DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES
October 2, 2013
Taylor Leen’13
Volume 1, issue 3
Spanish/Global Studies
Since graduating in May of 2013, my Spanish language studies have taken me
across the Atlantic to begin postgraduate life in Spain. I am working in Madrid
with the North American Language and Cultural Assistantship Program. The program is sponsored by the Spanish government's Ministry of Education, Youth and
Sport which offers a grant to North Americans to act as language and cultural
assistants in public schools within Spain for an academic year. I have been assigned to work in a bilingual school with students in grades 1-6 in English language, science and art classes. My role is to act as an aide to the teacher, reinforcing oral skills and cultural understanding and helping prepare students for
external language examinations. I can only attribute this opportunity to the rigorous linguistic and cultural preparation I received during my undergraduate
years with PC's Foreign Language Department. It has afforded me the opportunity to successfully navigate my way through living and working in another country. As a result of my foreign language studies, I possess the skills, confidence
and adaptability to use Spanish in a range of situations. I could not have gotten
my current position without the knowledge and support of the Spanish professors
and faculty. From providing me with resources, to offering extra office hours, to
writing me letters of recommendation, they played an integral part in my decision
to work abroad. My experience as a Spanish major laid the foundation for me to
be a critical thinking, culturally sensitive and linguistically capable global citizen.
Anne Ruelle ’13
Spanish/Global Studies
Within a year of my departure to study abroad in
Perú and Ecuador, I am thrilled to be back in a
Spanish-speaking country once again, this time to
work. I am just beginning my two-year service as a
Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador. My placement
is Community Organizing and Economic Development
and I will be working in the department of San Miguel with women's groups and other community
organizations in a small community in the north. My
role is to work with community members to address
their needs and especially on projects that include
youth and women. All of this, of course, will depend
on my use of my Spanish skills developed over my
four years at PC. Both my previous knowledge as
well as the ability to pick up the particularities of Salvadoran Spanish will determine my degree of integration into the community. The encouragement and
support of my Spanish professors has always been
an important part of my desire to continue working in
Spanish-speaking countries.
Inside this issue:
Taylor Leen
1
Anne Ruelle
1
Kaitlyn Guzik
2
Tara Kinglsey
2
Natàlia Soares
2
Special points of interest:
 CIS and the Department
of Foreign Language
Studies offers a selection of 53 language
programs. (including
German, and now Arabic and Chinese) in 19
Countries.
 Academic Year 2012 –
2013, 231 students
studied abroad in over
26 countries.
Page 2
Recent
Kaitlyn Guzik ’10
grads…..Where are they now?
English Major/French minor
Tara Kingsley ’12
Spanish/French
Natàlia Soares ’13 S p a n i s h / E l e m e n t a r y
Special Education
Natàlia, Tara and Kaitlyn live and work at Louverture Cleary School (LCS) a tuition-free, Catholic secondary
school outside of Port-au-Prince, Haïti. Students at LCS live in community and take classes in four languages
(French, Kreyòl, English and Spanish). The Haitian Project (THP), the US-based organization which owns and
Kaitlyn: From the moment I arrived at LCS, I became extraordinarily grateful for the education I
received from my French professors at PC. The ability to communicate in another language, and thereby with an entire group of people who might otherwise remain foreign, has innumerable practical and
spiritual benefits. In my current role as In-Country
Coordinator for Community Development, I constantly use my French background to communicate
with my Haitian co-workers and neighbors.
Natàlia: I have served as a Volunteer for THP since
graduating in spring of 2013. My Spanish studies at
PC, as well as my experiences studying abroad in
Madrid, prepared me to teach Spanish conversation
to grades ten and eleven, as well as a course in
Catholic Social Justice in Spanish twelfth-grade students and a Biblical Studies course in English for
eighth-graders. I love my work with THP, and nothing brings me more joy than to get up every morning and share my PC formation with my students in
Haiti. I am truly thankful to the Foreign Language
Department and the Providence College community
for preparing me to embark on this mission.
Tara: As a Spanish and French double major,
most of my courses at Providence College were
primarily through the Foreign Languages Department. I credit the extraordinarily engaging,
dynamic and dedicated professors in the department with deepening my love of languages,
teaching me to be globally aware, and instilling
in me the analytical and investigative skills necessary to fully appreciate foreign cultures, literatures and languages.
Since graduating in 2012, I have served as
a Volunteer for THP. I teach Spanish to seventh- and eighth-grade students and teach
French to neighborhood children who attend
LCS’s early-childhood development program.
LCS’s rigorous language program allows me to
continue my own language studies while incorporating what I learned at PC in my own classroom, always endeavoring to inspire in my students the appreciation of languages and cultures that my professors imparted to me.
Language minors can be inducted into our Honor
Societies as well as majors?
Our department has four prestigious Honor Societies: Phi
Sigma Iota, The International Foreign Language Honor
Society; Sigma Delta Phi, The National Spanish Honor Society; Gamma Kappa Alpha, The National Italian Honor
Society; and Phi Delta Pi, The National French Honor Society Language minors are considered for induction for all
except for Phi Sigma Iota, which is Language Majors only.
Students must be in the upper 35% of their class and a
senior. Please look at our website for more information
pertaining to the requirements for our Honor Societies.
2013 Sigma Delta Pi Inductees