content developer, designer and impact evaluator. She has worked with several organizations in education globally, such as Centre for Civil Society, Educational Initiatives Pvt. Ltd., Aga Khan Foundation (Kenya) and Teach For India. Previously she led ngoFuel and College-100 (US).
Hayley Hucks
Hayley hails from California, where she spent most of her childhood exploring the seas of Santa Cruz with her surfboard. Upon graduating with a double major in English Literature and Children’s Theatre, she began leading multi-day backcountry trips through the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, Zion National Park, and Sequoia National Park. Most recently, Hayley has been working in China and Switzerland as an outdoor educator. When she isn’t zipping around the world, Hayley enjoys a solid sleeve of Oreos, milk, and a good book.
Annelies Tjebbes
Annelies Tjebbes is a Biomedical Engineer and Social Innovator with a passion and drive to enable positive systems change. She is fired up about addressing inequities locally and globally and improving livelihoods in communities. She loves working with and investing in people and through her time as the Director, Community Impact at Engineers Without Borders she developed a particular passion for supporting young social innovators. Annelies now provides strategic planning and facilitation services through AnneliesVera Consulting to support NGOs, businesses and community projects. Highlights of this work include designing and delivering Indigenous Innovation Sessions across BC for the First Nations Technology Council, developing a chapter engagement strategy for the BC Cycling Association, and piloting a VR project to support the reintegration of former inmates into society. In her spare time, Annelies loves putting her creative side to use, and staying active on the soccer pitch and on her bike!
Eva Ryder
Eva is from Vancouver, Canada. She loves spending time outdoors, traveling, and learning about new places! She also enjoys her job teaching swimming lessons. Eva is studying international development and is passionate about education and the environment. Her interest in these areas was sparked by a school trip to Bhutan, where she and her classmates helped the monks at the Phajoding monastery to build a new classroom.
Wendy Kung
Wendy Kung is a passionate educator and experiential travel writer who has been devoted to discovering hidden ancient sites while delivering an objective approach to different history and cultures in China. She attributes this passion to her experience as an international student in Beijing and Shanghai from 2003-2013, where she learned the technique of listening and merit of empathy. When not working, she loves cycling and all kinds of water sports, a habit picked up during her childhood in Taiwan.
John Cousins
John is an educator. He spent his childhood exploring the forests near Seattle in the Pacific Northwest, where his curiosity grew into a fascination with the way the natural world works. As a science teacher, he supported students as they learn to use models to understand the world around them and he worked with other teachers to develop and implement curriculum and instructional practices. While not teaching, you will most likely find John if you catch him on a run, stumble upon him reading in a cafe, or meet up with him after a backpacking trip.
Ratna Nisa
Ratna Nisa is originally from Jakarta, Indonesia. She has been a climber since she was 13 years old and has joined National, International, and South East Asia competitions. After receiving her degree in Industrial Technology, she moved to Bali Island where she has been living for more than 15 years. Ratna has been working at the Green School for 6 years and creates programs for students, individuals, school groups, adults and families. She not only loves climbing, hiking, and nature, but she also loves surfing and diving! Ratna leads may programs overseas as an Outdoor Educator. She holds certification and training in EFR; Water safety & Life Guarding; First Aid; AED; CPR; Leave No Trace Trainer; Professional Athlete; Basic and Intermediate Rock Climbing; Facilitating Students Program and Learning Outdoor ECO- Education. Facilitating Environmental Educations Program for International Student and Adult.
Michaela Slinger
Michaela grew up as an extracurricular activity whiz just outside of beautiful Vancouver, Canada, and thrives when in a group of interesting people working through challenges — be it performing a musical theatre production, a high stakes soccer game, or coming up with creative solutions to complex problems. She was a competitive youth swim coach for almost a decade, and also worked as a lifeguard and Red Cross swim instructor during her summers as an undergrad student at Quest University Canada. Michaela’s thesis focused on social-emotional learning and social justice in education, and she designed and implemented an after-school workshop in partnership with the YMCA. After graduating, she was chosen as a 2018 SFU RADIUS Fellow. Most recently, Michaela’s been working in Vancouver’s non-profit space, as well as recording her own music.
Nic Win
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah and raised mostly in the Greater Seattle area, Nic was spoiled by the rich outside expanses of the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Whitman College, where he swam at the Division III level and participated in the local school district’s mentorship programs. Nic’s international endeavors spurred after spending a year as an Americorps volunteer and YMCA-certified Personal Trainer serving underprivileged populations in Walla Walla, WA. Soon thereafter, he pursued a Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate and proceeded to teach English and Music at Singapore International School in Yangon, Myanmar for 8 months. He now hopes to continue expanding his and others’ minds throughout Southeast Asia.
