Program Directors

"We will always thank you for giving Sidney what we consider a magnificent gift! We hope you live as long as the lady from Arles, continuing to offer your programs and to enjoy life."

- Ann and Mason Hawkins, parents of Sidney, France

Helene Rassias-Miles

At the age of 12, Helene was first introduced to Europe when her father, Professor John Rassias, founder and then director of Dartmouth College’s Language Study Abroad program, moved his family to France for the first homestay/study program. Living with a French family and attending a French school, Helene experienced firsthand the benefits that come from immersion in language and culture.

As one of the first women graduates of Amherst College (and an honors French Studies major), she was also co-founder and then captain of women’s crew and continues to row. Since college, she has pursued a career in education—initially as a Teaching Fellow at Phillips Andover and subsequently as a member of the French faculty at Middlesex School, where she also coached rowing and field hockey.

Rassias Language Programs Abroad, the predecessor to Rassias Programs, was founded in 1985. It blends the Rassias Method with Helene’s teaching background and her strong commitment to reproduce the learning and play environment that she experienced in Europe as a young girl.

Currently, in her capacity of Executive Director of the Rassias Foundation at Dartmouth College, Helene develops programs, conducts workshops and performs consulting services for a variety of entities, including many college, high schools, non-profits, and corporations both here and abroad. It is this background and her boundless energy and enthusiasm that make her the motor of Rassias Programs.

Pam Miles

Pam’s introduction to Spanish began in the Fourth Grade, and she was hooked upon completing her first sentence. Pam is a veteran of homestays, having lived witha family in Madrid during a summer program in high school and later for an extended period in Ecuador. Pam continued her Spanish studies through the highest levels at Tufts University.

After graduating from Tufts, Pam went on to law school at Boston University School of Law and also received a Master’s Degree in International Relations. After receiving a grant to attend the International Bar Association Conference in Autralia while in law school, Pam made some long-lasting contacts with a law firm in Quito, Ecuador. At their invitation, Pam moved to Quito for a year following graduation from law school to work for the law firm of Bustamante y Bustamante. She lived with a local family in Quito, with whom she had a wonderful experience and maintains close contact today.

Following that experience, she went to work for the Washington law firm of Covington and Burling and later moved over to Wilmer, Cutler, and Pickering. After 5 years as a Washington attorney (as was her husband), she and her husband moved to San Francisco and entered the start-up world. But in the end, Pam’s passions—second language acquisition and travel—have not left her blood. Rassias Programs became the perfect fit!

Pam currently lives in Menlo Park, California with her husband (Bill Miles, Jr.) and two daughters (grandchildren to Bill and Helene.)

Bill Miles

Bill’s first encounter with European culture came at Noble and Greenough School in Boston. There, his French teacher, a Parisian, rarely allowed a word of English to creep out of Bill’s mouth for 6 years! Occasional glances out the classroom window to the playing fields beckoning below were brought to a stop with a French expletive.

Bill then went to Bowdoin College (French and Political Science) and Penn State
(Education). At Bowdoin, he was captain of the soccer team, a member of the hockey team and student government and won the George Levine MVP soccer award. He also managed to spend three months in France, and it was then that the confluence of the
Noble’s instruction and the European culture occurred. Fifteen years later, in 1985, he started Odyssey Adventures which, until 1998, operated bike trips in France.

In the interregnum, Bill has been a banker, a volunteer for many community organizations, and a coach of almost any sport you might think of. He has held a National Soccer Coaching license, chaired the Harrisburg (PA) Academy Board, and taught elementary through high school students French, Latin, Algebra, and History. He also is an alumni interviewer and fund raiser for Bowdoin and a member of Hanover’s Diversion Board which provides alternate sentencing in community placement duties for first-time juvenile offenders. He is the father of two older children who are both bike trip alums and former staff members of the trips. And he and Helene are the parents of a little (soon-to-be) French- and Spanish-speaking son, Matthew.

These days, he spends much of his time managing the day-to-day activities of Rassias Programs... between running, biking, skiing. To help insure program quality and facilitate problem solving, he or Pam also circulate through all the programs during their operation over the summer.

Mary handles several roles for us, all gracefully and effectively—mother of Helene, mother-in-law of Bill, office manager, voice of reason on the phone to hundreds of parents and students. She herself has lived and traveled extensively in Europe, speaks French, studies Spanish, and, given the life she has led, is keenly aware of cultural differences.

Besides working with us, she assists at a Vermont homeless shelter, at church-related assistance programs for the disadvantaged, and several other community-based programs for the underprivileged.

Professor John A. Rassias, program consultant

Professor Rassias and his teaching methods have been acclaimed throughout the United States and the world. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Time, Newsweek, The London Times, Figaro Maga- zine, Le Français dans le Monde, The Beijing (China) Review, and Smithsonian Magazine are just a few of the major publications that have featured the man and his teaching approach. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including "Good Morning America" "World News Tonight," "The David Brinkley News Magazine," "National Public Radio," "The Voice of America," and "The Tonight Show." He has been featured on "60 Minutes", and most recently in Life magazine.