Meet the Expedition Leaders

2009 Spain Expedition Leaders: Megan McLaulin and Davin Dearth

Davin Dearth. University of Denver, B.A.; University of Wyoming, M.A. Davin graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Denver, where he majored in Spanish and English Literature. He was a Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar, a member of the University of Denver Soccer team, and as a senior received highest departmental honors for his honor's thesis, Postmodern Spanish Cinema: The Films of Julio Medem. Davin spent his junior year in Salamanca, focusing on Spanish art and film. While in Spain he completed the four hundred fifty-mile Camino de Santiago on foot and participated in the running of the bulls in Pamplona. In addition to Spain, his travels have taken him to Ireland, Mexico, the Czech Republic, France, Scotland, and Costa Rica. Davin led a Putney Student Travel language learning program in Spain and a Putney community service program in Costa Rica. He worked as a Spanish teacher in Fort Collins, Colorado, and recently earned his Master's in Writing and Literature at the University of Wyoming. Davin led the National Geographic Student Expedition to Spain in 2008. His interests include travel, skiing, soccer, climbing, fishing, and film. He is fluent in Spanish.

Megan McLaulin. The College of William and Mary, B.A.; Rutgers University, M.Ed. candidate. Megan graduated cum laude from William and Mary, where she majored in English Literature and minored in Spanish. She spent a summer studying at the University of Salamanca. She taught English and Spanish at two high schools in Virginia, coached girls’ volleyball and collegiate men’s crew, and served as a volunteer English as a Second Language educator for Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants. Megan spent two years living in Talavera de la Reina, Spain; she traveled to fifteen out of Spain’s seventeen autonomous communities, cycled the historic Camino de Santiago, and hiked throughout the Sierra de Gredos mountains. She was selected by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Sciences to serve as an English language conversation assistant, and collaborated with the faculty of the a primary school in Talavera de la Reina to implement a newly designed bilingual/bicultural curriculum. She is currently pursuing her master’s in Language Education at Rutgers, where she is an academic coach at the Rutger’s Learning Centers. Megan’s interests include hiking, camping, rowing, and triathlons. She is fluent in Spanish.