Home > CESD 2008 Interns
Shelley Pursell - Market Research Unit and Travelers' Philanthropy Program
Shelley Pursell is a graduate business student at Thunderbird School of Global Management pursuing her MBA with a focus in international development and marketing. Her background is in marketing – specifically brand management and event planning. Shelley’s passion for responsible tourism and tourism development stems from her extensive travel and living abroad, particularly in Latin America and Australia. She hopes to use her business education and prior professional experiences to employ sustainable development practices in tourism projects in order to improve the quality of life in developing economies. Shelley enjoys outdoor activities, travel and learning about new cultures.
Ryan Kost - Costa Rica Coastal Tourism Research Project
Ryan Kost is a graduate student pursuing his M.A. in Sociocultural Anthropology at George Mason University. He has been fortunate to travel extensively to roughly 40 countries. He has studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and he has studied sustainable development and mountain geography in the Himalayas of Northern India. His interests focus on the guest/host perceptions and relationships created and sustained through tourism, and he plans to conduct his thesis fieldwork on the Inca Trail in Peru studying the lasting cultural footprints on local guides and porters left behind from tourism. Aside from tourism, Ryan is interested in hip-hop as a platform for political movements and sports fanaticism and hooliganism. Other hobbies include anything outdoors, soccer, cycling, and drawing.
Deanna Zhang - Costa Rica Coastal Tourism Research Project
Deanna is a senior majoring in Human Biology and International Relations. Her interests in international development, microfinance, and ecotourism began in the summer of 2005, working as an HIV/AIDS instructor in the rural villages of Tanzania. Since then, she has studied in Santiago, Chile, worked in an international public health firm in D.C., and served as a research fellow on a microfinance/anti-trafficking project at the United Nations in Bangkok. In the future, she hopes to obtain an Masters Degree in International Development and conduct ecotourism research in the Coral Triangle north of Indonesia. At Stanford, Deanna is involved with a cappella, hip-hop, and photographic pursuits - though guitar and skydiving are definitely next are her to-do list.
Kellen Klein - Market Research Unit and Travelers' Philanthropy Program
Kellen Klein is a junior at Stanford University, and is excited to be working with CESD's Travelers' Philanthropy and market research programs. He is currently pursuing a B.A. in Human Biology, with an area of concentration in Environmental Policy and Conservation. His love of animals and the outdoors stems in large part from extensive travel in East Africa and the Galapagos Islands, as well as his work on a guest ranch in Colorado. Aside from traveling, Kellen also enjoys photography, emergency medicine, animal behavior, and hiking.
Claire Menke - 2008 Indigenous Ecotourism Workshop and Conference