Pura Vida Resident Directors

Pura Vida Session #1 Ken Davis is a Spanish Teacher at South Eugene High School in Eugene, Oregon. From 1985-87 he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, working as a Teacher Trainer. During and after his service he traveled extensively throughout Central America, from Guatemala to Panama. During 1992-94 he taught upper division English in the International Studies program at the Universidad de Monterrey in Mexico. Since then he has studied and traveled in Mexico each summer. He is married with two daughters, ages 10 and 6, who travel with them during their summers in Mexico. His interests include outdoor activities and sports of all kinds (especially with his family), Latin American culture and history, reading and travel.
Pura Vida Session #2 Melissa Pritchard is currently working towards her Bilingual and ESOL Elementary teaching certificate and Masters Degree at Oregon State University. For the past five years, she lived in Barcelona, Spain where she worked as an Elementary Art teacher at an International School and also pursued a Contemporary Jewelry Design Degree. For the past three summers Melissa worked for Putney Student Travel with the Pre-College program in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. She taught Spanish architecture and drawing and painting to American high school students and also organized cultural activities and weekend excursions for the fifty participants with other staff members. In her free time she enjoys traveling, hiking, running, and spending time with her family. Melissa is fluent in Spanish and Catalan.