Meet the trip leaders

2009 Costa Rica Leaders: Jesus Ruiz and Hannah Ewert-Krocker

HANNAH EWERT-KROCKER: B.A. Vassar College, Geography and Anthropology. Hannah grew up on a farm in rural Northeastern Ohio, where she learned to love being outside. Hannah knew by the time she reached college that she wanted to study people and their relationship to place. Through her studies in Geography and Anthropology at Vassar, Hannah discovered that she also had an interest in indigenous cultures which inspired her to minor in Native American Studies. While at Vassar, Hannah traveled to the Sonora/Arizona region of the U.S.-Mexico border on a study trip and again as a volunteer for No More Deaths, a humanitarian aid organization. During her junior year, she lived and studied in Oaxaca, Mexico. Hannah spent this past summer in Costa Rica as a research assistant. Together with a professor from Vassar, she interviewed migrant women in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica about their lives, families, and jobs. In her free time, Hannah enjoys singing, writing, meeting new people, and growing vegetables. Hannah is fluent in Spanish.

JESUS RUIZ: St. Lawrence University, B.A., Spanish with Honors, minor in Caribbean and Latin American Studies. While at St. Lawrence, Jesus was involved in many community service, human rights, and social justice campaigns. He also worked with Oxfam, Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, and A Latino Multicultural Alliance. He was an active leader inside and outside of the classroom and was involved in Varsity Track and Field. Jesus completed a year-long program in SpainCosta Rica his junior year. He won a research grant to conduct a study about Augusto Cesar Sandino as a revolutionary icon in Nicaragua. Together with nine other classmates, Jesus traveled to Jamaica to complete a service project for a hurricane-affected village in the Blue Mountains as part of a course on the history of Jamaica and the Caribbean. He concluded his St. Lawrence experience by writing a Senior Honor's thesis comparing Emiliano Zapata of Mexico and Augusto Sandino of Nicaragua as revolutionary icons. Jesus has traveled to Canada, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Bolivia, Peru, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, Guatemala and Mexico. His best memories include hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, riding camels by the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, seeing the Mayan ruins of Tikal in Guatemala, going to the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and a 20 day-5 country trek through Central America. Jesus is fluent in Spanish.