A native to Eugene, Oregon, and the daughter of two teachers, Haley finds her foundation of family and friends throughout the Northwest. After graduating from high school in Eugene, Haley moved to Seattle, Washington to attend Seattle University and begin studying psychology. Throughout her studies she worked with a number of children's educational services including Children's Literacy Project, where she tutored 4th graders, and University Baptist Children's Center, where she was an assistant preschool teacher. Haley also volunteered as an ESL teacher's aid for Downtown Languages in Eugene, Oregon. During her junior year, she studied Spanish at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas at the Universidad de Granada, Spain, thus adding Spanish as her second major. After graduating from SU in 2006, Haley's short vacation to Costa Rica turned into a year long stay in Pavones. She became active in the community by teaching evening English classes for all ages, offering private English tutoring, and helping to set up the bilingual library at the local school. These activities opened up many possibilities for Haley's future, most specifically resurfacing a passion for teaching. Other interests include traveling throughout the world, experiencing the outdoors, surfing, being healthy, and enjoying the pura vida lifestyle! Haley is eager to be a founding part of Escuela Camino Claro.

With more than five years experience as an ESL educator, tutor and mentor, Raphel Weber is excited to be a founding member of Escuela Camino Claro. Raphel's interest in education, focusing on primary school-aged ESL students, began as an undergraduate at Seattle University in 2002. It was during her studies that she began to work for Seattle's non-profit ESL Youth Tutoring Programs as a staff member and head tutor for two years. The following year Raphel's academic interests took her to Granada, Spain, where she studied Spanish at the Universidad de Granada's Centro de Lenguas Modernas. Raphel subsequently moved to Madrid, Spain where she worked as an English teacher at the Booklane Academy while continuing her Spanish language studies at the Universidad de Complutense. Upon her return from Spain, Raphel worked in Seattle's public school system as an ESL reading teacher. She also spent several months in Riobamba, Ecuador working as an intern on an international development project in the Central Andes. Now that she has completed her undergraduate degree, Raphel is excited to use her knowledge and experience to work with the community of Pavones, Costa Rica. Other interests include laughing, traveling, and enjoying an active and relatively healthy lifestyle (with unfortunate and regular overdoses of sugar)!

Native to Florida, Lisa Thrash and her family are full-time residents of Pavones, having finally realized a life-long dream of living a sustainable life in a small community. Lisa began as an ECC parent in 2006 and has now stepped into the roll as bilingual Pre-Kinder and Kindergarten teacher. Lisa, a missionary's daughter with a passion for volunteering, has been teaching and having fun with children since she was 14 years old, whether it was tutoring elementary students after school, being a Spanish instructor in the Florida public school systems, or acting as P.T.O president at her children's grade schools. More recently, she has become intricately involved in home schooling both of her young children. Lisa enjoys reading, history, nature, dancing, traveling, photography, animals, and hanging out with family and says "I feel lucky to be part of the community of Pavones and be part of the group effort in preserving it for future generations."