Hispanic Studies Minor
The Hispanic Studies minor at Hamilton focuses not only on learning the Spanish Language but also on learning about Spanish culture in countries around the world. My favorite class I took for the minor was a creative writing class. This surprised me since I have never seen myself as much of a writer, but I realized it was a really interesting outlet to write about my life using metaphors and language that left readers to interpret as they wish. I am interested in using poetry in my future classrooms to have my students introduce themselves to me because I believe that connecting with your students and learning about their lives is very important in creating a student teacher bond. Also, poetry might help students that do not want to clearly state where they have come from by disguising it using poetic language.
Below is a link to a poem that I wrote in this creative writing class that was our final project. It was supposed to represent us and where we have come from and our life experiences. We also put together a slide show that represented the feelings of the poem. Writing poems in another language was definitely difficult, especially because I had not had much experience writing poems in general. However, it let focus more on the vocabulary and meaning of words, instead of worrying about perfect grammar.
On another note, during my Junior Fall semester I decided to study abroad 
in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I wanted to really practice my Spanish and become comfortable conversing with people in Spanish. The program I went on worked with five different universities around the city. One of my classes was at the public university, University of Buenos Aires (UBA). The class was called La educación como campo de intervención profesional, where I was the only non-native student in the class. We read a lot about the history of public education in both the United States and Argentina as well. Our semester project was to go into real schools and write a paper on something interesting to our group. My group researched Sex Education and we did our field notes and interviews at a school in one of the worst neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. It was very interesting to hear the teachers talk about what these students go through and how teachers address the issues through education starting at Kindergarten. One story that a teacher told us (translated from Spanish) was how many of the younger students are living in houses with 6 or more people in one room. These teachers try to focus on teaching their students the places that are ok for other people to touch (ie. arm, hand) and places that are just for them (ie. chest area). This basic knowledge is necessary for students in these situations because sexual violence is heightened in this community. Below is a link to the paper.