2008 India Expedition Leaders, left to right: Jordan Gantz, Himali Singh Soin, Alex VerronArts & Culture
Himali Singh Soin. Middlebury College, B.A. Himali grew up in north India and has explored many corners of her native country. Throughout her childhood she participated in expeditions to Rajahstan, South India, and the Himalaya, and at the age of fifteen she underwent a three-week adventure course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi. Himali attended secondary school in Delhi and went on to the Mahindra United World College in Pune. At Middlebury, where she majored in English and Theater, she was a UWC Davis Scholar and a member of the Middlebury College Choir. She hosted a weekly radio show, helped create art for awareness about the war in Iraq, and is an active trustee of the Spirit in Nature Trails in Vermont, which unite spirituality and nature. Himali undertook an expedition to India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, where she studied local performing arts in relation to Buddhism and landscape, and went to Malaysia to explore Buddhist and Taoist temples and climb the country’s highest mountain. She volunteered for an NGO dedicated to tiger conservation in the Indian Himalaya, taught English to Hurricane refugees after Katrina and worked in orphanages in the USA, Ethiopia and Nepal. Himali is an accomplished writer, actor, dramaturge, pianist and dancer. She enjoys hiking, cooking and yoga.
Photography
Alex Verron. St. Lawrence University, B.A. Alex majored in Fine Arts and Asian Studies at St. Lawrence, where he was the recipient of the Jean Scribner Cashin Endowment for Fine Art Students. He spent a semester of his junior year at Rajasthan University in Jaipur, India, where he studied Hindi language and the Devinagri script. His six-month photo documentary on textile production in India was a featured exhibition in the Brush Art Gallery. Alex has worked as an events coordinator for Save the Whales in Connecticut, as a corporate photographer shooting conditions in textile mills for the Nissho Iwai Corporation in Shanghai, China, and in New York City as a studio assistant for the Coastal Group, a Manhattan/Hong Kong based advertising agency. He is currently based in Aspen, Colorado where he works as a photographer and commercial digital artist. His most recent work has been published by several international outdoor magazines and companies including Freeskier, Relix, NZSkier, Charter, and Burton Snowboards. Alex spent two summers teaching Intro and Advanced Photography at Putney Student Travel’s Excel at Amherst College Program. His interests include travel, snowboarding, and competitive swimming.
Jordan Gantz. University of Wisconsin, B.A. Jordan is an accomplished photographer, filmmaker, and strategic communications specialist. He majored in Psychology at the University of Wisconsin and spent his junior year in Seville, Spain. He has travelled extensively in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Jordan spent two and half years as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer El Salvador where he worked with local communities on health, environment, and information technology projects. Jordan currently works for Chemonics International, a Washington, D.C.-based international development organization, where he uses photography and film to promote the work of the company throughout the developing world. With Chemonics he has led numerous photography, film and communications assignments in El Salvador, Jordan, Egypt, Nigeria, and the West Bank. Jordan led a Putney Student Travel community service program to the Dominican Republic in 2005.
