Faculty + Staff
The EXPLO faculty and staff have often been described as setting the "gold standard" for summer programs. This does not happen by accident. Recruiting, training, and retaining creative, energetic, responsible, and engaging people is a high priority for EXPLO.
Every Moment is a Teaching Moment
EXPLO hires a combination of experienced teachers, college students, graduate students, and professional practitioners to help us with our programs. EXPLO English is taught by experienced ESOL instructors. All EXPLO faculty and staff go through a rigorous hiring process that includes lengthy written applications, personal interviews, reference checks, and background checks for criminal history and sexual offender history. Then, once someone is hired, there is a lengthy professional development program that is required of all faculty and staff, even if they are experienced teachers.
Strong Support + Supervision
EXPLO believes that students cannot be properly supervised if the adults in the community are not properly supervised. Consequently, EXPLO has a strong faculty/staff supervisory system in place.
Teachers Who Are Involved in All Aspects of Student Life
EXPLO looks for adults who can be exceptional role models, can inspire students to new heights, and people who genuinely enjoy spending time with young people. We travel across the United States each year recruiting an extraordinary group of people. Almost all EXPLO faculty and staff live on campus throughout the summer so that they become part of the extended EXPLO family. Students see faculty and staff not only in class, but also in the dining halls, on the playing fields, and on field trips.
Heading the Program
Elliot Targum is the Head of all EXPLO on the campus of St. Mark's. Elliot has worked at EXPLO for 15 years. He works for Exploration year-round and moves to campus each summer with his family so that he can personally oversee the operations of the program. Elliot is intimately involved in the hiring of each staff member, with curriculum planning, and with the development of all policies and procedures used at the program. Prior to becoming the Head of EXPLO at Wellesley, Mr. Targum held many positions within the organization, including Residence Director, Programming Director, and Dean of Day Students. Outside of EXPLO, Elliot was a founding teacher at a Boston charter school and taught math and science in the Cambridge, Massachusetts public school system. One public school teaching colleague described him as "the most progressive teacher in the district." Mr. Targum's interests and talents are broad. He was a math correlation specialist at Riverdeep, Inc., working on interactive mathematics software, and he worked with Games-To-Teach, a partnership between MIT and Microsoft's iCampus. In addition, he is the founder of EB Tutoring. Mr. Targum is a graduate of Haverford College, and earned his Masters in Education with a concentration in technology and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
