Posted by Randy LeGrant on Mon, Feb 27, 2012
Robin Vaughn is an amazing cook, an amazing teacher and an amazing traveler. GeoVisions is so lucky to have Robin in Italy right now living with a host family and helping Italian teachers there teach English. Robin will be in Italy February, March and April.
Robin is very active with her host family. She keeps them busy…and they keep her busy as well. She's a great teacher. She also writes a travel journal on the GeoVisions Community Pages. You want to click the link below that will take you to her travel journal and read her entries and look at her photos (and cartoons).
In addition to that she writes a cooking Blog, A Bird In The Kitchen. I have subscribed to the cooking Blog because the recipes for Italian cooking (which she's doing onsite all the time) are amazing and the photographs capture all Robin is experiencing these 3 months.
If you're interested to know how you can use the GeoVisions Community Pages, Robin has it going on. You can learn a lot looking through her journal pages.
If you're interested in Italian wine and food…check out that food Blog of hers. I'm sure you'll be a subscriber, just like me.
And if you're interested in Conversation Corps-Italy or the program Robin is on, Conversation Partner-Italy…her two Blogs will help you make up your mind to choose one and put your butt in an airline seat.
And if you're interested in one of our THREE summer camps, being a counselor and teaching some English during camp activities…Robin is in the Marche region, exactly where two of the three camps are located.
Italian Summer Camp
This camp is on the ocean, you live in an apartment and bicycle to the camp each day. You can view a video of last year's camp experience right here.
Italian Summer Camp-Macerata
This camp is a 30-minute train ride to the beach. You live in student accommodations or shared apartments.
Coming Soon: Italian Summer Camp-Naples
Robin's two Blogs are model Blogs and you can't go wrong taking a few minutes to look them over. We hope you'll be in touch and let us help you get to Italy. Perhaps you'll add to Robin's recipes. Or you'll start a painting Blog...or you might write your first novel.
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Tue, Oct 04, 2011
Go to Italy, live with a family and help them with their conversational English skills. Sounds pretty straight forward. Until you find out the family you're living with has a child that is very famous and very successful. And...you're his English tutor.
Lorenzo Baldassarri is a young Italian kid who just happens to race motor bikes. He won the 2011 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup. In this photo, Lorenzo is the young man in the front, or if you can't tell, he is 2nd from the left.
Our Tutor, Stacy Cerullo, is living with the Baldassarri family and tutoring Lorenzo in his spare time. After watching the video below, we can see he'll use his English accepting many trophies!
In the video below, watch bike number 7 and look for Lorenzo's acceptance speech at the end if you want to fast forward. Nicely done Lorenzo and nicely done Stacy!
GeoVisions founded the Conversation Corps, and we followed that up with Conversation Partner for more independently minded travelers. But when you have a global reputation of founding a program as significant as the Conversation Corps, families (normal, rich and yeah...famous) naturally navigate to the organization with the vision that nothing really substantial can change for the better unless there is some way to communicate with each other.
We're proud of Lorenzo and his family. And we're proud of our Conversation Corps tutor, Stacy. We can't place all of our tutors in the 21 countries where we have members of the Corps with the rich and famous...but over the last 6 years that we've offered this program we can say that the families who approach us for tutors are the very best families our planet has to offer. And the change that happens when two cultures learn to communicate is endless.
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Tue, Sep 07, 2010
Yet another Blog post from a member of the Conversation Corps. Wow. What a program.
Dionne spent a month in Tuscany with the Corps and wrote a great Blog about here experience.
Dionne's Summer in Tuscany is the name of the Blog, and I was especially struck by how well she spent her time. And may I also say…Dionne is married and her husband was fantastic about her journey and very supportive. See? Anyone can do it.
Dionne landed in Paris with a 12 hour layover. Rather than sit around she checked in for her flight to Italy and off she went to discover Paris. This is a person who made the most of everything.
If you're headed to Italy, check out Dionne's post called Things I've Learned. She writes about Bikes, Mopeds and Motorcycles then Bathrooms and then, of course, coffee.
Most of the Blog is about all the travel Dionne did during her month in Italy with topics like Home Made Pasta, Food, The Beach, and Everyday Life In Italy.
We decided to showcase this Blog because we do occasionally get questions about what Corps members can do with their free time. This Blog will give you so many ideas.
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Tue, Jan 12, 2010
A few days ago I wrote a Blog post about a volunteer (Daniel Jackson) who returned home only to start up his own non-profit and find new ways to assist the medical clinic where he volunteered for with GeoVisions in Peru.
This Blog post is about a volunteer who is returning to GeoVisions for a second time. Shannon Anderson first went to Peru with GeoVisions. Now she's headed to Italy. I hope you will go back toShannon's Blog and follow her as she makes her plans, takes her Italian language courses, gets her host family and prepares to tutor.
Two things quickly come to mind:
- It is a rare opportunity when people share the intimate details of their decisions, their process and the ups and downs in preparing to volunteer abroad. I hope you'll subscribe toShannon's Blog and be a part of all that. It will serve you well if you are in the same position or hope to be.
GeoVisions is far more interested in what people do after the volunteer abroad experience than we are in trying to get you to go. Newspaper articles and magazine articles are full of stories about Voluntourism, how great it is and then listing a few organizations you can choose to help you with your experience. We're more about showing people what happens after the experience has taken place. In this case...Shannon is returning for another experience. And we want to share that with you and so does Shannon.
So enjoy Shannon's Blog, Part Due. Comment on her Blog and help her along and ask her for some advice if you're planning your own volunteer program. In the meantime, let us know what you're doing if you are a volunteer abroad returnee. We want to hear about your experience and follow up what you're doing now.
Posted by Randy LeGrant on Wed, Sep 09, 2009
GeoVisions has 3 families in Italy in need of quick tutors. To fill this void we have lowered the Conversation Corps-Italy fee. Save $175 on a 30-day assignment. Save $265 on a 60-day assignment. And save $370 on a 90-day assignment.
One family is in Northern Italy. Two families are in Southern Italy.
Volunteer 15 hours each week in Italy in exchange for free room and board. Weekends are normally free to experience the culture by traveling around Europe.
This is a high-energy and really fun position. GeoVisions provides the materials; you provide the personality to liven up a family class or dinner conversation! Find out first-hand how an Italian family lives day-to-day. Sometimes there are opportunities to take part in family activities and to meet extended family. Plus, they can show you landmarks and hidden gems.
Conversation Corps volunteers must be native English speakers. They need to have earned a high school (secondary school) diploma or certificate, be in good health and abide by the family’s rules and habits. Placements are available year 'round and range in duration from one to three months.
If you can depart in the next 30-days and qualify for this program, Apply Now and save hundreds of dollars on the program fee. If you have questions first, email us at programs@geovisions.org and we will respond to you quickly.
Act now if you have time to get away. Once these families are taken by tutors, we will set the program fee back again to it's normal rate.