Long Yun
Long Yun holds a B.A. in Physical Education from Yunnan Normal University. Growing up in Kunming, Long Yun began studying Martial Arts when she was 6 years old. In 2006, Long Yun became a Martial Arts teacher, as well as groups of international students and Chinese youth interested in entering gong fu competitions. She has also served as a judge for Martial Arts competitions. In 2010, Long Yun spent a year teaching Chinese and gong fu in northern Thailand, where she gained a rudimentary understanding of the language and culture. She has continued to dedicate her life to teaching and cares deeply about passing on her knowledge of Chinese culture and history to anyone who shares her passions. She remains incredibly excited about exploring new facets of Chinese culture with her students. In her free-time, Long Yun enjoys yoga, pilates, biking, hiking, running marathons and exploring new places and cultures. She also likes reading, writing, experimenting in the kitchen, and is gradually learning the art of baking.
Travis Wild
Travis grew up in Michigan and now spends most of his time in California, Colorado, Utah, and Canada. He’s is primarily a landscape, product, portrait, action, and night photographer and does videography for products, travel, and weddings. He is also a writer covering many topics from travel and adventure to homelessness and social issues. In his off time, he enjoys playing baseball, lacrosse, snowboarding, and playing with his dog Ayla.
Katrina Myers
Katrina began exploring human rights issues at a young age. She volunteered with Amnesty International, lobbying congressional officials across the country. This experience molded her identity, sense of self, and her place in the world. It led to her pursuit of a degree in Politics & Government. After her studies, she worked in a variety of sectors, from elections in US politics to international development abroad. Katrina thrives in new environments and cultures, striving to learn something new about the world around her and herself every day. You can find her balancing her all-in work style with yoga, meditation, dance, and daily reflection.
Carson Townsend
Carson hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico, home of the most beautiful sky in the world. Carson has lived in Chile, Morocco, Spain, and New England (which he considers to be a foreign country), and over the course of his escapades, he has developed a passion for coffee-snobbery, urban cycling, and youth empowerment, the lattermost passion leading him to JUMP!. With an eye to showing the world the benefits of experiential education as an effective avenue to youth empowerment, Carson is excited to be a part of the JUMP! community!
Claire Hardy
Claire has a background as a freelance dancer and choreographer which has shaped her career into project management and development. Claire is Co-Founder of Move the World, a UK-registered charity that advocates for youth engaged Global Citizens through Community Development. Through creative experiences and opportunities, Claire promotes leadership, confidence and global connection. She likes to be a bit crazy at times and believes that in order to effect real change a large element of creativity, passion, and fun needs to be involved. JUMP! Programs are close to heart for Claire and she’s looking forward to meeting some new faces, getting excited about the world around us and having a few good laughs!
Yunghan Chang
Yunghan grew up on the beautiful island of Taiwan. She was trained to be a financial analyst but decided she wanted to do more for the world so she took a big leap in a new direction and moved to Nairobi in Kenya to study Social Innovation Management. In Kenya, she helped local SMEs and entrepreneurs to grow by providing financial and strategy training and consulting service. Later on, she decided to explore experiential education after a 4-month gap in Mauritius working for marine conservation. She is excited to combine her professional skills with experiential learning to inspire youth for their own future paths.
Sarah Vázquez
Cat Allen
Cat, originally from England, has been traveling, photographing and adopting different cultures for the last 12 years. She has been teaching photography and working freelance in Chile for the last 6 years and is very excited to get involved with Jump!’s cultural and photography programs. When she is not meeting new people or taking photos, she is usually searching out and enjoying the best of the local street art and cuisine.
Lasro Bonaventura Situmorang
Lasro was born in North Sumatra, Indonesia and received his psychology degree in Yogyakarta. Lasro has explored many volcanoes mountains in Indonesia. Being outdoors is his thing! A combination of experiential learning opportunities and passion for adventure has led him to a career in the outdoors. He works as facilitator experiential learning in Indonesia and a mountaineering guide based in Yogyakarta. Ice mountain climbing is one of his biggest life-long dreams!
Laura Lam
Laura is an advocate for impact-driven businesses and brings a combined background of communications and research. She has worked with startups out of UBC’s venture accelerator, entrepreneurship@UBC (e@UBC). She is leading initiatives to promote greater diversity amongst entrepreneurs and looking to see how to create more equitable opportunities. Previous to e@UBC, she worked as a Strategy Analyst for a clothing retailer, conducting research projects and compiling quarterly reporting systems. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia, with a specialization in marketing and sustainability. Outside of work, Laura is part of a local organization combatting human trafficking, as well as the Vancouver Rent Bank. Laura is an avid traveler, hockey geek, amateur gardener, and experimenter of new recipes.
