Fran Burns graduated from our program in 2015. We are happy that he has contacted us to let us know about his UMass experience, his last two years in Mexico, and his future plans.

“So you wanna study Spanish, huh?” This moment will forever stay in my mind. I was at my grandmother’s funeral my senior year of high school, and one of my grandmother’s friend, who I didn’t know, was baffled that I wanted to study Spanish. She repeatedly said “Spanish, huh?” and was completely perplexed by the idea of me studying Spanish. It started making me second guess myself since she was so concerned. I think that was one of my first times I started questioning my major. Since then I’ve gotten asked multiple times “Well, what can you do with Spanish?” and luckily there isn’t a clear answer. As a Spanish and Italian major I’ve been able to explore and consider many job opportunities. Maybe if I were a nursing, an engineering, or accounting student I wouldn’t have considered these opportunities as being realistic or making sense for me. I’m sure that for many of you Spanish is one of your passions and I can easily say it’s one of mine. There were times when I felt guilty or maybe lost about studying Spanish, thinking I should study something more practical or with a clear career goal in mind. However, I am so happy that I was spent four years studying something that I love. If it’s something you are really passionate about, you’ll find a way to incorporate it into your work or daily life.

Some of my favorite Spanish classes at UMass were Linguistics 378 and methodologies of teaching a foreign language with Carole Cloutier. The linguistics course was fascinating and we viewed different varieties of Spanish. This class made me much more aware of my pronunciation. I’ve always been a bit self-conscious of my accent in Spanish, so I think this class really helped me improve it. Methodologies of teaching a foreign language was also incredible since we were able to use Spanish in a practical way, meaning I could see how I could use Spanish as a career. I always knew that teaching was an option as a Spanish major, but this course taught me what it looked like teaching it. Also, the dynamics of the class were great. There were many international graduate students which made the class diverse and interesting. Also, any class with Carole is fun and I’ve always learned a lot with her!

I also participated in the Spanish Thatcher Language House my freshman year. I now live in Mexico and people often ask me how I learned Spanish, and I think I owe a lot of my Spanish to that class. It was one of the first times I had to use my Spanish in class in a purposeful way and not just to conjugate a verb into the subjunctive. The class was small about 10 people and it was a conversation class that dealt with current events and culture in Spanish-speaking countries, including the US. Also, the professor of the class, Jayne Reino, is incredible and makes sure everyone feels comfortable in the class and takes time to get to know her students. You could tell that Jayne was passionate about the class, and would find topics that were interesting to us. She definitely helped my confidence with the language. (Thanks Jayne!)

I also took a course at Mount Holyoke College. When I applied to UMass I thought it seemed amazing that I could take classes at the other four colleges. I envisioned myself taking multiple classes at the different schools… and I only took one my last semester senior year. It took me a while to finally take a course elsewhere, but I am so glad I did. I took Puerto Rican Studies with Professor Dorothy Mosby. I liked the course because I was able to hear new perspectives at Mount Holyoke and also we learned about Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico in Massachusetts/Northeast. The class was relevant to where I was living and that made it even more interesting to me.

Finally I really enjoyed the classes Spanish 394 and 494 Pre/post study abroad with Luis Marentes. What made these classes interesting to me were the people in it. The class allowed us to get to know fellow Spanish majors and to see what they were thinking of doing with our Spanish degrees. Luis was always pushing us with the question “why Spanish?”. I think it really got us thinking and as a group we could share ideas and reasons to the question why Spanish and what we wanted to do. Also, thanks to this class I studied in Argentina. I was pretty set on studying in Spain simply because it was the most well-promoted or well-known or simply me being ignorant. Thanks to this class, I heard about people’s experiences in Latin America, and it started to give me new ideas. Reflecting on my major now makes me so confident and happy with my decision studying Spanish at UMASS. I’m realizing how much I have learned and how much the Spanish major and my time at UMASS has influenced me today.

Majoring in Spanish and Italian has given me tons of opportunities. Upon returning to campus after studying abroad, I applied to work as a peer advisor at IPO. It has been one of my favorite jobs. I was surrounded by fascinating people that had lived/worked overseas. The advisors had a wealth of knowledge about careers in International Education. I also loved talking about my experience abroad and easing students’ fears or questions about doing an exchange program themselves. It was extremely fulfilling for me to promote international education. My senior year I applied for a Fulbright scholarship on a whim to be an English teaching assistant in Mexico. I really wasn’t expecting much, but I went to ONSA on campus (REALLY late, plan ahead!) and they encouraged me to apply. Finally after 6 months of waiting I found out I was accepted. I’ve now been in Mexico for the past two years and plan on staying for at least another year. I am so happy I didn’t have a concrete plan of what I wanted to do with Spanish because otherwise I wouldn’t have been open to the idea of living in Mexico for what will be three years.

My first year in Mexico with Fulbright I was teaching at a high school in Puebla. I would give class 22 hours a week, having classes to improve their pronunciation, conversational English, vocabulary, US culture and current event. I also led workshops for some of the English teachers. I loved working at the school, the students and teachers were incredible. After my 9 month grant ended, I decided to stay for what I thought would be just one more year. I worked at a private high school in Puebla. Again, it was an amazing experience. I could definitely tell the difference between the private and public school kids, but I had a lot of fun working with both schools and feel that I have grown as a teacher from both jobs. Currently I am working in Mexico City as a coordinator for a leader exchange program called Jóvenes en Acción. It is a scholarship sponsored by the US Embassy in Mexico and Mexican Secretary of Public Education for Mexican high school students to spend a month in the US improving their leadership, communication, teamwork skills and implementing a social project in their community upon returning back to Mexico. I never would have imagined working on this program. I had worked on Jóvenes en Acción before, but as a program facilitator in the US. Luckily through studying abroad, I met the program manager of Jóvenes en Acción, Lisa, who was doing her practicum in Italy for her Master’s in International Education at SIT. Oddly enough, I had to study in Italy in order to learn about this US Mexican exchange. I never realized that you could make a career out of “study abroad.” I started thinking that maybe International Education could be a career for me.

I’m not exactly sure what is next for me. However, I do know that I miss being in the classroom and being with students daily. I always thought that I would like being a teacher, but I didn’t like thinking that it was my only option as a Spanish major. As a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, I was able to get my foot in the door with teaching. I liked it and stayed the following year being a full-time teacher. I also really liked it, but I was worried that I would regret not trying other things or trying an office job for some reason. I do like my current job, but for the most part I’m in an office. The most exciting part of my job is when we are with the students, so I’m hoping I’ll be in a classroom soon.