Episode #6 Storytellers

Our storytellers in Episode 6 are:

Mike Tormey

Mike is a second-year student double-majoring in Civil Engineering and Economics and a Resident Assistant and Scholar at Northwestern University. He and Elisa (below) were co-leaders for a 2017 alternative spring break to Cuba with Global Volunteers. As a campus tour guide, he promotes the university and the College of Engineering to prospective students.

Elisa Figueras

Elisa is a Northwestern University biology major and co-leader with Mike of an alternative spring break student group in 2017. She and Mike agree that the group’s most important accomplishment was the connections they formed with Cubans around the island. Over the week, they say, they “had countless opportunities to see and interact with the real Cuba.”

Marek Błaszczyk

Marek has been Global Volunteers’ beloved community partner in Siedlce, Poland since 1990. As manager of the renowned Reymontowka manor house where volunteers are lodged, he’s hosted and nurtured more than 260 Global Volunteers teams. He’s a fluent English speaker and a “go-to” person in the Siedlce District for English-speaking travelers and dignitaries.

Jeff Rogo

Jeff, a retired real estate professional, joined his first Global Volunteers team in 2003, seeking solace in service after the death of his wife. He discovered that teaching conversational English in Puglia, Italy launched his healing journey. Since then, he’s become a Global Volunteers team leader in Cuba, Vietnam, and on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana.