Nicole Haghdoust
Spanish Teacher, Wayland High School – Wayland, MA
Nicole has her Masters in Spanish from Worcester State University and has been teaching Spanish for 10 years. She enjoys traveling to Spanish speaking countries both for the language practice and cultural immersion. She is currently working on her second Masters degree in Teaching English Language Learners. One of her favorite cultural journeys was a trip through Colombia where she was able to attend Carnaval and visit South America’s most modern city, Medellín. During her undergraduate studies, Nicole studied at La Universidad de Alicante in Spain. She has led trips with students to Spain and Costa Rica for the the past 8 years.
Judie Pickett
Special Needs and Intro Spanish Teacher, Wayland High School – Wayland, MA
Judie has her Masters in Literacy from Boston College and has been working with students with varying learning challenges at Wayland for 20 years, as well as co-teaching Intro Spanish for 13 years. She enjoys traveling and immersing herself in different cultures. Her most recent trips were to India, Costa Rica, and France, and she looks forward to improving her Spanish as she plans to expand travel to Spanish speaking countries.
Jessica Skehan
Spanish Teacher, Wayland High School – Wayland, MA
Jessica Skehan has been a Spanish teacher at Wayland since 2000. Her degree in Latin American Studies and her experience traveling through Latin America and Spain help shape her classes. She enjoys teaching about culture and history of the Spanish speaking world. This will be her second trip to Cuba, after visiting the island in 1999. She is looking forward to bringing Wayland students to share in the unique experience.
Megan Smith
Spanish Teacher, Wayland High School – Wayland, MA
Megan Smith has been teaching Spanish at the high school level since 1995 and has been at Wayland since 2007. She has her BA from Clark University and her MA from St. Louis University. Teaching is what makes her happy; she loves interacting with students and sharing cultural experiences and different ways to communicate with them. Megan is passionate about working with kids to be their best selves; she works with them individually to discover the best ways for them to learn. When she is not teaching, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her family and two rescue dogs. Her daughters keep her quite busy with activities after school and camp in the summer!
Julia Drake
Williams College, B.A., Spanish; Columbia University, M.F.A., Creative Writing
During Julia’s time at Williams, she studied abroad at the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain, where she fell in love with travel and language. After college, she pursued her love of language at Columbia University, where she received a masters of fine arts in fiction writing. At Columbia, she also studied literary translation, worked in the writing center, and served as a writing instructor for Columbia first-years. Julia has worked at both The New Yorker and Us Weekly, and she has worked as a Spanish language tutor in New York and California. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and is forthcoming in several publications. She currently lives the starving artist dream in San Francisco, working on her novel by day and moonlighting as a waitress by night. Julia is fluent in Spanish and has twice led Putney’s Language Learning program in Spain.
Greg Shaheen
Wesleyan University, B.A., Earth and Environmental Science
While at Wesleyan, Greg did a research project on soils in Puerto Rico; explored drumming from different ethnic traditions; and helped coordinate a program in which students teach ESL classes to Hispanic custodial workers. After college, he received a Davis Project for Peace grant to establish a community-based environmental center in the mountains of Lebanon. He also worked with a small NGO called Relief and Reconciliation for Syria and independently crowdfunded and led a summer camp for Syrian refugee and Lebanese children. He has returned to Lebanon a few times to work with these communities, and continues to fundraise and build awareness for them in Philadelphia through their art and photography. Greg grew up at the bottom of the Shawangunk ridge in Kerhonkson, New York, and is now based in Philadelphia, where he works as a Spanish interpreter, mostly in medical contexts. He is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Arabic. Greg led Putney’s Cultural Exploration program in Cuba in 2016 and is spending this winter in Colombia, gaining experience in agroecology and sustainable development.
Brock Schardin
University of South Dakota, B.A., Spanish; The University of South Dakota, M.A., Spanish Education; University of Tübingen, M.A., Linguistics
During his undergraduate studies, Brock lived and studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain, at La Universidad Internacional de Menendez-Pelayo, where he developed a passion for Spanish culture and language. On campus, Brock was the Spanish Club president for three years and was deeply involved with service learning projects, including time spent as a volunteer teaching weekly Spanish lessons to local elementary students. He also led student volunteer trips to Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala; Memphis, Tennessee; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; and the Crow Creek Indian Reservation in central South Dakota. Brock spent 2011 with AmeriCorps, teaching under-served youth in Houston, TX. After two years of teaching English through the Fulbright Program in Madrid, Spain, Brock moved to Germany where he recently completed an M.A. in Linguistics at the University of Tübingen. He enjoys playing music, snowboarding, and cycling. Brock has spent four summers leading Putney’s Language Learning Spain program and is fluent in Spanish and proficient in German.