My journey with studying Spanish and foreign languages started about 12-13 years ago at Boston Latin School; for whatever reason, I opened a Spanish book for the first time, and I instantly fell in love with the ability to communicate with people in another way. For me, it was that simple, and I couldn’t get enough. Spanish to me was like a secret code that I could talk to some friends in but not others, which fascinated me. I couldn’t help but love learning how to speak with people from different parts of the world, so we could understand each other and form relationships through our common thread: Spanish language, history, and culture.

I headed to UMass in the fall of 2010 & began my journey with UMass SpanPort in my freshman year spring when I enrolled in Span 426 (Intermediate Spanish). My TA was a Graduate Student from Barcelona and was one of my first tastes of the amazing and beautiful country of Spain. I loved his class and made it official that Spring that I would major in Spanish and minor in Sociology/Criminal Justice in hopes to pursue a career as a translator in the military and law enforcement post-graduation.

Being a Spanish major at UMass was anything but easy, particularly because I’m a non-native (Irish-American) speaker with no family/relatives to practice word pronunciation, speaking, and fluidity with at home. The greatest thing I ever discovered about UMass, however, was that it didn’t matter, because at UMass/UMass SpanPort we are a family, and as a family, we take care of each other. I will never forget sitting through Spanish 320 (Literary Currents of Spain 1200-1700) with Emma Rivera-Rabago and a half hour into the first lecture I realize I have absolutely no idea what is going on.  We were not only studying Spanish, but in this class, we were studying ancient Spanish writings, where a lot of the words didn’t exist anymore, and the meanings of the texts were up to our interpretation. I was really disheartened and frustrated because I knew I wanted to do this but for a minute I thought I was over my head. I didn’t think I could keep up, considering my whole class was mostly Puerto Rican students/native speakers. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to make the cut until halfway through lecture, a classmate who I would soon befriend and later study-abroad with, Reina Regalado, turned and whispered to me to ask if I understood what was going on. She saw the look of bewilderment on my face and she took a few minutes to help catch me up to speed. I was so touched that someone I had never met was willing to take time out of their day on the first day of school to try and help me that I knew then and there that this environment and this atmosphere was for me, I would just have to take a chance and put 110% of my effort forward to make it happen.

Quickly, by taking 2-3 Spanish classes at a time, every single day became easier, and subsequently, more fun. I looked forward to going to class and ended up graduating with 20-30 extra credits from SpanPort that I didn’t need to complete my degree – I just wanted to take every class available. The intensive immersion and variety of topics/professors from all over the Spanish-speaking world kept it interesting for me.

Everyone is different and finds their niche for what Professors they like or what topics they are interested in, but for me, I particularly loved Profesora Patricia Gubitosi’s and Profesor Luis Marentes’s styles of teaching, so I took every single class I could that they offered. With Profesora Gubitosi, I loved her grammar courses, in particular Span 470, my all-time favorite class: General View of Hispanic Linguistics. That class is awesome because you get to learn about the entire global picture of Spanish and how the sounds, words, and grammatical constructions of countries all over Latin America and Spain vary. I have a newfound appreciation for this class as well post-graduation, because it helps me whenever I travel to better understand people from Colombia vs. Argentina vs. Northern Spain vs. Southern Spain vs. Catalonia vs. Mexico vs. Peru, etc. With Profesor Marentes, I took everything from Junior Year Writing to Latin American Civilization and Culture to the Integrative Experience to an Independent Study with Luis studying Cross-cultural Migrations, which was fascinating and felt like the culmination of my academic career. To date, I have followed Luis’s contributions to the blog “Latino Rebels” and have tried to stay in touch with Professor Marentes as a mentor, as he has provided me with numerous articles and topics for me to research concerning migrations of the Spanish-speaking world.

Other amazing courses/programs I participated through UMass SpanPort include but are not limited to: Studying Abroad in Salamanca Spain (July 2013); earning credit to serve as a volunteer at for the Holyoke Tutorial Program at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holyoke; Carole Cloutier’s Course Span597J – Methodologies and Teaching Methods of Spanish Teaching; Latin American Cinema with Profesor Ornelas; Hispanic Literature and Analysis with Professor Alberto Ameal-Perez; Catalan Cinema with Profesora Barbara Zecchi; & Intensive Portuguese for Spanish-Speakers with Profesor Francisco Cota Fagundes.

In short, I cannot stress enough how becoming a Spanish major changed my life. If I have any advice to give to students now, it would be to take advantage of every single program or opportunity that you can via SpanPort and do your research ahead of time, so you don’t miss the boat. I am grateful for all of the unique experiences and opportunities I received at UMass to study and explore the Spanish-speaking world. I met some of my best friends within the walls of Herter Hall and do not know how I got so lucky to wind up exactly where I was meant to be in Profesora Rivera-Rabago’s classroom and sitting next to Reina on that fall 2011 day. My only regret throughout the course of my entire academic career was that I didn’t study abroad in Argentina for a semester in addition to my summer in Spain. Profesores Ameal-Perez & Gubitosi made me fall in love with Argentinian linguistics, literature, and culture, and the only reason I didn’t study abroad for a semester in Buenos Aires (or a semester in Spain) was because I was on the UMass Hockey Team and didn’t want to miss a season. I guess it depends where your priorities are, but looking back, I wish like crazy I had skipped a season to take advantage of the ability to travel and study so freely abroad in South America. If you’re not a native-speaker, the more time abroad, the better you will be off in the end with your speaking, reading, writing, and understanding.

So, life after UMass (yes, hard to believe, but it exists): where am I now? After graduation, I moved to Madrid, Spain, for a school year (Sept – June) to travel and to teach English and improve my Spanish, of course, living abroad. I got the opportunity to go to Spain for a year via the “Auxiliares Program” through el Ministerio de Lengua, Cultura y Deporte de España. The program was awesome because I got paid to teach English four-days-a-week in a little town called San Agustín del Guadalix. I was assigned to assist Spanish Teachers in English, Social Studies, and Art classes for students ranging between 1a-4a de la ESO (escuela secundaria obligatoria).

After returning from Spain, I followed my heart where it always wanted to be and I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a Combat Engineer. Only two years after my enlistment, I found myself in the Boston Police Academy training. Today I proudly can say that I am a Boston Police Officer and I work the midnight shift out of District C-11 in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. I get to use my language skills every single day and often find myself translating at radio calls or for detectives during investigations. Since UMass, I’ve been back to Spain several times, in addition to traveling all over Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia for solo-travel and volunteer opportunities and could not be happier. I wholeheartedly attribute a great deal of my success to UMass SpanPort and hope that the department opens up as many doors for you as it did for me.