Menraj Sachdev – Director and Educator
Menraj has a vast background in the field of international education. Prior to establishing Zoped Academy, Menraj worked as the Grants Manager at Ayusa, a global youth exchange program. At Ayusa, Menraj managed a number of long and short term Department of State initiatives including the Tomodachi SoftBank Leadership program — a three week course for 300 Japanese high school students affected by the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.
Previous to Ayusa, Menraj was the Program Development & Quality Manager with Child Family Health International (CFHI), in addition to a consultant with Diversity Abroad. Menraj has also held leadership positions in the annual Lessons from Abroad conference and is currently acting as an Advisor to the newly established organization.
Menraj holds a Masters of Philosophy from the University of Sydney, Australia for his dissertation titled: Higher Education in a Transition Economy: The Case of India 1991-2003. He obtained his BA in Human Development from the University of California, San Diego in 1999, and participated on the Semester at Sea program in 1996.
Robert Magee – Director of University Programs
For six and a half years Robert ran a small organization that provided quality faculty-led educational programs around the world. Robert personally served as tour manager for many of those programs. Robert has extensive international experience, having studied, lived, and worked abroad, for both private providers as well as at the American University of Paris.
Robert has presented on crisis and emergency management at the NAFSA national and regional conferences, as well as at AASAP (Association of American Study Abroad Programs) in London. He has attended many study abroad fairs, given pre and post departure orientation sessions, as well as presented to university faculty and administrators. Robert has experience in creating budgets, designing itineraries, marketing, and public speaking. At the American University he turned what was a moribund department into a creative thriving cultural institution for the students, faculty, and staff at the university. Robert brought this vision to CAPA and Intrax, and tapped into this vision when creating Cultural Studies Abroad. He has dealt with many serious situations, the death of a professor, managing the response to the bombings of 7/7, and numerous other crises.