BA in human biology, Claremont McKenna College; Claremont, California (2001). As an undergraduate, John was a captain of the varsity football team, and studied in Ecuador for a semester at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. From 2002-2003 John worked as a volunteer in both Guatemala and Nicaragua. In Nicaragua he initiated a grass-roots development project with the Nicaraguan NGO Consejo de Iglesias Pro-Alianza Denominacional. Living on a farm with a family of ten, he witnessed the consequences of underdevelopment and the social aftermath of the Contra War of the 1980s. In addition, John has volunteered at a hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, where he assisted medical staff in treating children who were malnourished, were HIV-positive or had facial tumors. Most recently he has worked for the Los Angeles Youth Network, an emergency shelter for homeless teenagers in Hollywood.