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Staff

President and Executive Director

mbeckwith@jacarandaeducation.org

Michael Beckwith is the founder of Jacaranda Education. He was born and raised in London, UK. After studying for an under graduate degree in Hebrew and Arabic language at University College London and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Michael’s early career began in Washington DC as a research assistance and translator for a Middle East think tank. Disillusioned with the pessimistic reality of modern-day Middle Eastern politics and development initiatives he pursued a Master’s degree in International Education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University with the aim of participating in more constructive activities. After several years coordinating adult, international and public education projects in NYC he established Jacaranda and set up an office in Oaxaca City, Mexico. He is currently setting up and establishing a second office in Mexico City where he resides and works. He has lived in Europe, the Middle East, The United States, and Mexico.

Co-Founder and Executive Director

lcastellanos@jacarandaeducation.org

Liliana Castellanos is a co-founder of Jacaranda Education. She was born in Bogota, Colombia and raised in Europe and Washington D.C. She began her university studies at Pratt Institute in NYC and concluded her studies at Columbia University in NYC. In her early career she worked for investment banks and law firms handling pension funds in the competitive financial industry of New York. She soon found the desire to help the underdog and have a stronger impact in changes she foresees necessary in the world. Her focus moved to theatre film and development. She received a two-year post graduate degree in theatre in NYC. After working in the film-documentary industry for several years she began aiding immigrants with their education and writing grants for an education based non- profit in NYC. Soon after she moved to Oaxaca, Mexico to help establish Jacaranda Education and is now happy to be connecting education to film making by coordinating the Adobe Youth Voices Project.

Project Coordinator: Oaxaca

chrislockwood@jacarandaeducation.org

Christopher Lockwood is the Coordinator of Educational Programmes for Jacaranda Education. He is from Halifax, U.K. and studied English & American Literatures at the University of Keele, U.K. and Loyola University New Orleans, U.S.A. He went on to gain a place at Girton College, University of Cambridge, U.K. to read an M.Phil. in American Literature. He is a specialist on the role of the American Frontiersman in the Nineteenth-Century, and the literary and artistic movements surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Christopher currently coordinates the Instituto Blaise Pascale Project in Oaxaca and the International Award for Young People Project for Mexico and works with museums, charities and other educational institutions to design and develop educational projects and programmes. He also coordinates international arts projects for middle- and high-school students.

Community Educator/ Teacher

cprossnitz@jacarandaeducation.org

Christopher Prossnitz is an artist and an educator from the United States. He grew up in Woodstock, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. After spending a year in Thailand as a foreign exchange student, he attended the University of Illinois where he pursued a degree in Cultural Anthropology. During this time he also began to learn Arabic. After studying for a semester at the Jordanian University in Amman, Chris spent six months working with a cultural center and a news organization in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. The following year he spent six months interning in the Education Department of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Beirut, Lebanon. In addition to his interests in education, Chris is also a practicing musician. He began playing the guitar at age 13 and quickly became interested in a wide variety of musical styles, particularly hip-hop. As a producer and MC he has collaborated with artists from all over the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Inspired by his time spent working with youth at the Ibdaa Cultural Center in the Dheisheh Refugee camp in Bethlehem, Chris became very interested in the role of arts in education, particularly how arts may be used to address issues of social justice and to build community. After completing his undergraduate studies in 2011, he went on to earn a masters degree in Arts in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Designer

andreavargas.studio@gmail.com

Andrea Vargas was born and raised in Mexico City. She has always had an affinity for the arts and graphic media, which led her naturally into a career in graphic design. Since finishing her university studies she has worked for a number of private companies where she has gained experience in corporate branding, managing, and print. In 2008 she began to work as an independent and to add to her education through drawing and painting courses with Mtro. Guillermo Getino and Mtro. Alfredo Nieto. She has also added an degree in illustration to her resume from the Academia de San Carlos, UNAM, where she studied under Mtro. Gerardo Suzan. Most recently she began to collaborate with the team at Jacaranda Education working on design and layout for a number of education and textbook publications.Andrea loves art & crafts, and believes in high quality work and the creation of images.

Director of Development

bethpage@jacarandaeducation.org

Beth Page Coming Soon.

Communications Advisor: Mexico City

gsantana@jacarandaeducation.org

Georgina has six years of experience with audiovisual production. Her experience working with government agencies and production companies in the UK and Mexico has equipped her with a global perspective that helps her understand the communication needs of each project she works in. She has collaborated on the production of TV and radio spots, e-learning packages, educational programs and documentaries. Georgina began her career in communication with the Mexican Institute of Youth where she was Public Relations Manager. Subsequently she worked as Direction Assistant in several production companies such as: The Image Shop and Watson Films. Before going to London she worked in the Federal Electoral Institute as Chief of Media and Audiovisual Production. In 2009 she completed a Masters degree in Documentary Practice at Brunel University (UK). Upon returning to her native Mexico she joined the Ministry of Public Education as Communication Advisor where she has developed materials such as: websites and brochures. Most recently, Georgina has been teaching Audiovisual Communication at Ibero University in DF. She is about to emabrk on an exciting new position with the publishing company Santillana

English Language Studies Teacher

ccroca@jacarandaeducation.org

Claudia Constantine Rocawas born and raised in Mexico City. Her father was an American and her mother is Mexican. She is married with two sons. Her husband is a doctor and currently working in Secretaría de Salud here in Oaxaca. Her oldest son is 22 and studies Phylosophy and the other is 11 and studies 5th grade in La Salle. Claudia studied a bachelor's degree in UNAM and later took a diploma for English teachers at a professional level certified by Cambridge University. She has given English and History classes for more than 25 years from primary school through college. For the last 8 years, she has worked in two private schools in Mexico City as a History teacher but kept on teaching English privately. She has also taught at Universidad Iberoamericana and at UNAM. For seven years, she worked at the National Archives as underdirector of the Historic Archives and afterwards became coordinator of a long distance education centre. Other than teaching, she loves to be with her family and her friends. She enjoys reading: history, literature, phylosophy, etc. She likes to visit museums, art galleries and travelling, as well as sports. She is hoping to keep on giving classes for a long time and would very much like to become a writer specially writing about history and historic novels.

