I truly did not expect to fall in love with the Spanish department when I selected my major. I even waited a semester before taking any Spanish classes because my advisor suggested that I get a head start on completing prerequisites in science courses before they were overenrolled. My second semester freshman year, though, I took Spanish 311 with Prof. Danielle Thomas, and began to really get involved. 

I asked her to be my advisor for an independent study examining linguistic patterns in native Spanish-speaking children, and I fell in love with the work; it combined my interests in Spanish, language acquisition, and working with children. I also volunteered once a week at a local elementary school, working with Spanish-speaking children to help them learn how to read and write in order to pass the Massachusetts Seal of Biliteracy test. Both of these were challenging but rewarding: working with children is difficult, as is analyzing their patterns of speech, but it offered me important insight on real-life application of the language that I had committed my college experience to studying, which I felt to be really valuable. Halfway through the semester, though, we were sent home with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and opportunities to become involved with the Spanish department became scarce. 

I really missed having opportunities to practice my Spanish, so I looked for other ways to get involved: I began attending the weekly Café Olé sessions, where graduate students run conversations to practice Spanish fluency, and got involved with the Salud y Bienestar initiative. Based in the Pioneer Valley for the local community and beyond, the Salud y Bienestar initiative is something that I think I will hold close to my heart even after I leave Amherst. Working in communications, I work on community outreach to publicize our weekly wellbeing classes that are offered virtually and in Spanish; these include Yoga, Zumba, Creative Writing, Personal Reflection, and more. Seeing that there are community members that are able to take advantage of this is valuable; language can be such an extreme barrier and I think that having that space helps make the area feel more like a home and community, especially for those who are not native to the region.

I think I could have easily fallen into the easy rhythm of being a Spanish major; so many people do and I don’t blame them because I really would have as well if I had not been introduced to opportunities by Prof. Thomas. I’ve felt really lucky to be able to apply my knowledge in more hands-on situations, especially so early on; it feels like an important glimpse into what I hope to do with my Spanish education beyond graduation. Beyond the experiences and connections I’ve had and made so far, I also know that any Spanish faculty is willing to reach out to other professors, students, and more to help facilitate any type of learning opportunity they believe is valuable. Those kinds of personal relationships are something that I really do not take for granted, especially at a school of this size, and I am consistently thankful for the people in the Spanish department for these reasons and a myriad of others as well.