{"id":378,"date":"2009-03-10T17:45:52","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T21:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/?p=378"},"modified":"2017-03-20T16:15:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T20:15:43","slug":"better-know-a-program-consultant-mark-ruggiero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/better-know-a-program-consultant-mark-ruggiero","title":{"rendered":"Better Know a Program Consultant: Mark Ruggiero"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of our main goals with Explorations<\/strong><\/em> is to give everyone an opportunity to meet the fine folks who work at Explorica to help teachers take their students on educational tours across the globe.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s featured Program Consultant is Mark Ruggiero.\u00a0 Here\u2019s some of our favorite excerpts from our recent interview with him:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where did you grow up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was born in Syracuse, New York<\/a> and lived in the area until I was 12 years old.\u00a0 My family moved to Amherst, New Hampshire<\/a> in the mid 1990s.<\/p>\n

Where did you go to college?<\/strong><\/p>\n

University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT.\u00a0 Go Huskies!<\/a><\/p>\n

Where have you traveled?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Caribbean, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Myanmar, Vietnam, China, Japan, France and soon to be Ireland!<\/p>\n

Which Explorica tours have you taken?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Italian Highlights<\/a> in July 2008<\/p>\n

Favorite breakfast cereal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cinnamon Toast Crunch.\u00a0 After eating all the cereal, I love to drink the milk-leftovers…<\/p>\n

If aliens were to contact earth tomorrow, would they be more E.T. or Independence Day?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was young, E.T. really freaked me out<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019m probably going to have to go more in the direction of Independence Day<\/strong> on this one.<\/p>\n

If you could live anywhere else in the entire world, where would that be and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cape Town, South Africa<\/a>.\u00a0 It is one of the most beautiful cities in one of my favorite countries.\u00a0 The backdrop of Table Mountain over the skyline is incredible<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s also on the ocean and I love being by the sea.<\/p>\n

Coke or Pepsi?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both.\u00a0 No, seriously.\u00a0 I like Diet Coke over Coke and Pepsi over Diet Pepsi.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t ask me why but I\u2019ve always been like that.
\n
\nHow far will UConn make it in the tourney this year, and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Which team?\u00a0 I have the luxury of saying that both of our basketball teams are perennial national powerhouses.\u00a0 We did win both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s championship in 2004 after all (the only school to do so!).<\/p>\n

Our men\u2019s team will make a deep run this year.\u00a0 However, the loss of our point guard,<\/a> Jerome Dyson, is going to make it difficult.<\/p>\n

Our women\u2019s team will go all the way.\u00a0 They\u2019re undefeated and have a solid team this year.<\/p>\n

If the Rocky Mountains have the better slopes, how come most US Olympic skiers hail from the Northeast?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good question!<\/p>\n

While Steamboat Springs, Colorado<\/a> may hail itself as the home of the most US Winter Olympians, their “champagne powder<\/a>” isn\u2019t as demanding as the boilerplate conditions that we have here in the Northeast.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often said that if you can ski the hardpack and icy conditions here in the Northeast, you can ski anything.\u00a0 We are also graced with some wonderful schools and racing clubs.\u00a0 In fact, Bode Miller<\/a>, a New Hampshire native and Olympic medalist, used to race against racers in my division when I was younger.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, he won.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of our main goals with Explorations is to give everyone an opportunity to meet the fine folks who work at Explorica to help teachers take their students on educational tours across the globe. This week\u2019s featured Program Consultant is Mark Ruggiero.\u00a0 Here\u2019s some of our favorite excerpts from our recent interview with him: Where Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-teachers","post_format-post-format-aside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6833,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/6833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}