Spanish Student Profiles
Real Voices, Real Impact
Upon graduating with her bachelor of arts in Spanish, Lijana Teague ‘23 is moving right into a career at software company Reynolds & Reynolds as a traveling customer trainer. This position will require Lijana to travel across the country for 80% of her working hours, training car dealership employees how to use Reynolds & Reynolds products.
“With time, Reynolds & Reynolds noticed the increasing number of Spanish speakers joining the automotive industry. They found themselves lacking sufficient Spanish-speaking trainers,” Lijana explains. “Because the world languages and cultures department here at Valpo helped me feel confident in my Spanish, I mentioned my Spanish skills during the interview process.”
After Lijana’s final interview Reynolds & Reynolds sent her a Spanish fluency test. One day after she submitted her answers, the hiring team sent her an offer letter with a salary that was 15% higher than the job posting. “They said I had the highest level of Spanish out of everyone on the team and would be sought-after and needed in the field,” Lijana says.
There are many stories similar to Lijana’s of students who came to Valpo with very limited Spanish-speaking skills. But by putting everyday skills into practice in our Spanish language program, students can gain a professional edge and an entirely new skillset.
“The world languages and cultures department has cultivated an atmosphere of growth and teaching of real-world skills,” Lijana says. “If you have the privilege of pursuing higher education here at Valpo, take a language course. Best case scenario: you fall in love with it and make it a part of every semester on campus. Worst case scenario: you leave a little more well-rounded and might even get a raise.”
“I chose Valpo because I wanted to experience a different life away from home and meet people who have different traditions than I do. People judge me when I say that I’m taking Spanish classes because I already know the language. They don’t know that I want to better my Spanish to help or teach those back at home and use it in my profession, Social Work. I’ve enjoyed every class thus far, and I look forward to learning more fascinating stuff!”
“The Spanish program at Valpo strives to engage students in the Spanish culture and language in every way. The faculty is constantly encouraging students to reach their potential and gain memorable experiences and meaningful relationships through the study abroad programs. I love how they even offer summer study abroad trips, so that busy meteorology students like me don’t have to miss out on the great opportunities offered here.”
“I am so thankful that I chose to be a Spanish major at Valpo! Not only do the professors encourage you to understand, speak, and write in Spanish, but they also share the beauty of the language through discussions on culture, civilizations, literature, and so much more . . . there are so many opportunities to incorporate both my majors (Spanish & Chemistry) outside of the classroom and even off-campus!”
“Valpo offers many great Spanish classes that can be combined with other majors within a small school setting. The Spanish Department has highly trained and dedicated professors who are always willing to help, study abroad opportunities in Spain and Latin America, a Language Resource Center, and a Spanish Club to further students’ Spanish learning. I was blessed to be able to study in Zaragoza, Spain during my junior year and I absolutely loved it.”
Brittany ’18 (left) spent a semester abroad living in Puebla, Mexico, in the fall semester of her Senior year. She was studying at the Universidad de las Américas, or the UDLAP as she explains. Brittany encountered a new level of hospitality while celebrating Mexican Independence Day. Listen to Brittany’s story. Transcript
“I was sitting around this table with people who had come to Acatzingo for the religious communities which are very alive and strong there. And they’d come from all different countries… Spain and Argentina and Nicaragua and Costa Rica, in Mexico. And I finally asked, ‘Where are we? What are we doing?’ and it was just someone in the neighborhood had just opened up their house for people to come to and just made food for everybody free of charge and just basically opened their doors to anybody who wanted to come in.“
In the fall of her junior year, Kristen ’19 spent a semester abroad living in Costa Rica. Before even arriving to Valpo, Kristen lived with a host family during a gap year abroad in Brazil, with minimal preparation in Portuguese. Both experiences in these open cultures, relative to her cultural background growing up in rural New York state, lead to a “very large personality change.” Listen to Kristen’s story as she describes this shift from a shy and quiet person to someone who learned to express herself (and in Portuguese and Spanish, no less!). Transcript
“Over time, you do realize [the members of your host family] have their own lives — you’re becoming a part of it and they’re not becoming a part of you …it did force me to be a little more outgoing, which was totally the opposite of what I was before in the US. I was always very quiet, shy person, afraid to speak up, to give my opinion…but, when you are in another country, and you can’t necessarily always communicate, you kind of just have to. So, during my time abroad, not only was I forced to speak up and communicate in English, but in a language that I was only beginning to learn how to express myself in… definitely underwent a very large personality change. When I came back to the US, I was more outspoken, more outgoing, less afraid to speak up for sure and just more comfortable interacting with people. Not that I wasn’t before, but being in such an open culture and where you have to express yourself in order to be part of the world, it’s important.”
A double-major in Elementary Education and Spanish, Gabrielle ’19 lived abroad in Granada, Spain during the spring of her Junior year. There, Gabrielle developed a newfound independence during her solo travels in Germany, Switzerland and along the Camino de Santiago. Leading up to her far-reaching solo travels, Gabrielle learned to appreciate the solitude of her weekly walks within the streets of Granada. Listen to Gabrielle’s story. Transcript
“On Mondays, I had about 2 hours, where I’d just walk through [Granada]. And I thought that’d be a little weird…I’m not used to being on my own. I’m used to being on a college campus where there’s tons of students who speak your language, but it was mostly one of my favorite parts of the semester. Just having that time to myself and putting my headphones in and walking through the city. Seeing things that I wouldn’t have been able to see if I had just been confined to my bubble, to my group of friends. And I think that was a really large part in what moved me towards traveling alone and then doing the Camino de Santiago. So definitely that’s one of the biggest changes I’ve seen being back on campus. I don’t know if it’s always been a positive thing. Sometimes it’s hard to reintegrate into this culture where we’re surrounded by people all the time, but it’s just that independence and that knowing that I can do things that I might not have been able to do before.“
