OUR TEAM

VolunTravel - Non-profit organization

Craig Dreves

Founder and President

Craig spent 8 years living and volunteering abroad. He taught English around the world in countries as diverse as Japan, Romania, Peru and Costa Rica. He spent nearly 3 years serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Romania where he taught English and also worked in an orphanage. More recently, he spent a year working with street children in Trujillo, Peru. Craig moved back to his home in Rye in 2005 and has been teaching middle school history and English at Rye Middle School ever since. He also teaches night courses at Westchester Community College in ESL. Craig leads a community service group called Reach Out Rye which focuses on local and international issues. He has also been taking groups on service trips for many years, including 2 Fordham University groups to Romania, 2 Rye High School groups on Habitat for Humanity trips, a church group to West Virginia, and a People to People group to France, Italy and Greece.

Kristin Orig

Treasurer

Kristin is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Ecuador 2004-2007). While in Ecuador, she worked as a Youth and Families volunteer for Fundacion Junto con los Ninos (JUCONI) in their Community Outreach program. She spent most of her time organizing and running developmental and therapeutic youth groups. A graduate of the University at Albany with a BA in psychology and of Fordham University with an MSEd in counseling, she is currently a high school guidance counselor on Long Island. She continues to volunteer by chaperoning a group of high school students who travel to Nicaragua once a year to implement community development projects to aid the local citizens.

Michelle Tobias

Michelle Tobias, a special educator at Rye Middle School has been teaching for the past 10 years. A lover of learning and life, she has traveled to Spain, Italy, Mexico, and most recently Costa Rica. Understanding and participating in different cultures is her passion, and so is empowering young people to find and use their voices. She also works hard to provide opportunities for youngsters to become agents of change and strives to light the spark of social activism in her students. To this end, Michelle created and advised the Young Activists Club at Rye Middle School and co-advised Reach Out Rye. Both clubs focused on providing opportunities for teens to become active in community service and making positive changes in the school community. She is thrilled to be part of the Voluntravel board.