Dr. Spellman has over 25 years of experience in teaching and educational leadership. Before TGS he was the leader of two international boarding schools, including the first boarding school in the Middle East. He has supervised the opening of six schools and consulted for a number of other schools around the world during their development.

In leading schools in both North America and the Middle East, Dr. Spellman has implemented a range of international curricular models including the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program. He has also served as the Visiting Chairperson for school accreditation for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and presented at global conferences in the areas of reading development, organizational behavior, and educational leadership, finance, and safety.

Dr. Spellman holds an undergraduate degree in Education from Illinois State University, a Master’s in School Leadership from Northern Illinois University, and a Doctorate from Southeastern Florida University with a focus in effective school leadership and a specialty in teaching reading in an international setting. His wife Carol is also a teacher; they have been married for over 21 years and have two teenagers, Ryan and Megan.

Robert’s own children attend boarding school, so he understands the trust that parents place in THINK Global, its leadership, and its staff when they send their children to the school. He cherishes the relationship of mutual support that develops between the school and its students’ families. He also knows that boarding means much more than just school housing, and that students need a balance of scheduled activities, study sessions, and free time in order to thrive.

Sally attended Sarah Lawrence College, where she earned her B.A. degree, and The Graduate Center at the City University of New York, where she earned her Ph.D. She has published articles and received a number of awards, including Teacher of the Year at the Suffolk Community College Honors Program, and the Courtney Sale Ross Award for Teaching Excellence. She also received a Fulbright Award for Graduate Study.

Sally has taught Cultural History, English, and Anthropology courses to students in university, high school, and middle school. Her teaching experience also includes work with Friends World Program at Southampton College and the Ross School.

Sally was Associate Director of the Ross Institute for two years and has done consultancy work with schools in the United States, Asia, and Europe. She has recently published a book about immigrants in Sicily entitled, Dirty Work: Immigrants in Domestic Service, Agriculture, and Prostitution in Sicily (Lexington, 2007). Co-authored with Jeffrey Cole, the book examines the contours and consequences of immigrant employment in rural and urban Sicily. Her current research interests are pedagogy and immigrant students in changing social contexts in southern and northern Europe.

Sally is excited to join THINK Global School as its Director of Curriculum, Research, and Professional Development.

Ambika first realized that she wanted to be a teacher during her 10th-grade summer, when she started a small after-school program for 20 underprivileged children in the living room of her home in Lagos, Nigeria. Ever since then, she has dedicated her time to teaching and tutoring students wherever she travelled, as she completed her undergraduate education and finally fulfilled her dream of becoming a full-time teacher.

During her undergraduate years at Columbia University, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, Ambika tried to fit in as many hours of teaching as possible. She volunteered as a middle- and high-school tutor at three non-profit organizations in Manhattan, was employed as an SAT math teacher by a New York test-prep company, spent two summers as a math teacher for the Breakthrough Collaborative, worked as a statistics and chemistry tutor for Columbia University undergraduates, and was a teaching assistant at Columbia for calculus and higher mathematics courses. She culminated her undergraduate experience by enrolling in the Barnard Education Program, where she received her New York State teaching certification and was given the opportunity to teach high-school geometry in a public school in the Bronx for a year.

Ambika truly understands and values the concept of an international education, having herself studied in an international school in Lagos for the first 13 years of her life, and then at an international boarding school for five years in her home town of Bangalore, India. During her last two years of high school in Bangalore, she was a student in the IB Programme, and she cannot wait to share those IB experiences with her students at TGS.

Ambika is excited to combine two of her greatest passions — traveling and teaching — as she joins the TGS faculty as our math teacher.

Andrew teaches our Global Studies course, in which he guides students through readings of Machiavelli and Zinn, leads them on tours of sites like The Golden Triangle and Auschwitz, and requires them to deliver frequent presentations with visual accompaniment from their MacBooks or iPads. He is also the TGS health and wellness coordinator, which is appropriate given his own colorful exercise regimen, which includes running half marathons, bungee jumping, rowing, and skydiving.

Born in New Zealand, Andrew counts travel, music, and sport among his passions. After finishing high school in Auckland, he took a gap year at The King’s School of Canterbury in England, an educational institution that was originally founded by St. Augustine in the 6th century. This setting inspired a newfound interest in history and travel that took him all across Europe to one marvelous site after another. On his return to New Zealand, he enrolled at Canterbury University, majoring in history and political science. After that he pursued his teaching diploma, also spending a stint as one of the rowing coaches at a Catholic boarding school, where his crews won medals at the National Schools Championships. He began his first teaching work at Orewa College on New Zealand’s Hibiscus Coast.

But it wasn’t long until he was bitten by the travel bug again. He trekked in the Americas for three months and then returned to England, where he worked at both independent and state-run schools. His next stop was a school in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). We plan to keep him much longer at TGS, because now he can run away to his next destination along with the rest of the school.

Jarret Jordan Voytilla is a Canadian with seven years of international teaching experience at the secondary level, including five years working intimately with the IB Diploma Programme. He is a passionate advocate of the philosophy and mission of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). He believes in working within culturally diverse environments in order to secure a socioeconomically and environmentally sustainable future through holistic understanding of science, culture, and human ecology.

Jarret’s teaching area of specialization is the natural and experimental sciences, and he taught and coordinated biology, physics, environmental systems, and health sciences for seven years in Mexico. He holds IBO teaching certifications for both Environmental Systems and Extended Essay instruction.

Jarret is currently an IBO examiner, and describes himself as “a devout crusader” for the philosophy and mission of the IBO. He has involved himself in core aspects of the Diploma Programme such as TOK tutoring, CAS projects and trips, Extended Essay guidance and supervising, coaching and coordinating of faculty, and the redesign of various IB courses.

