Bicultural, bilingual, bisexual…as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to slowly grow into my identities as a queer and bisexual person, as being Latinx in the US, and having Mexican and Nicaraguan heritage. I’m thinking more critically and deeply about who I am and where I fit in- emerging with far more questions than answers, but growing nonetheless.
Continue readingCurrently I am a senior at UMass and I have spent all four years as a Spanish Major. My experience was filled with learning different dialects, norms in different countries, different meanings for words that are the same, and lots of vocabulary and grammar. I would say I had a pleasant experience because of everything I have learned and everything my Major has allowed me to do.
Continue readingAs I enter my final semester at UMass Amherst I constantly look back at my experience in Spain. All the memories are truly unforgettable and unfortunately were cut short for me and countless other college students studying abroad in various countries. Although some of my experience was taken, I can’t help but feel super lucky because of the program I chose that allowed me to visit the beautiful city of Sevilla.
Continue readingDuring Spring 2020 I took a Spanish translation class that transitioned to online learning and we began translating COVID documents for the community. At the same time, I was taking a public health course where we were exploring the impact that COVID is currently having on the community. I decided to translate COVID documents into Portuguese because I realized that if the Spanish community was in need of these documents then it was likely that the Portuguese community needed them as well. From my public health course, I learned that communication is key for getting the community to make positive changes towards a better community. I am grateful that I got to make a positive impact on the community. These two courses taken together gave me a better understanding of how connected public health is to communication and how I could use my knowledge of Portuguese to benefit the public health movement towards a healthier country.
Continue readingI consider myself to be really lucky that my parents didn’t want to speak English at home, and really emphasized we speak Spanish. Despite moving to the US when I was 7 from Mexico, I maintained my fluidity, and was able to become truly bilingual. Through middle school, I felt really confident helping my friends with their Spanish homework. Even taking French classes felt easy— French was just like Spanish, but more elegant and a tad bit pretentious, overall a fun language to learn.
In high school, I decided to take Spanish. I can’t remember what the reason was, maybe I wanted to have an easy class, maybe I was genuinely interested in learning? Honestly, that couldn’t have been it. I was allowed to skip a year of Spanish, which made me feel very cocky and proud of myself. That didn’t last long.
Continue readingHi. I am a student double majoring in Nursing and Spanish at UMass Amherst. In addition to that, I am pursuing a Spanish and Health Certificate that is also offered by UMass. I am from Western Massachusetts, specifically Holyoke. My mother is Puerto Rican while my father is of Irish decent. Holyoke is a city with a 52% population of Latinos. Growing up most of my peers and friends were Latino. I’ve been to Puerto Rico plenty of times, since most of my mother’s side of the family still lives there. I am bilingual and am already fluent in Spanish. I love the music and culture. These are primary reasons why I chose to have Spanish as my secondary major, although there are other reasons too.
I chose Nursing for a variety of different reasons. My main inspiration to become a nurse comes from my desire to care for people who need it. Helping others is something that is part of my personality and it is something I love to do. Helping patients recover from their conditions, while helping them and their families get through their difficult situations emotionally. Seeing people suffer affects me and drives me to help them rid their pain and troubles. The most important thing is the positive impacts and outcomes that come from helping other human beings is rewarding. I believe that nursing is more than a career or profession, it is a lifestyle.
Continue readingHello! I am a student double majoring in Biochemistry and Spanish. I am also planning on getting the Spanish and Health Certificate offered at UMass. My spanish major relates greatly to my biochemistry major because it allows me to formulate my thoughts through different lenses. Many times in the biochemistry core classes students only focus on memorizing and analyzing material in a more factual way. My Spanish major has allowed me to take classes where we discuss humanitarian problems occurring not just in medical settings, but all over the globe. I truly believe taking Spanish classes have allowed me to mentality relax during the semester and not stress too much over my science courses. I do believe studying is important but my Spanish class discussion reminds me that there are far more important things than just your studies to worry about. My Spanish class discussion reminds me there is work to be done, not until I graduate from college or medical school, but change that can be worked for currently. I truly believe my Spanish and biochemistry majors complement each other. Taking classes in the liberal arts and science college is such an amazing curriculum to follow. The Spanish classes allow me to stay true to my roots by reminding me of the beauty in my latinidad and learning to embrace it, even as it shows up in my science careers. Being aware of one’s identity is super important as it allows youth to acknowledge what position you are in and how to manipulate this in a beneficial way for others. Helping others looks differently, but the reason and passion to help should always come from selfless motives.
Continue readingI was lucky enough to participate in a Spanish immersion program throughout my elementary and secondary public education. One classroom per grade in my elementary school was designated as a Spanish immersion classroom. The Spanish immersion program provided 100% of Spanish instruction in core academic classes, beginning in kindergarten through 2nd grade. English was slowly incorporated in later elementary grades in order to prepare immersion students for state standardized tests. In middle school, students involved in the immersion program took a designated Spanish class as an elective. This designated Spanish immersion elective continued throughout high school, and during junior year, every Spanish immersion student took AP Spanish – allowing immersion students to graduate with a Seal of Biliteracy to cap off the program.
Continue readingAs a freshman entering UMass, the only goal I had in mind was to get good grades in order to go to medical school. I joined a living learning community called BIOTAP where I was able to take smaller science courses to strengthen my skills in lab and create closer relationships with my floormates and professors. This experience allowed me to get some premed courses out of the way, but I was still at a loss for what I wanted to major in. I soon began to miss my Brazilian culture that was a very big part of my high school experience and decided to take a Portuguese course to have more variety in my schedule and learn how to write formally in Portuguese. After that course I decided that studying a language along with my science courses would be an important way in order to continue enjoying my challenging courses and engage with Latin culture.
Continue readingI’ve always had a passion for Spanish since I began learning it when I was in middle school. I loved speaking it and always enjoyed participating in class and practicing as much as I could. However, when I got to college I began to feel self-doubt in my Spanish abilities. I was aware that the Spanish program in my school district wasn’t the most diverse, to say the least. None of my teachers were native speakers nor did they come from a heritage speaking family. None of my classmates had connections with native speakers either. I was really intimidated by the idea of being in class with native speakers because pronunciation was never the main focus when I was being taught.
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