English Language Studies Teacher and Basic Level Coordinator

gavendano@jacarandaeducation.org

Maria Gabriela Avendaño Cruz was born and raised in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has been an English Language Studies teacher with Jacaranda Education with the Blaise Pascale project since 2007. In 2002 she graduated from UABJO with a teaching degree in foreign languages. In 2006 she was the recipient of a Fullbright scholarship to study and work at Gardner Webb University in North Carolina. Gabriela currently teaches both secundaria and preparatoria classes. In 2009 she began to focus her teaching on Beginner level studies and has had a lot of success in developing this area of studies for the English Language Studies Department at Blaise Pascale. Gabriela is constantly looking to further her skills. In the fall of 2009 she successfully completed a diploma course with the University of La Salle which focused on Classroom Management and constructivism in teaching.

English Language Studies Teacher

tnichol@jacarandaeducation.org

Tara Nichol Born and raised in Toronto, Tara is happy to be the first Canadian to join the Jacaranda team. She completed her degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2003. She then moved to the West Coast of Canada to begin her career working with special needs children and marginalized youth. Tara is very proud of her work with kids needing special attention as this experience has helped her learn a lot, including how to approach problems creatively and looking at things from different perspectives. From here she went on to pursue her love of travelling, particularly in Latin America, visiting over ten countries in the region. After completing TOEFL certification in 2006 Tara taught English to both adults and children in Nicaragua and Panama. While working with Jacaranda Education she hopes to incorporate issues of social justice from around the world in her classes in a way that young people in Mexico can relate to. Tara believes that thinking critically is an important part of education including keeping an open mind and always looking at issues from more than one point of view.

English Language Studies Teacher

gguzman@jacarandaeducation.org

Gayne Guzman Was born in México City where she lived and worked in the educational field in English language acquisition and implementing the best method for a holistic approach in teaching and learning. She has participated in a wide variety of courses, activities, programs where the main goal has been to apply educational trends that mean the scaffold from where students can begin the construction of their own learning and in which a commitment with all human beings and the environment becomes a purpose. She has a degree in “Educación Integral” from the Universidad de Tlaxcala, México, twenty-five years of experience as coordinator of the International Baccalaureate programs, coordinator of the English department and director of the Secondary level at the Liceo Federico Froebel in Oaxaca. She has given courses to elementary teachers, and worked as teacher in México City, as well as in Oaxaca where she has been living since 2006. Her educational philosophy and responsibility is to form tolerant, respectful, caring people who can belong to a world without boundaries.

United Nations and Adobe Youth Voices Teacher

mitaka@jacarandaeducation.org

María Ítaka was born and raised in Oaxaca City, and moved to Mexico City to study English Literature at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM. She has always valued the importance of words and languages, so she specialized on translation. She is also interested in cultural exchange affairs so she created the initiative of "Ithaka Trips" project, which seeks to improve travelling experiences through deeper cultural and educational trips. Currently Maria works as a freelance translator and language teacher. She believes that education is one of the most important needs our changing world demands.

English Language Studies Teacher

taragon@jacarandaeducation.org

Constantino Rojás Aragonwas born and raised in the city of Oaxaca. He studied Tourism Management at Instituto Tecnológico and has been studying English since he was 10. Later he moved to Portland, Oregon USA where he studied a course of Civil Rights and was part of the ESL program participating also as a Spanish Teacher Assistant. He taught Conversational Spanish for 2 groups there. He loves teaching English, because he believes that we learn by teaching, in fact he has taught the language for more than 15 years in different universities and private schools, he always trys to show his students the importance of responsibility and respect.He likes to communicate with people and learn new languages. He also speaks French which he learned at the Alliance Française in Oaxaca.

Office Intern: Oaxaca

intern@jacarandaeducation.org

Carlos Iván Mendoza Ruiz was born in Oaxaca on 5th of November 1994. When I was 6 years old I moved to Puerto Vallarta, and since that age I learned oil painting as well as Tae Kwon Do. At school I demonstrated having good skills in the field of public speech, having achieved second place both in English and Spanish at a competition that included junior high school students when I was just eight. I went back to Oaxaca where I learned to play instruments such as keyboard and piano. I was part of a youth orchestra named Arsnova, having presentations and solos in places such as Teatro Álvaro Carrillo, IAGO, Instituto Carlos Gracida, Casa de la Cultura Oaxaqueña and different parts of the Zócalo and Centro Histórico. I worked in the Museo de Filatelia as a part of social service program. I have also enrolled myself in courses of narrative and literary creation, Mandarin Chinese, French and Photoshop. Last year I obtained a certification of Cambridge University in English. I studied at Universidad La Salle Oaxaca until august 2011 when I continued my preparatoria studies at Instituto Blaise Pascale. Now I’m in sixth semester of prepa, doing my best and looking for a college scholarship. I want to be a biotechnology engineer and specialize myself in genetics. Working at Jacaranda Education is very enriching for me as I feel it’s an institution that is really involved in education, a matter that concerns everyone.