Jarret strives to create dynamic, respectful, comfortable, fun, and engaging student-centered atmospheres, while maintaining strict academic standards through clearly described expectations and learning outcomes. In addition, he enjoys working hard to enrich campus life by being directly involved with various student groups, field trips, weekend excursions, student counseling, science and speech contests, and promotional events.

“Enthusiasm” is usually the first word that jumps out of students’ mouths when talking about Lin’s Mandarin class. With his humorous, creative, and, yes, eccentric style of teaching, one of the most complicated languages in the world becomes more fun to learn and easier to understand.

Lin’s passionate personality traces back to his college years. After winning several English public-speaking contests in China, he realized the beauty of languages. Later, he founded the first Public Speaking Club at Lanzhou Jiaotong University. As the chairman of the club, Lin and his team worked to help people improve their language efficiency and communication skills. Pursuing his interest in language and culture, Lin earned a minor degree in French while he majored in Communication Engineering for his Bachelor’s degree.

Leaving the engineering field behind in order to follow his passion for education and language, Lin began pursuing his dream career as an IB Mandarin teacher at Utica Academy for International Studies (UAIS), an IB World School in the United States. This was a new challenge for a young man coming from the other side of the world. Aware of the need to prepare himself with professional training in education, Lin applied and earned his Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum and a Mandarin Teacher Certification at Michigan State University. After years of training, teaching, and curriculum development for the IB Diploma Programme at UAIS, Lin is now well-equipped with IB knowledge and IB spirit.

If you can’t find Lin in the classroom or office, look for him outside. He enjoys a challenge and rarely says no to new experiences: skateboarding, rock-climbing, snowboarding, mountain biking, canoeing — you name it. Meanwhile, Lin still values old-fashioned Chinese culture. He appreciates different styles of Chinese tea art, and enjoys reading classical Chinese literature and practicing calligraphy. If you’re lucky enough, you can even see him practicing kung fu in the early morning.

Lindsay Clark has spent the last four years circumnavigating the world three times, documenting her experiences for global corporations and non-profits worldwide. With 50 countries under her belt at the age of 26, she takes the role of ambassador seriously. We are proud to welcome her to THINK Global.

Born in Wabash, Lindsay is a native to Indiana but has spent much of her semi-nomadic young adulthood traveling the world. She graduated with honors from Indiana University’s Henry Radford Hope College of the Arts, with a B.A. in Studio Art and Art History. She then spent her life savings to explore 24 countries on three continents during a seven month trip. In 2009, she won the World Traveler Internship from STA Travel, beating over 700 applicants for the chance to document 11 weeks of extensive travel and develop a multimedia marketing campaign.

Lindsay teamed with a friend to launch the Nakavika Project, a volunteer initiative that promoted basic health and English apprehension in the highlands of Fiji. The project lives on as an online, multimedia narrative exploring the concepts of voluntourism and cultural exchange. Most recently, Lindsay worked as the producer, editor, shooter, and photographer for an award-winning multimedia organization, producing more than 100 short films for students and young adults that promoted global education.

Along with writing and editing her own travels for enjoyment, Lindsay likes to sing, is crazy about all forms of dance, and has an affinity for mountains.

Irene has always been a traveler and an educator. As a child growing up in New York City, Irene’s mother would tear her away from her makeshift classroom of dolls and stuffed animals to travel the world every chance they got. She traveled abroad on every school vacation (sometimes reluctantly), and as an adult she has continued to travel extensively.

During her junior year at Oberlin College in Ohio, Irene visited Nepal. While staying with a family in Kathmandu, she became proficient in Nepali, and later used her skills to travel to Chitwan National Park and pursue research with indigenous populations on the impact of development and ecological conservation on their livelihoods.

At Oberlin, Irene was also a poet-in-residence and reading tutor in the local public schools. Following college, she moved to Seattle, Washington, where she coordinated educational services at the King County Correctional Facility. She discovered her passion for teaching in a correctional setting and has shared that passion by training other adult educators and mentoring college students tutoring inmates one-on-one for school credit. Irene has taught GED, ESL, vocational studies, and Creative Writing in correctional institutions across Washington State.

A firm believer that a love of literature and writing can awaken the best parts of ourselves, Irene continued her drive to create meaningful and empowering learning experiences at Columbia University’s Teachers College, where she received an M.A. in the Teaching of English. Before coming to TGS, Irene taught 8th-grade English in the Bronx, New York.

Irene is eager to share her experience and expertise with the students at TGS, and she can’t wait to teach and learn from her extraordinary students in her World Literature courses.

From “¿Hola, cómo estás?” to medieval literature, and everything in between, Marta Guevara helps her students speak, listen to, and read Spanish, whether or not they have a previous background in the language. She also sees herself as a mentor and a surrogate parent to TGS students, helping them overcome their fears and become more supportive of one another as a team.

Marta is passionate about teaching and learning and has been, at one time or another, a translator, an interpreter, a research assistant, a chemistry teacher, an English literature teacher, an assistant professor of Spanish, a basketball coach, and an assistant coach in field hockey and soccer. After completing pre-med studies at the University of Costa Rica, she went on to graduate from Ripon College with a double major in Spanish and English. Marta continued her graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned her M.A. in Spanish Literature. She’s now completing her Ph.D. in Spanish at Pennsylvania State University.

Before TGS, Marta was an instructor at Brewster Academy (Wolfeboro, New Hampshire) and Lebanon Valley College (Annville, Pennsylvania), and a teaching assistant at Penn State, Ripon, and Wisconsin. She knows firsthand how technology can facilitate a student’s education: during graduate school, long before Google or iAnything, she worked at a used bookstore and catalogued its entire foreign-language collection online.