Team
Samantha Cannistraci
Samantha Cannistraci is a senior Biology major at Adelphi University. Additionally, she double minors in Environmental Studies and Communications. Samantha first studied abroad in Australia as part of a field study concerning marine and terrestrial environments. Cuba was her second study abroad experience. Upon graduating in May, Samantha is immediately entering a grant-funded program in which she will receive her master's in Science Education in one year at Adelphi. She plans to join the Peace Corps, though she is going to let fate assign her to where she needs to be. In the future, she hopes to return to school to pursue a career in radiology or veterinary medicine.
Thomas J. Gonzalez
Thomas J. Gonzalez is a senior at Adelphi University studying Communications with a focus in film. He plans to work in film production after graduation and to eventually write and direct his own television shows and movies. This has been Thomas’s second study abroad trip; he has also spent a semester in Australia at University of the Sunshine Coast. In his spare time Thomas is an active member of the Delta Chi social fraternity.
William Lucano
Adelphi University. Senior Journalism Major. I’m passionate about life. “The only limitations one has are the ones they place on themselves.” - Muhammad Ali
Dan McElroy
Dan McElroy is a sophomore art major in the graphic design track. His initial interest in Cuba was historical, that this time marks a sea change in diplomatic relations, but what he discovered ran much deeper. Culturally and personally, Cuba unfolded in front of him. The people he met revealed a layer of intimacy that has deeply moved him; when he saw the U.S. flag waving over the gulf—Miami a scant ninety miles off beyond the surf—it was personal and immediate. His interest in the art of Cuba comes out of this desire to share the lives of Cubans abroad: that their culture is rich, and despite a lack of resources and economic set-backs, Cubans are proud, engaged, and hopeful people.
Matthew Mikalonis
Matthew is in Adelphi University’s College of Nursing and Public Health, Class of 2018. Matthew is a member of the Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity and his goals in life are to be able to help and to make a difference in someone’s life on a daily basis, and to be able to heal the world one country at a time.
Ben Nichols
Ben Nichols. 21. International Studies and Economics double major. Film maker. Adventurer. International traveler. Destroyer of worlds. http://nextvoyagemedia.tumblr.com/
Michael O’Toole
Michael O’Toole is a Communications major concentrating in Digital Production & Cinema Studies at Adelphi University. Whenever Michael is not making or working on films, he is immersed in modern literature, photography, modern jazz, and biking.
Julia Salvatore
Julia Salvatore is apart of the Freshman class of 2019 at Adelphi University where she studies Business Management. She is involved in Women's Club soccer and Ultimate Frisbee and likes to participate in Caliber where she volunteers her time to help make other people lives easier and give back to the community and also ASL (sign language) club where she is learning the basics of sign language.
Sandra Spernacka
Sandra Spernacka is a senior at Adelphi University, majoring in communications with a journalism concentration, dancing her way through life. Analogue at birth, digital by design. Making history…all she needs is a one way ticket to Havana.
Rong Zeng
Rong grew up in Changsha, China before arriving in New York to pursue a major in Digital Production & a minor in Marketing. In 2012, she interned in television in China, then changed her major and transferred to Adelphi University to pursue her BA in communication. A lover of traveling.
John Drew
John teaches digital media production at Adelphi University and enjoys taking students to unique places. Cuba is currently at the very top of that list- que viva Cuba!
Mark Grabowski
Mark Grabowski is a journalism professor at Adelphi University. Previously, he worked as a newspaper reporter for five years. His assignments included covering the suburbs for the Providence Journal, manning the night cops beat at the Arizona Republic, serving as the state capital bureau chief for a chain of daily newspapers in Pennsylvania, and tracking Congress for a wire service. He has a J.D. from Georgetown Law. He’s lived in Paris, Rome and Cairo and backpacked around Eastern Europe.
Joan Stein Schimke
Joan Stein Schimke is an Associate Professor at Adelphi University where she teaches film and video production.Joan’s films have screened at dozens of film festivals around the world. Her short film “One Day Crossing” was nominated for an Academy Award®, won the Student Academy Award® Gold Medal, the Director's Guild of America (DGA) Best Woman Student Filmmaker, and Best Director, National Board of Review. Other directing credits include “Law and Order” and the short films “Solidarity,” “Behind Closed Door,” “Fault Line” and “Reap the Whirlwind.” Her current feature length screenplay, co-written with Averie Storck, was selected for the Hamptons International Film Festival Screenplay Lab and the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Lab, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.