JENNY ZIOMEK | Co-Director
Claremont Graduate University, M.F.A.
NYC Teaching Fellows at Mercy College, M.S., Urban Education
Beloit College, B.A., Studio Art

Jenny is a painter, illustrator, and teacher. She has exhibited her drawings, paintings, and books across North America. Past illustration clients include Cartier and the Carlyle Hotel in New York. In 2018, one of her illustrations was selected by the Society of Illustrators at the Museum of Illustration in New York for their annual juried show and publication. Jenny is in her 11th year of teaching in various contexts, including four years as a full-time teacher in New York City before moving to Los Angeles. Jenny completed her M.F.A. in 2016 and is currently a Teaching Artist at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where she leads art workshops for students and art integration workshops for teachers. Jenny lives in beautiful Silverlake in sunny Los Angeles and has a dog named Penne, named after the pasta. This will be her third summer with Putney Pre-College. Jenny has taught studio art seminars and served as co-director last year on the Pre-College at Amherst College program.

ANDREW ALQUESTA | Co-Director
Tufts University, M.A., Ph.D., English (candidate)
University of Connecticut, B.A., English, B.A., Political Science

While at UConn, Andrew focused on the intersection of literature, language, and politics. After graduation, he worked for a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., organizing political campaigns across the country. While working in consulting, Andrew helped coordinate on-the-ground persuasion and get-out-the-vote canvas operations in Michigan, New Jersey, and Delaware. He also wrote scripts for television and radio commercials, as well as live and automated phone calls for races in Connecticut, Ohio, and Nevada, among others. As an undergraduate, Andrew authored an honors thesis critiquing military and nationalistic rhetoric using several British and American novels. Andrew now works and studies as a PhD candidate at Tufts University, where he is currently writing a dissertation analyzing depictions of populism in late nineteenth-century American literature. This fall, Andrew will be returning to Boston to continue working on his dissertation and teaching composition classes. He has taught political science, diplomacy, and international studies on Putney’s Pre-College at Amherst College program.

SARAH LEWIS | Sports Business; Business & Economics
London School of Economics, M.Sc., Environment and Development
University of British Columbia, B.A., International Relations and Romance Studies

While at the University of British Columbia, in addition to her courses in international relations, Sarah focused on language studies. Spending a few semesters abroad to learn and improve her language skills, she finished her undergraduate degree fully fluent in five languages. Sarah continued her studies at the London School of Economics, focusing on sustainable economics and urban planning. It was during this time that Sarah also began pursuing music, writing and releasing three records before 2015. Following her studies, Sarah began to work with the premier active travel company, Butterfield and Robinson, leading biking and hiking expeditions around the world. While guiding, Sarah developed a love of biking and bike touring, traveling the globe whenever she had the opportunity. She worked in Peru, Cuba, Morocco, Italy, France, Spain, Ireland, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, and traveled to over 40 countries before finding herself back in the development sector. Working as a business development and communications associate supporting justice sector projects, Sarah participated in programs with USAID, the DOJ, and DoS around the world. Sarah has since returned to tourism and runs her own bike touring company, outfitting independent travelers to bike down the West Coast. Sarah is fluent in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, and is currently learning Arabic. This fall, Sarah will be guiding cycling expeditions to Morocco, continuing her Arabic studies, and promoting her upcoming record release.

RAVI CHHATANI | Entrepreneurship; Business & Economics
Loyola University of Maryland, M.B.A., Finance
University of Maryland, B.S., Finance & International Business

While at school, Ravi focused on microfinance and the effects of global migration in the economy. After working for two years in investment banking and corporate finance, Ravi decided to sell everything he owned, pack only the necessities, and embark on a seven-month trip to Latin America. There, he focused his efforts on improving startup projects in Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia. In his travels he discovered the virtues of panela sugar and then founded Nela Nature, a startup company that sources panela cane sugar directly from farmers in Colombia and imports it to the U.S. Ravi has grown his company to reach more than 50 clients in the D.C metropolitan area. For 10 years he has coached youth soccer, and he has also volunteered with youth in Baltimore, teaching English to teenage immigrants. Ravi is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, and Sindhi, and is proficient in French. This fall, he will start a new venture involving a panela-based line of drinks, in collaboration with a local kombucha company.

BRIDGET LANIGAN | Photography; Film & Video
San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A, Photography
State University of New York at New Paltz, B.F.A., Photography

While at the San Francisco Art Institute, Bridget received an MFA Fellowship Award, and studied with renowned artists Doug Hall and John Priola. Bridget’s photography has been exhibited around the country, including at New York’s Dorsky Gallery, San Francisco’s Diego Rivera Gallery, the Center for Contemporary Art in Sacramento, and the Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts. She was selected as a semifinalist in 2013 and a finalist in 2015 for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competitions at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.  Bridget has lectured about her work at Marist College, SUNY New Paltz, and the Fine Arts Academy at Missouri State University. She has worked as a studio manager and photographer with Spinnato Art Gallery and Photography Studio, and as an assistant photographer for Macy’s Photography Studio. Bridget currently works as a freelance photographer and photo editor, and her personal work focuses on environmental portraiture. Bridget has been an instructor for our Pre-College London and Florence programs for three summers, and for Pre-College at Amherst College for five summers.

BJ LOVE | Scriptwriting; Entertainment & the Media
University of Iowa, M.F.A., English
University of Northern Iowa, B.A., English Literature

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, BJ has been writing and teaching for almost 20 years. In that time, he has created camp programs in Italy, taught creative writing for the Putney School Summer Programs, led collaborative workshops in Alaska, and was a co-leader for Putney Student Travel’s Writing in Ireland program. Additionally, he has written for numerous music and culture magazines, was a professor at Savannah State University, and is the executive editor of America’s oldest continuously published literary journal, Poet Lore. His writing can be found in numerous magazines, journals, and anthologies, including Gulf Coast, The North American Review, Bear Review, Stirring: A Literary Collection, and Dig if you Will the Picture: Writers Reflect on Prince. Critical work has been published in the Quarterly Conversation, Cant, and Heavy Feather Review. BJ teaches Creative Writing and World Literature at The Emery/Weiner School in Houston, Texas.

REBECCA UPTON | Entrepreneurship; Marketing & Advertising
Emory University, Goizueta Business School, B.B.A., Strategy & Management Consulting, Business and Society, B.S., Environmental Studies

While at Emory, Rebecca specialized in consulting and worked with Atlanta nonprofits develop integrative multimedia marketing campaigns. A skilled fundraiser and marketer, she founded Goizueta Energy and Environment Group and collaborated with various student organizations to develop and finance sustainability-focused student programming. She also founded the Emory Sustainability Case Competition, which aims to bring businesses, scientists, and students together to create long-lasting, creative solutions to sustainability issues. Rebecca believes in the importance of film and narrative storytelling in driving social change; she flexes her creative muscles by writing, as well as working with film and audio, and has interviewed entrepreneurs and scientists alike to create educational multimedia content. Recently, she traveled to Guatemala for a week with Social Enterprise @ Goizueta to observe and document the work of social enterprises in the fashion, energy, and coffee sectors. In her free time, Rebecca works as an extra on Atlanta’s film sets, paints, and visits national parks to hike and sit on various logs and read. Presently, Rebecca works as a freelance writer and marketer. Her current project involves working with editors, consultants, and a very enigmatic YouTube host to write scripts for CrashCourse Business: Soft Skills. In the future, she hopes to further her work in education, equity, and media, and is considering PhD programs abroad.