VISIONS Service Adventures Blog Meet Your Director: Kenny Kruse

In addition to living in Myanmar where he's gearing up for another VISIONS summer, Kenny has followed in the footsteps of our founding Asia programs director-Wesley Hedden-as a Princeton in Asia scholar.Kenny is a lifelong learner and traveler. As a high school sophomore, he traveled to Piedras Negras, Mexico, to volunteer at a school for disabled children, and he has been hooked on travel and service ever since.Kenny holds undergraduate degrees from Arizona State University in women and gender studies and political science. While attending ASU, he spent summers in Valparaíso, Chile, and Tianjin, China, and studied abroad in Granada, Spain and Singapore. After graduating, he worked for a year as a Residence Hall Counselor at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, and traveled extensively in India, Thailand, Cambodia, Argentina, Australia and Perú.Kenny later earned a M.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in women's studies from the University of Alabama. He has taught creative writing and composition to college students, and also to prisoners in the Alabama penal system. He is partway through a doctorate in education, culture and society from the University of Utah, and is now spending the 2016-17 academic year teaching in Myanmar.VISIONS is blessed to have this committed and talented veteran among the ranks of summer directors. Kenny first joined VISIONS in 2011 as a member of the Ecuador leader team. He spent the next two summer with VISIONS on the Montana Blackfeet Reservation, where he also adopted two dogs, Rufus and Luna. In 2014, he directed the combined Cambodia-Myanmar program, and then Myanmar again in 2016. He loves working for VISIONS because the combination of service, the culture, and the outdoors make his summers perfectly inspiring! In his spare time, Kenny writes, plays with his dogs, studies, and enjoys hobbies that include swimming, cooking vegetarian meals, playing the piano, listening to music, snowboarding and volunteering. This summer Kenny will be directing both the Myanmar and Cambodia programs along with his qualified team of leaders. Participants are welcome to enroll in either program on its own, or both for a back-to-back experience.