About

Daniel “Dan” James Mariani, originally hails from Long Island, New York. He grew up in Nassau County, where his close proximity to New York City exposed him to the melting pot of cultures. Dan went on to study English and Education at SUNY Geneseo in western New York.

Upon graduation, he joined the Peace Corps, where he volunteered in Indonesia as a English teacher and teacher trainer. His time there was cut short due to the pandemic and subsequent Peace Corps global evacuation, and Dan returned home to the United States. However, that wasn’t before he met his partner Niki who he would continue to live and travel with to this day.

He then taught a year of first-grade remotely online, and worked part of the year from Costa Rica, where he would secure his following teaching position. While working remotely in Costa Rica, Dan and Niki discovered a private school that was re-opening and signed on to help with the re-opening project. Dan taught 5th and 6th grade, and after successfully helping reopen the school, new adventure would call and they would spend the following year teaching English in Budapest, Hungary.

After teaching a year of 11th grade English and traveling Europe, Dan knew it was time to return to school, and returned to the United States. Although a successful classroom teacher, Dan has always been passionate about writing and storytelling, and found a program to help him pursue his dreams. Dan would begin his Masters in Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno in the fall of 2023, where he studies to this day, honing his journalistic abilities, while operating in numerous important roles as a graduate assistant.