Following his birth in 1974, Mark milled about his parents' house for 17 years before enrolling at Penn State to study Political Science. To his great surprise, he graduated in 1996 with degrees in Astrophysics and Theatre. Two years later, it dawned upon Mark that he was working as a business consultant in Florida. Horrified at this realization, he immediately joined the Peace Corps and relocated to Nepal.

After returning from Nepal, Mark became a software designer at a start-up company in Minneapolis, whereby he became momentarily wealthy. Not knowing what to do with money, Mark underwent a lengthy process of transferring this wealth to Johns Hopkins University in exchange for a Masters Degree in International Development, the field in which he is now pursuing a career.

While he was in Nepal, Mark taught math in rural public high schools. Unfortunately, Mark found it difficult to be an effective educator within an educational culture that frustrated intellectual imagination and did not encourage academic achievement. He challenged these standards in his own classroom by introducing games and creativity exercises, and by recognizing demonstrations of excellence and improvement among his students.

In his future career, Mark hopes to support sustainable economic and social development programs that expand opportunities, establish incentives, and support instruments for economic growth and job creation in developing countries. Successful projects of this sort enable people to effectively pursue their own economic and social goals and to demand institutional reform, transparency, and responsibility.

In practice, Mark hopes to someday find a job. Recently, he has been fortunate to work in temporary positions with the Commodity Risk Management Group at the World Bank and the United Nations' World Food Program.

Mark is very pleased to have found Deep Roots and to join them in their efforts to encourage and recognize academic achievement among children in need. He is excited by the opportunity to continue encouraging educational achievement among students in Nepal through his volunteer activities.