When I began the Spanish program at Northland College, I was doing it to fulfill any future graduate school language requirement. However, I soon began to realize how many opportunities for work, travel, and education there were in multiple language proficiency. Professor Michele Small was always encouraging us as students to travel and explore the world, so, when the opportunity to go to Honduras with Habitat for Humanity presented itself to me a couple months into my freshman year, I didn't hesitate.

Traveling to Honduras was my first time leaving the Midwest. My group spent the first week of our trip doing construction work on a house for a family in need in a town called Siguatepeque. We worked alongside the family, and I was able to take some of the Spanish I had learned in the classroom into the real world by talking to the children and trying to understand the instructions our site director gave us. One Sunday, we were in a plaza and there was a woman preaching passionately. As I listened, it came as a shock that I understood what she was saying! It was small, but thrilling. The work we did was exhausting, but also the most fulfilling work I had ever done. The next week, we traveled around Honduras and were lucky enough to cliff jump by the largest waterfall in Honduras, eat lunch in a Garifuna island-village and see them drum and dance, hang out on the beach, visit Mayan ruins, kayak through the mangroves, and hike in the rainforest. It was truly an unforgettable trip.

After Honduras, my view of the world changed. I decided that I wanted to work on humanitarian issues, and I became more determined than ever to learn Spanish. Northland's Spanish program gave me a very solid language base, not to mention cultural knowledge, encouragement, and informational resources to explore the world.

Since my trip, I have returned to Honduras for a month where I worked on a friend's organic farm and taught English as a Foreign Language at a small bilingual school in the village of El Socorro. I have also studied abroad in Mexico for 6 months and was able to travel all over the country experiencing the people, food, dance, and, of course, the language. Without the foundation and guidance provided by Michele Small and Northland's Spanish language program, I would not have had the drive nor the courage to do what I have been able to do.