Phi Beta Kappa scholar Kate Wessman (HISP ’13) is currently teaching 4th and 5th grade Mathematics, Science, and English at the bilingual Escuela Cristiana El Puente in Quepos, Costa Rica. After graduating with a major in Hispanic Studies, she went on to earn an MA in Elementary Education with endorsements for Spanish (preK-12) and English as a Second Language (preK-12) in 2014. Kate explains her ow background, her academic trajectory, and her experiences at El Puente in her website.
During her years as an undergraduate, Kate spent semesters abroad in Florianópolis (Brazil) and Sevilla (Spain) to perfect her language skills. During the summer of 2013, and thanks to the support of a Weingartner Fellowship, she accompanied Prof. Francie Cate-Arries and fellow graduate Megan Bentley to Spain and conducted interviews in several small towns in the Sierra de Cádiz and in Madrid, with family members of victims of the Franco regime, and survivors of state repression and political exile. Kate, Megan, Prof. Cate-Arries and IT Academic Liaison Mike Blum presented their project, “Franco’s War & Repression 75 Years Later: Picking Up the Pieces of Mourning & Remembrance,” in January 2014 as part of the Bellini Colloquium, a lecture series sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and named after the first professor of Modern Language at the College, Carlo Bellini.