I’ve had an affinity for studying Spanish since high school, so I was already planning to major in Hispanic Studies when I arrived at William and Mary. However, as I navigated the William and Mary curriculum, my passion grew to encompass not only language, but also Hispanic history, literature, and culture. I felt my horizons broadening with every passing semester. My Hispanic Studies professors have helped me learn to view everything with a discerning eye. I learned that the history we’re taught in school must often be questioned; that censorship still exists even within our own modern nation; and that the voices through which information is relayed cannot always be accepted as fair, objective, or all-inclusive. I feel that the lessons I’ve learned from my Hispanic Studies major have poised me to be a more conscious and responsible world citizen.
Highlights from my time in the Hispanic Studies Department include interviewing author Martín Espada during a senior seminar with Professor Arries, attending the 2013 Symposium on Pilgrimage Studies for a class with Professor Greenia, and taking Spanish Phonetics, a course that blended Hispanic Studies with my other major, Linguistics.
During my time as a Hispanic Studies student, I traveled to Honduras four times. I used one of these trips as the basis for my practicum requirement. During the summer of 2013, I spent three months in a small Honduran town where I worked to open and advertise a public library. Now that I’ve graduated, I work as a freelance bilingual editor. I will also intern at the Embassy of Spain in Washington, DC during the summer of 2014. Learning under the Hispanic Studies faculty at William and Mary has been an enriching experience, and I believe that the wisdom I gained here will continue to serve me in years to come.