In the spring semester of last year Plymouth State University student Heather Dowd applied for a grant through the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science to be used as her internship for her double major of Spanish and Communications. She had heard about this application from her advisor, Dr. Lopez-Mayhew, and though she did not have a teacher certification option, she did have six years of teaching experience, most of which was in front of a classroom, so it looked like a great opportunity.
The application process was extensive, which called for intermediate to advanced knowledge of Spanish, an exceptional academic record, and a personal statement test that required a 400 word essay. She finally submitted her application in the beginning of May and before the end of the school year she had heard her response: she was going to Spain.
At the moment, Dowd is living in the northern-most region of Spain in the town of Bailen, which is part of the city Jaen, which happens to be the biggest producer of olive oil in the world. “Many mornings when I go to work, I can smell the olives,” said Dowd. The people of Bailen that she has encountered so far have been curious towards her, since it is a part of Spain where few Americans go.
Heather is living in an apartment with two other women, one from Hungary and the other from Belgium, both of who are also involved in the program to teach English set up by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. All of the roommates are curious to learn from each other, asking questions ranging from politics to pop culture.
“They asked me if I had a prom,” said Dowd, “this is something that they see in movies all the time.”
Dowd is teaching at a school in Bailen 12 hours a week, teaching English to the students. She also works one-on-one with the professors at the school to help them with their English.
Another part of the program is helping increase cultural awareness. “They ask me questions about America and I share with them interesting things from our culture,” said Heather. “They also like to comment on my ‘American’ accent, since they are used to learning British English.”
Heather has run into a couple small problems. When she first got there she still had no e-mail address for the school she was scheduled to work at, and she didn’t want to call them before she left the States because of the fees. She showed up at school the first day and was immediately placed in front of a classroom.
“It was a bit overwhelming,” said Dowd, “I was tired from traveling, jetlag, and my orientation.” Furthermore, when she went to pay the first month’s rent and security deposit, her US account wouldn’t let her withdraw that much money at one time. “She is going to let me pay her later,” she said, “Very relaxed.”
So far, besides school, she has been to the fair in Jaen, where there were carnival rides and tents set up. During the day, they played traditional Spanish music and at night they played modern music and the people stayed out and dance until all hours of the morning.
Now that she is getting settled in, she plans on traveling more around Europe once she gets her first paycheck. Just being there every moment of every day is an amazing cultural experience, and living with people from other parts of the world has been an enriching experience for Heather. She hopes that it will help her improve her Spanish even more just by being around people that speak it every day.
“I just want to say that I love and miss everyone in Res Life,” said Dowd, “I couldn’t have worked for a better place. And thank you Dr. Lopez-Mayhew for giving me this opportunity and for all your help. I wouldn’t be here without you. Hola to everyone in the language department, I miss you all and hope you can visit. And to Eric S. Berry, ‘quack quack ducky!”
While in Spain, Heather is going to start looking at grad school, possibly in Europe, and she also might try and find a job to help her pay for her apartment, travel, and save for school.