SOCIETAS
BOSTON LATIN SCHOOL MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE HONOR SOCIETY
2019 INDUCTION CEREMONY
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: ALUMNA SIOBHAN ELVIN, CLASS OF 2010
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I cannot express what an honor and a privilege it is to be invited to speak to you all here today at my alma mater for the 2019 Boston Latin School Societas Induction Ceremony. First and foremost, I want to extend my sincerest congratulations to all of this year’s inductees: you should truly all be proud of what an amazing achievement it is to join the Societas Modern Foreign Languages Honor Society. By meeting or acceding the rigorous qualifications necessary to be invited to join Societas, you have demonstrated that you possess an invaluable skillset that will only continue to open doors for you after your time at BLS comes to an end. I also want to recognize on this evening all of the inductees’ families and teachers that played a role in preparing these students to get where they are today. Without all of you, none of this would be possible.
It was Charlemagne who first said, “To have another language is to possess a second soul.” I don’t remember when I heard this for the first time or where I may have picked it up along the way, but this powerful quote has always been something that has really stuck with me and summed up everything I feel about Modern Foreign Languages in just 10 simple words.
My own personal journey with studying Spanish and Modern foreign languages started about 14 years ago in this very building. I opened a Spanish book for the first time in Ms. Chouinard’s eighth grade classroom, 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. I moved onto Spanish 2 with Señora Kelley, Spanish 3 with Señora Williams, and elected to continue studying with Señora Kelley for Spanish 4 Honors & AP my senior year. 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, literature, history, culture, and passion.
I continued my Spanish-language journey after graduation when I placed into an Intensive Intermediate Spanish course during my freshman year at UMass Amherst. 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.
Becoming a Spanish major was anything but easy, particularly because I’m a non-native (Irish-American) speaker with no family or relatives to practice word pronunciation, speaking, and fluidity with at home. I then remembered, that neither did Ms. Kelley, so I should stop throwing myself a pity party and embrace the challenge.
I quickly discovered, however, that it doesn’t matter, because in any language classroom, we are a family, and as a family, we take care of each other. I will never forget my first lecture sophomore year of college for ‘Literary Currents of Spain from 1200-1700’… about a half hour in I finally realize that 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 in over my head. I didn’t think I could keep up, considering the majority of my classmates were 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 Regalo, 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 class 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 on and believe in myself that I could keep up with the coursework and put 110% of my effort forward to see it through.
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 30 extra Spanish credits 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 and made it easy to improve in a very short period of time. And when I ran out of Spanish classes to take, I started studying Portuguese & Russian.
One of the happiest and most unforgettable moments of my life was the first time I landed in Salamanca, Spain, to study abroad the summer of my junior year. I remember standing in the center of La Plaza Mayor for the very first time, in the center of the very city where my mentor Señora Kelley had studied abroad many years before, in the middle of the Plaza she had told us so much about. Standing there watching the Plaza light up at sunset and the city come alive at night, I realized that this wasn’t a dream, and I was finally in Spain. This was the first authentic touch of the culture and country that I had dedicated my entire academic career to studying, and I was simply left speechless. I remember the overwhelming sensation that there was something magical in the air and that I had found a part of myself that I was always missing. Finally, I felt complete, and all of the sacrifices I had made to get where I was in my speaking, reading, and writing abilities were all worth it.
After graduation, I moved to Madrid for a year to travel, to teach English, and most importantly, to improve my Spanish. I applied & was accepted to the ‘Auxiliares’ Program through the Spanish Ministry of Language, Culture, & Sport. The program was lifechanging. I was getting paid to teach English courses at a bilingual high school in a small town just outside of the center of Madrid called San Agustín del Guadalix. At San Agustin, I mostly worked with 7th-10thgrade students. I had a lot of extra time on my hands, so I ended up finding a second job teaching 1 & 2-year-olds at a private English academy afterschool. On the weekends, I traveled all over Spain, Europe, and Northern Africa.
After returning from Spain, I followed my heart where it always wanted to be, and I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps to become an interpreter. And only two years afterward, I found myself beginning the Boston Police Academy as a new recruit. Today I proudly can say that I am a Boston Police Officer and I work the midnight shift out of District A-1. If you are not familiar, A-1 covers Downtown, Charlestown, Chinatown, Beacon Hill, and the North End neighborhoods of Boston. As you can imagine, we are very busy, but I absolutely love working downtown because I get to use my language skills every single day. I often find myself translating at radio calls for other officers and for detectives during investigations.
Being able to speak another language has also made me a better police officer because I am more approachable. Often, we receive 911 calls from individuals who are in need of emergency assistance, yet they are unable to effectively communicate with the Dispatcher or Officers because of a language barrier. Other times, individuals are afraid to cooperate with the police, even when they find themselves victims of violent crime, because they are afraid immigration issues will be exposed if they call 911. Being able to Speak Spanish & Portuguese in these situations has proven an indispensable tool that I have used to break down barriers in communication and understanding with victims to ensure that they receive equal protection under the law and that perpetrators of violent crime don’t take advantage of their feelings of vulnerability or fears of retaliation.
So, students, if you all take one thing away from everything I have said today, it is this: you possess a skill set that money cannot buy. To have another language is truly to possess a second soul, so whether you speak Spanish, Italian, German, French, or Chinese, take your gift and run wild with it. The Spanish language has taken me around the world and back. It has taken me miles outside of my comfort zone, from backpacking across South America all the way to speaking in front of you all today. I have learned over time, however, that great things never come from comfort zones. You have to step out of the life you are familiar with and take the risk to live the life you dream about. And no matter what you hope to accomplish in your future, just remember what Cady Haron said in Mean Girls: “The limit does not exist.” Congratulations to the 2019 inductees to the Societas Modern Foreign Languages Honor Society and thank you for inviting me to be a part of your special day.