Kalyan Keerthi
Beyond the curriculum of the classroom, most of Kalyan’s growing up and education has been through his “travel pursuits”. He learned essential life skills to tread through the mountains, breathe in higher altitude with ease, walk through the valleys and passes, fly in the air with sails and zeal, dive into the deep seas, and currently earns a living as an outdoor consultant. Kalyan is a passionate person whose experiences in the field of education include creating and leading Mountain biking expeditions, setting biking trails and ropes course activities, leading high altitude and trail hikes, facilitating water sport activities, creating and leading high altitude motorbiking expeditions, he has also gained rich experiences in Nature Conservation and Census Wildlife programs in India
Will Ji
Will grew up in Beijing, China and graduated from RPI in NY USA. Will has a global vision of education. During college, he was a fellow with the dean of ECSE department and had done a few projects on OpenCV. When he came back to China, he founded Electricats Maker Edu, an organization that supplies maker education courses to schools. He has now become the consultant of ISB and PKU school and has been teaching more than 1000 students. Will joined the JUMP! team in 2017 and has been recruited several times for computer-related courses.
Sara Grove
Sara grew up in Music City USA (Nashville) where she let local tunes sate her wanderlust in between adventures. From working with teen therapeutic groups and teaching ESL in Central and South America, to coaching athletic teams and leading wilderness trips, Sara has worked with youth all over this beautiful planet as guide mentor, teacher, and friend. She is a Wilderness First Responder, Swift Water Rescue expert, and a PASA certified kiteboarding instructor. Last year she lived in India earning her teaching certificate in Yoga and meditation. Sara’s home base is Bend, Oregon, and she’s thrilled to join JUMP! in Chiang Mai this year!
Dahan Peng
Dahan was born and raised in Beijing. After graduating from Urban Design in England, she went back to Beijing and started to pursue her passion for Film and Photography. She has a spectrum of experiences on film sets from camera to lighting to the art department, as well as production and acting. When off-set, she is an independent photographer and scriptwriter. Right now she is working on her documentary series aimed to raise awareness for gender equality.
Vikraant Singh Sanwal
Vikraant “grew up” (although no one’s sure that he still has) as the definition of a nerd – as far away from anything outdoorsy as possible in a middle-of-nowhere place right beside the geographical middle-of-India. Using superpowers endowed to him by his mother, he spent his early life exploring the Earth and many more worlds through English literature and embracing a problem-solving approach to challenges through computer programming. Having been a Student Ambassador for Google, Microsoft, Mozilla etc. educating communities on the latest computing technologies, it took one visit to the Himalayas to begin his evolution into an Outdoor Educator who educates himself and children (he tried working with adults, in layman’s terms – yawn) through experiences, self-exploration, solitude, studying ecology, active-lifestyles, barefooting, the value of fun and of course Linux.
Isabelle Perry
As a native Californian, Izzy grew up outdoors. Since her early days of playing in the dirt, she has gone on to guide outdoor trips in Hawaii, California, and other parts of the US. She has also guided various outdoor activities in Hong Kong and parts of mainland China. Her personal hobbies closely coincide with her work passion, so she loves to mountain bike, practice yoga, hike, and of course, eat food. From managing five backpacking stoves at a time to using her shoes as a pillow, Izzy loves being outside and having fun with kids.
Tyson Hale
Tyson was born in California, and at a young age moved to the Rockies where he grew his love for the outdoors. He has a huge passion for experiential education and seeing the impact it can have on himself and others. Tyson has worked in after-school programs, at his college as an outdoor recreation leader, in Alaska as a glacier guide and continues to work with youth groups all around this wonderful world. He is certified in Wilderness First Responder, Adult CPR, Lifeguarding and Search and Rescue. Tyson loves a good healthy smoothie or pizza, which is usually the order of his daily food intake… More importantly, Tyson is excited to join JUMP!
BiIlly Lu Wen Jing
Billy was born in HuiZhou, China. Long-term travel experience a few years ago gifted Billy with the discovery of the incredible natural world and outdoor activities, something that changed his life. Breathing in fresh air, taking in spectacular views, and sweating in the wind helped him understand that his path in life was in the outdoors. He realized he can make so many people’s lives different, especially those who are looking to leave the city and escape into nature for the first time. What’s what he was born to do.
Sara Lewis
Sara is a Registered Clinical Counsellor who works with a diverse population of youth and adults in BC. Canadian born and raised in England, Sara returned to B.C. to complete her Master’s degree in Psychology in 2012. She now lives with her dog Cooper in North Vancouver and loves exploring the North Shore mountains. In her spare time, you can find her hiking, snowshoeing, painting, cooking or spending time with friends.
