About Us
About Glen Turf
My love for everything global began when I was in 7th grade. It was my very first Spanish class and the teacher was going up and down the aisles to give us our new Spanish names. As we were seated in alphabetical order, I had some time to think. I very clearly remember thinking, “My life is going to change in a few minutes. After today, I’ll know another language.” While I certainly did not walk out of the classroom a fluent speaker of Spanish, my life did change. From that point forward, I was enthralled by anything that had to do with other cultures. I looked for every opportunity possible to practice Spanish or engage with people different from myself. I worked at a specific summer leadership camp because that is where the contingent of student leaders from Puerto Rico attended, and I felt at home engaging with them in dance and song.
As a college student, I couldn’t wait for the day when I would declare a major and enroll in the semester abroad in Madrid program. When I left my first teaching job for graduate school, I sadly remember telling my colleagues, “I hope I can once again find a community of like-minded lovers of language like you.” When I participated in a Fulbright Teacher Exchange in Argentina, I was the only American in a small town, and I loved it. After moving to Miami to be a Spanish teacher, I remember the native speaker parents testing me, giving me a nod of approval, and quickly walking away amazed that a gringo from Long Island could communicate so effectively with them. In short, that little boy in 7th-grade was right that his life was going to change when he became “Tomás Turf.”
The pinnacle of my professional career came in 2014 when I was given a blank slate to create a program abroad. I went to Madrid, met with locals, vetted sites, and in a matter of months, the program was ready for enrollment. I was managing the growth of that program at the same time I was Upper School Director. While on a site vetting trip in Nice, France, I remember telling a colleague, “This is what I was meant to do. This is my future.” Two years later, what I manifested on that bus became a reality, as the school entrusted me with a new position to further develop our global studies program. 11 years later, the original program is the only one of its kind in the United States, and many more offshoots have been added.
As the Chief Officer for Global Learning Opportunities, Belonging and Empowerment (GLOBE), I have traveled to four continents, established study programs in 16 global cities, and worked with my students to become active global citizens. For me, it was never about getting on a plane, but creating authentic learning opportunities once on-site. As I would always say, “It’s not a trip. It’s an experience.”