2009 El Salvador leaders: Sarah Mackin and Brian MikelSARAH MACKIN: Bryn Mawr College, B.A., Sociology and African-American Studies. During her undergraduate career, Sarah took on the role of community activist and organizer both on campus and in the surrounding communities. She helped found and facilitate the Hot Topics program, an extension of the Intercultural Affairs Office of Bryn Mawr College. As a sophomore, Sarah travelled to Guatemala with a Human Rights delegation, working with various local organizations dedicated to restoring social justice in the country. Moved by what she experienced, Sarah returned to Guatemala independently to work as a healthcare worker with the founders of a fledgling non-profit, The Guatemala Healthcare project. Sarah traveled to South America as a Mellon-Mays Fellowship recipient to conduct research with Indigenous Mapuche social activists in Chile and Argentina. She volunteered as an HIV/AIDS educator with the homeless in Philadelphia. She developed and implemented an ESL curriculum for a local Boston women’s shelter, and created a public health class and focus group for young, low-income undocumented mothers in Philadelphia. Sarah recently returned from a year-long post as a volunteer teacher in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, and is currently working with a fair-trade coffee company to create a charitable foundation to benefit coffee-farming communities in Latin America. She looks forward to pursuing a degree in Public Health or Public Policy. Sarah is fluent in Spanish.
BRIAN MIKEL: Tufts University, B.A., International Relations. During high school Brian participated on community service trips to Sonora, Mexico, which fostered a desire to learn more about Latin American cultures, people, and idioms. Prior to enrolling at Tufts University, Brian spent the year in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student. He also spent a summer teaching English at the Center for Exchange and Solidarity in El Salvador. Later, he continued his teaching in Boston at the Brazilian Immigrant Center. Brian then returned to El Salvador to research community-based microfinance institutions. He has traveled and studied in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Uruguay. A passionate soccer fan and player, Brian has played semi-professionally in Argentina and earned regional honors playing at the collegiate level. Brian currently lives in Los Angeles and works enforcing equal employment opportunity legislation. This will be Brian’s second summer with Putney. He led this Global Action El Salvador program in the summer of 2006. Brian is fluent in Spanish.
