Before coming to CIE, Tom served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia. He came to UMass looking to prepare himself for a teaching career in science and EFL, both internationally and domestically.

After graduating he taught in Novosibirsk, Russia for a year, and then taught at a charter school in Providence Rhode Island for another year.  After that he worked for five years at the CATS Academy in Boston teaching science and ESL science. He also served as chair of the Science Department.

In 2022 Jacob became the Program Assistant Director with The Partnership for Worker Education (PWE), Office of Human Resources at UMass Amherst. In July 2023 he became the Director of PWE - a collaboration among UMass HR and the staff unions (AFSCME, USA, PSU) providing services for the roughly 4,500 UMass Amherst staff members.

Before coming to CIE, I spent several years in Brazil and after finishing my undergraduate degree, I worked as a curriculum writer for a community education program run by the nonprofit, Care for Life in Beira, Mozambique.  This program was notable in how hard it tried to solicit community involvement and stewardship in its programs, but there were many moments in which I wondered how the communities we worked in might come to further emulate what I had seen in Salvador.

After leaving CIE Tatiana returned to Tajikistan where she did some freelancing and helped the international school, where she had worked before, to prepare for accreditation.

She then went to Israel for an education training course with Mashav before looking for new opportunities.  After looking at possibilities in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and China, she decided to take a position in China.  She spent several years teaching in an international school in Wuhan where she taught first and second grade students.  The children were from many different countries.

Only the people who take learning, growth and skills development into their own hands will be tomorrow’s leaders ~ Alli Worthington

After completing my master's degree, I worked for Springfield public Schools for 7 years and continued my learning at Springfield College to become a Special Education teacher. I also worked in international student travel and for Elderhostel international, mainly in West Africa.  For the past two years I have been working as a special education teacher in Northampton, MA.

After completing her degree, Ola worked with the Ministry of Education in Ramallah, Palestine as the Head of the Assessment and Evaluation Division. In that role she designed national tests and developed teacher training programs. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Birzeit University.

Karla Giuliano Sarr is an assistant professor in International Education at the SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont and a co-chair of that department. She instructs both face-to-face and online and teaches courses focusing on an overview of international education, M&E, Indigenous education, non-formal education and language issues in education.

Yang Gyeltshen is currently leading a group of five teachers for Lhomon Education, a project of the Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative, a registered civil society organization in Bhutan. The Initiative aims to bring education alternatives to eastern Bhutan and beyond.

Here in Tanzania we are healthy, trying cope with challenging social and economic dynamics. There are a lot of educational reforms taking place in the country. I'm now working for the National Council for Technical Education (NACTE). I'm grateful for the competence I gained at CIE, it makes my life easier to adapt the changes quickly!

I hope the entire CIE family is doing fine. You are all in my heart, my best family in Amherst. [5/16]

Email: asselaluena@yahoo.com