Since high school I have been determined to become at least proficient in Spanish. Growing up in California I was surrounded by Spanish. My parents stopped at high school level Spanish and my dad claims one of his biggest regrets is that he never continued in college.   As a doctor many of his patients are first-language Spanish speakers with limited English and he either struggles communicating with them or requires a translator. As a California citizen—and as a citizen of the United States—I believe it is important to know conversational Spanish. By 2050 the US is predicated to have 138 million Spanish speakers, making it the biggest Spanish speaking country in the world.

Consequently I took Spanish throughout high school. In the summer before my junior year I did a month-long homestay/study abroad in Granada, Spain. The next summer I went to Nicaragua for six weeks through Amigos de las Américas. When she was in high school and college my aunt traveled to Mexico and Brazil through Amigos de las Américas and highly recommended the organization to me. My uncle-in-law, her husband, is Mexican and my younger cousins are now learning Spanish along with English as their first language(s). Her language skills, partly learned through her time with Amigos de las Américas, are vital to her relationship with my uncle’s Mexican family and permit a bilingual household.

At Dartmouth I knew I wanted to continue Spanish so I signed up for a class my freshman fall. I studied abroad that summer on the LSA+ in Santander, Spain where I decided I would double major in Spanish. Although I do really enjoy my upper-level Spanish classes, Hispanic studies is not my passion per se. The major, however, gives me the opportunity to continue practicing and refining my language ability. I am by no means fluent, and I sometimes struggle to understand accents, but generally I feel comfortable holding conversations in Spanish, which has always been my goal. I am excited to return to Nicaragua with the CCESP and see how my Spanish has improved since I was there in high school.