ANNA KAYES

The College of William and Mary, B.A., Anthropology, B.A., Environmental Policy

While at William and Mary, Anna studied Mayan Archaeology and played on the varsity soccer team. Anna studied abroad in Guatemala, where she camped in the rainforest and joined excavations at several Pre-Classic Maya sites in Tikal National Park. After graduation, she worked as a research and curatorial assistant in the Department of Archaeology at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., before moving to India and Thailand for a year to teach English. While volunteering in India, Anna lived in a Tibetan Buddhist children’s community where she ran a youth soccer program and worked with community members to build a field in the local village. She also began a girls’ soccer team at a high school in Thailand, coaching the team through the school’s first tournament. During her time in Asia, Anna also traveled through Nepal, Cambodia, and Laos. She now lives in Vermont and works full time for Putney Student Travel. She directs programs in Iceland, Dominica, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Thailand. Anna has twice led Putney’s Community Service program in Dominica and led our Cultural Exploration Thailand program in summer 2015.

MATT PIERCY

Oregon State University, B.S., Sociology; University of Colorado, Boulder, M.A., Elementary Education/Bilingual Education

During college, Matt studied abroad in Australia. While earning his master’s, he taught in diverse inner-city public school settings. Matt has lived and taught in Quito, Ecuador, for five years, studying Spanish and volunteering with underprivileged children. He spent a year traveling through Mexico and Central America studying ancient civilizations. Matt has also taught in Budapest, done a self-tour by bicycle through Cuba, and ridden several stages of the Tour de France. He has traveled to the Galápagos Islands, Nepal, and Southeast Asia. Matt has taught Social Justice and Sustainability to students grades 3–12, and has taught middle school on the Big Island of Hawaii for the past nine years. He has led student groups to New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Vietnam, and Peru. Matt is fluent in Spanish. He has led Putney’s Global Awareness in Action Cambodia and Middle School Alaska programs.