Educational Travel
WE THINK GLOBAL
MEET OUR TEAM
“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill
MS. TEDESCHI Current Group Leader
I am a Social Studies Teacher at Huntington High School and have been teaching since 2002. I attended college at Pace University in Manhattan and obtained my Bachelor of Arts with a major in History and minors in both Education and Women's Studies. I continued my education with a Master of Arts from Stonybrook in Secondary Social Studies Education and a Master of Library Science from Queens College and I am also a certified school librarian. I currently attend St. John's University and I am studying Italian Language and Culture. I love to teach and travel. I enjoy school and learning. I strongly value the education that I acquire from my travels. All of my life I have loved to travel. I believe it is a passion that comes from within. No one in my family ever traveled out of the country during my childhood and yet at the age of 16 my love for travel began during a high school trip to France. This love for travel has continued to grow over the years. In the past ten years I have been fortunate enough to travel and study in a significant amount of places around the globe including Kenya, Tanzania, Monaco, India, China, Vietnam, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Spain, Peru, Belize, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Colombia, Aruba, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe just to name a few! I always tell my students that they should take any opportunity to study abroad and to travel because by experiencing different cultures an individual can truly figure out who they are as a person and where they fit in this world. Every single time I have been to another country I have come back a a slightly different and better version of myself. I gain a greater understanding of the culture and history I am involved with during my travels that builds a deeper appreciation in my heart for what I have and where I live. Education is essential in life, but there is an abundance of knowledge that is unattainable in a classroom and some that you can only receive from experiencing the world around you. There is no better lesson in history than bringing students through the story of the past not by reading a textbook but through the lens of past cultures and more importantly their own lens which is why I value being a teacher and a traveler. Please read and follow my travel blog-http://villageconnection.weebly.com/tedeschi-the-traveler
MS. PIFFARD Former Group Leader & Chaperone
I am an art and photography teacher. I have 20 years experience teaching at the high school level. I attended Parsons School of Design in NYC for my Bachelors in Photography. I obtained my teaching degree from Columbia’s Teachers College and I have 2 Masters degrees in Graphic Design from CW Post and Education from Chapman University. I love education and learning and feel you truly learn the most from the experiences you have. I was lucky enough to be chosen by the Sayville Rotary program as a representative exchange student when I was in high school. I had no idea where they were going to send me but I agreed to spend my senior year abroad. I ended up being sent to a very small town in southern Chile. When I arrived I did not speak a word of Spanish and I was basically on my own to learn. I did learn to speak Spanish fluently and I learned so much about the Chilean culture. It was an experience that has shaped who I am. I learned so much about myself through my travel experiences and vowed to always travel no matter how close or far if the opportunity came up. As an educator I feel that these travel experiences are a true gift to our students. I watch the students stare in wonder and look at the world in a new way as we travel the globe and there is nothing quite like it. We have been so fortunate to travel with students that crave knowledge and want to immerse themselves in other cultures. To share my love of global travel with young people is such a blessing. So far my favorite tour we have embarked on was to Machu Picchu, Peru. There is no other place on earth that has left me completely speechless. I want to have that feeling over and over again. As long as you have a passport the world is waiting! Go for it!
MR. CRUGNALE Lead Chaperone
I am a veteran teacher at Huntington High School, having been there for 17 years. I obtained both my Bachelors and Masters Degrees from Stony Brook University. The subjects I teach include World History, Psychology, and Philosophy. As a senior in high school I traveled on one of these types of trips. It was an experience that left an imprint on me. It was the first time I was out of the country and without family. It gave me such a sense of independence and self-confidence, as I realized that I would one day soon be on my own. In addition to being inspired by the sights and experiences that another country had to offer me, I really learned something about myself during that trip and felt I was becoming ready to leave high school and grow up to be my own person. These trips we take with our students are so much more than just journeys to other lands. They can also be journeys of discovery for the individual. You can see the behavior and attitudes shift after just a few days of travel. No longer as concerned about the inconveniences of not being at home, many students begin to think with a different perspective and new found appreciation for how others live and for how they live as well. It may be difficult to completely convey my point, but unmistakable to observe while traveling. I am so proud to see how our travelers grow and change on these trips. It seems that they often start out as typical teenagers who are a little nervous about going to places they have never been. Within the span of a week they are transformed into confident, adventurous, insightful, contemplative young adults who have created memories with people from another part of the world. A few of the brave may have even ventured to eat a dish or two that they would have never imagined they would ever try. While each destination may have something different to offer, the overall impact will be the same. Whether it’s the crowded streets of Paris, or the solitary jungle of Belize, the effect is the same. You just say to yourself, “it sure feels good to be here.”
ADDITIONAL CHAPERONES- other adults who have served as chaperones in the past include Kerri Benejan, Erik Bruckbauer, Paul Caleca, Anne Gambino, John Hlavaty, Georgia McCarthy, Denise Piffard, Sylvia Belanger & John Pagano.