Gabrielle Pulig
Gabby grew up on the West Coast of the United States. She started her career in education as an Earth Science Teacher and established her foundation of facilitation skills in the classroom. Her love of the outdoors brought teaching opportunities across the nation at numerous outdoor education schools, farms, and most recently Directing and leading backpacking trips at teen-adventure travel companies. Gabby is always excited to empower her students and create accessible opportunities for all to work on their leadership skills in an outdoor setting!
Ihtiar Nur
Ihtiar is from Jakarta, Indonesia. He developed an interest in experiential learning after volunteering at an international organization that aims to build global friendships through peace education and ‘learning by doing’ for youth before joining Jump!. It amazes him how everyone at Jump! puts their best efforts and intentions to promote a positive learning environment for all.
Alice Shaddick
Alice is an Australian with a great love of travel and Outdoor Education. She spent ten grueling but rewarding months studying with Outward Bound Australia in 2015. She has since used her qualifications in Outdoor Education to travel the world working in Nepal, Cambodia, and Malaysia. One of her career highlights was traveling to Dhading in Nepal where she worked in remote villages that had been affected by earthquakes and landslides. Here she helped teach first aid and taught the community about emergency response techniques. Alice is passionate about expanding her own comfort zones and also those of the participants she works with.
Travis Scherschel
Raised in the rolling hills of Southern Indiana, Travis fell in love with the outdoors at a young age. He studied Psychology at university. After a few years in outdoor education around the US he started pursuing new geography and challenges on an international level. Continuing to find love in the outdoors, Travis enjoys documenting with photography. When he is not leading groups you will often find him wandering the woods, camera in hand.
Maria Rubinchik
After several years of traveling, Maria has settled back in her home of Vancouver, BC, where she spends her free time rock climbing in Squamish. Maria has a Bachelor’s Degree in Tourism Management and has been working for the YMCA of Greater Vancouver for the last 6 years. Maria is passionate about working with youth and young adults, as well as increasing her knowledge of mental health in the community.
Melissa West Morrison
With one foot in cedar and another in bamboo, Melissa is on a life long journey of catching the flow of her ancestors. She is from the ‘Namgis Nation of Yalis, Alert Bay. With the gift to walk multiple worlds, she works to facilitate conversations and opportunities for both communities she is from to come together, learn more about each other and to create spaces for bridges of solidarities to form between all cultures and communities. Her undergraduate degree was in First Nations and Indigenous Studies and minored in Law and Society as well. Exploring her mixed roots identity is also at the heart of Melissa’s artistic manifestations. Through the creation of fashion designing, poetry writing, filmmaking, photography and getting involved with land-based education, she explores topics of love, identity and what it means to find (be) longing through (dis) placement and how one can have body sovereignty through all this.
Camille-Alexie Chalifoux
Cami grew up in Montreal, Canada. After completing a degree in performance arts, she packed all of her belongings to follow her passion, the outdoors. She chased the mountains instructing snowboarding and yoga in Japan, New Zealand and around the Canadian Rockies. She developed a strong interest in experiential education working as a tour guide, leading youth on road trips around North America to expose them to social and environmental issues. These experiences have cultivated her enthusiasm to empower young people to find what makes them feel alive and build self-confidence to discover their own potential.
Alia Kamaluddin
Aalia is a person who love to laugh like a crazy person and that makes people around her aware that as an outdoor Instructor it is crucial to enjoy the moment in outdoor education. She loves to shared her knowledge like there is no tomorrow. She is a person who accept people who they are. Aalia started building her career as an outdoor instructor in the outdoor education field in 2013 at Indiana University Outdoor Centre , Bradford Woods, USA. She also created meaningful experiences in numerous companies in Malaysia, Singapore, China and Vietnam. She has a warm heart and is competent in dynamic facilitation.
Olivia Kafka Sackler
Olivia’s Anthropology and Environmental field studies in school have brought her to the Galapagos Islands, South Africa, Banff national park, and even an eco-village outside Asheville, NC. Beyond her travels with school, Olivia has spent summers traveling since she was twelve. She has led hiking trips in New England, backpacked through Yellowstone, biked from Seattle to San Francisco, sailed from 3,000 miles, studied animal behavior in Costa Rica, done community service and SCUBA diving while hiking through Fiji and Australia, and led outdoor trips in Northern California for young teenagers. Olivia takes great pleasure in sharing outdoor experiences with others, something she has done as a pre-orientation trip leader and co-president of the outing club at the College of Charleston.