I transferred to UMass specifically for the Spanish program. However, there are many things that I wish I had known prior to transferring that I want to make a post in order to help as many people as possible.
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When I started touring universities in high school, I had no idea what I was looking for. I had yet to reflect on what I wanted out of my college experience. Even the thought of addressing my future scared me. As a result, I did not know what to look for in colleges. However, the one thing I remained decisive about was that I wanted to study abroad in college. This did not narrow down my decision since most universities I considered had study abroad programs, but I clung to it. In the end, my decision came down to money. The school that offered me the most financial aid turned out to be Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island.
At Providence, nearly all study abroad students spend the fall semester of their junior year in Barcelona. I am sure that if I had stayed at Providence, I would have followed this path most travelled. However, I did not stay at Providence. I had to learn what I wanted out of my college experience the hard way, and as soon as I got to Providence I realized I needed a less homogenous campus culture. So after a year there, I transferred to UMass. Continue reading
I transferred to this University from a small community college in Springfield during my Junior year. If you didn’t know already, Springfield is a city heavily populated by Puerto Ricans. I was born in Puerto Rico and brought to the United States at the age of two. I have been surrounded by other Puerto Ricans all my life. Therefore, when I sat in Worcester’s dining common having dinner with a group of friends, I was unsettled due to the following experience. There was a lot of laughter and conversation at the table. I saw a student walk into the dining common in search of someone. He was holding a pen and notebook in his hand. I accidently made eye contact and he took that as an invitation to walk towards my table. He apologized for interrupting our conversation and proceeded to ask us if we would take a few minutes to fill out his questionnaire. My friend who was sitting across from me decided to help him. While she was filling out the questionnaire, the man stared at me for a few seconds before asking me, “What are you?” Continue reading
Growing up I was always very rigid, small changes to plans would make me upset. This made me very hard on myself and I was a perfectionist. For me things were black and white, good or bad, right or wrong, there was never any gray area. This helped me in some ways like with academics, but hurt me in a lot of other ways. I always wanted to be in control of everything and hated feeling like I wasn’t. This mindset led to a lot of isolation. I spent a lot of time alone with my thoughts and they told me I wasn’t good enough, smart enough, thin enough, or worth anything. These thoughts only led to more isolation. Continue reading
As a transfer student, I didn’t feel like I had enough time to spend an entire semester studying abroad during my time at UMass. I would have had to start figuring out all the logistics during my first semester on campus and then leave for my second semester. I potentially could have studied abroad during my senior year, but I also had to think about completing my Honors College thesis. While I don’t regret my decision to stay at UMass instead of spending a semester abroad, I am determined to find another way to go abroad after graduating. Continue reading
For the second part of my Integrative experience, I’ve decided to try to find a law internship. Is this my final decision? No, I still have time to change my mind or take a service learning class for example. Unfortunately, I am unable to go abroad due to various reasons, like parental opinion, and lack of time to do honors requirements due to being a transfer student. This does not mean I want to work in a law firm, but work in an environment that is related to the fields I have interest in, such as immigration or family law. I want to gain exposure and knowledge before applying to law school. I hope to meet new people and form new connections. For this blog post, I’d like to talk about my process so far of finding the right internship for me. Continue reading
What is it like to be multilingual? Languages have always been a passion of mine since the time I was a child. I am a native speaker of Greek, and being a native speaker of Greek has helped me cognitively to pick up the Spanish language. I started taking Spanish in 7th grade, and continued to take Spanish courses all throughout my years of secondary education. When I first started taking Spanish in the 7th grade, I was able to pick up on it easily because being a native speaker of Greek helped me to in addition to remembering a few Spanish words from the TV shows that I used to watch when I was a child, such as Sesame Street. After I graduated high school, I started college at Middlesex Community College where I had the opportunity to take Spanish courses. However, at the community college there was no such thing as a Spanish major. I did continue to take Spanish courses at Middlesex, and I knew that I always wanted to pursue a career where I got the opportunity to use Spanish, but I was not sure exactly what I wanted to do back then. At one time, I was doing some research on careers where Spanish is often used, such as a translator, interpreter, or even a teacher. In the beginning, I thought that I wanted to be an interpreter, Continue reading
I transferred to UMASS in Fall 2017 from a community college. Coming in as a Junior, it has been stressful trying to make the most out of my UMASS experience and making use of everything the university has to offer. I spent most of my first semester feeling overwhelmed with prospects of studying abroad, service-learning and internships. Even deciding to have Spanish be my only major was a drawn-out internal struggle. At the beginning of the semester I questioned how much I was getting out of being a Spanish major. It seemed to me that most courses focused more on the culture of Spain, and I have more interest in learning about Latin American Culture. I’m from the Pioneer Valley originally so a lot of my interest in Spanish came from my connections with the Latinx population in the area, much of which is Puerto Rican. I want to do Social Work after I graduate so I spent a lot of time exploring the BDIC program (Bachelors Degree with Individual Concentration) with the hopes that I could take classes in departments that would benefit my career goals. I met with multiple advisors, making sure to advocate for myself and make connections with faculty – which is something I believe is extremely important for all students to do. I had even applied and been accepted to the BDIC program and planned to incorporate Spanish and Latino Studies classes with Psychology and Sociology classes.
When the time came to register for Spring classes, I found myself still drawn to many Spanish classes.
Coming to UMass as a Jr Year transfer left me with a lot to figure out in an extremely short period of time. My first problem came when I noticed I would have to take on a much heavier course load to ensure that I would graduate on time. A course load that when paired up with having a job didn’t leave me with much time for anything else and in an attempt to avoid any complications, I eliminated the possibility of studying abroad. Depending on where you transfer from, all your classes might not meet UMass’ requirements and you may feel rushed and pressured to cram as many classes as possible into each semester to graduate on time. This was my biggest mistake, fortunately I was able to notice and make a change but some advice that I would like to give is to not put too much focus on the time you’re spending here because the experiences that comes with it are like none you’ll find anywhere else. Continue reading