Siena: Resident Directors
Carla Fabian, Resident Director
"Traveling intentionally gives one a deepened sense of one's place in the world," says Carla, who seems to have been born to travel and sojourn abroad. During her years at Duke University, Carla spent a memorable summer in Florence, Italy, which kindled a passion for the land of her Fabiani ancestors.
After graduating from Duke, Carla taught World Literature at Miami Country Day School in Florida and led student trips to the UK, the USSR, the Galapagos islands, and to the Yucatan Peninsula. She then traveled for a year and a half in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, becoming fluent in Spanish.
Later Carla lived with indigenous families and coordinated community service programs and teaching internships for students in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Kenya and Zimbabwe. She also traveled extensively in Africa and in Central and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. In all, Carla has spent time in nearly 40 countries.
Hiking in the Andes, trekking in the Himalayas, walking the 450-mile Camino de Campostella across the top of Spain, and climbing to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro have taught Carla the joys of a life of action, and the importance of savoring life's simple pleasures.
Carla is ebullient, idealistic and deeply principled. She loves the people, beauty, art and la dolce vita of Italy. Competent also in Italian, she is an ideal mentor and admirable role model for the young people in Siena Sojourn.