School Year Abroad Appoints New Trustees Ellanor Brizendine, Carolyn MacIver Millstein and Jenny Wanger

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass., Oct. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- School Year Abroad (SYA) president John E. Creeden, Ph.D. is pleased to announce the appointment of Ellanor Brizendine, Carolyn MacIver Millstein and Jenny Wanger to the SYA board of trustees.

"These individuals bring a wealth of knowledge and multifaceted experiences to our 16-member board," said Creeden. "I look forward to working with all of them as we continue to incorporate initiatives set forth in the 2013 strategic plan."

Ellanor "Bodie" Brizendine has served in independent schools all of her professional career and in 2007 became the fourteenth head of The Spence School, an all-girls K-12 school in New York City. She was head of Marin Academy from 1995-2007, and before that held various senior administrative positions including dean of students at San Francisco University High School and admissions director, director of outreach, and interim head of school at The Bryn Mawr School for Girls in Baltimore. Brizendine serves on a variety of regional and national boards that currently include A Better Chance, Early Steps, Summer Steps and Teach for America. She earned her B.S. from Towson State University and her MEd from The Johns Hopkins University.  

Carolyn MacIver Millstein is an SYA France 1979 alumna who earned an A.B. in French and European cultural studies at Princeton University. She went on to work in advertising in New York at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, Geers Gross, Revlon; and Art in America Magazine. She subsequently left advertising to pursue jewelry work and portrait photography. Millstein is a member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and has served as a member of the boards of the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art at SUNY Purchase and the Rye Arts Center. Her niece, Isabel Neiva-de-Figueiredo, is a member of SYA China's class of 2014.

SYA China 2004 alumna Jenny Wanger was most recently the conference manager for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, where she was responsible for executing their 4,000-person signature event. She currently attends the Sloan School of Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a degree expected in 2015. It was because of her experience in SYA China she majored in East Asian Studies at Harvard University, specializing in early Chinese literature. 

About School Year Abroad

School Year Abroad (SYA) is a nonprofit organization with year-long high school academic study abroad programs in China, France, Italy and Spain. Founded in 1964, SYA is the only secondary-level program which allows students to live with a host family for an entire academic year while earning U.S. graduation credits and preparing for admission to selective U.S. colleges and universities. The central elements of SYA, the homestay and an academic program emphasizing foreign language acquisition, ensure that students realize a mastery of the language and a deep understanding of the culture. Visit www.sya.org for more information.

SOURCE School Year Abroad