It’s okay to change majors. When I came to UMass, I didn’t really know what I wanted to study or do as a career. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to minor in Spanish. I always enjoyed my Spanish classes in middle and high school so when I came to college, I wanted to further develop my skills. I also wanted to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Spanish-speaking world beyond just learning the language itself. I came in as a computer science major and found that I didn’t like it. I didn’t know what else to do so I switched to accounting my sophomore year. The summer after my sophomore year I worked at a summer camp designed to prevent summer learning loss. It made me realize that I wanted to work with kids in an educational setting. I decided that I wanted to become an elementary school teacher, but it was too late to change majors and still graduate on time with only four semesters left and going abroad for one of them. Plus, UMass doesn’t have an elementary education undergraduate program. My plan was to just take the few education classes that I would need to apply to the elementary graduate program here at UMass. I was already minoring in Spanish so it just made sense to turn it into my major and it was one of the majors I could apply to the graduate program with. At first, I didn’t want to be a Spanish major because I thought that I couldn’t do anything with it after graduation. Eventually, I realized that there are a lot of options to use it. Even if you have another degree and work in that field, you can still use Spanish. It gives you an advantage over others. I began to see that it would be useful no matter what career path I chose. Now I see that it’s going to be especially useful as a teacher.

Through the various courses I have take here at UMass, I have learned a lot about bilingual education and the different opinions surrounding it. This knowledge has influenced how I want to run my future classroom. I believe that every student deserves an opportunity to receive an adequate and equal education. This means not necessarily teaching all students in English only. I want every student to feel welcomed and respected in my classroom, so this requires learning about each student’s cultural background and language and sharing it with the rest of the class. Students should feel like their native language is valued so I will try to provide as many resources and materials as I can to ensure this happens. I will provide students with materials in both English and their native language so that they have support while they are learning English. I don’t want school to be a stressful or anxiety filled place because students don’t understand what’s happening. I want them to be able to focus on exploring their interests and passions and truly learning regardless of their native language. I will fill my classroom with signs and posters that have as many languages as possible on them so that it is an inclusive environment. I would like to work in a school that has a bilingual education program because I think it’s beneficial in the long run. All of the kids are simultaneously learning two languages (English and something else) so no one feels superior or inferior. By the time they reach high school, they will most likely be fluent in two languages which is a highly valuable skill.