Will Kvasnicka, Former Spanish & Entrepreneurship Student, and His Successes

Will took my course on "Spanish & Entrepreneurship: Languages, Cultures & Communities" the very first semester it was offered (when Darcy Lear and I co-taught it). He worked at the Refugee Center, and his coursework showed how much he learned while there. He spent the following year in our department's Barcelona program--becoming more fluent in Spanish and picking up Catalan.

After graduating, Will got a job as a chemist--exactly what he had trained for in his other major. But not long afterward he wrote to me to explain that he felt pulled to do something different with his life. He explained that he was applying to Teach for America and the Fulbright program to teach in Andorra.

I received a letter from him this week informing me that he was accepted by Teach for America to teach high-school chemistry in Los Angeles. But if all goes well, he might delay that for one year so that he can go to Andorra (the Fulbright's final decision won't be known for another month or two).

Either way, it's amazing to me to see how the pull of Spanish, international experiences, and community service leads my students to do such wonderful things with their lives. Will even wrote, "Teach for America me hace pensar en los temas de 'social entrepreneurship' ... Intento utilizar lo que aprendimos en tu clase, que las metas y las intenciones de Teach for America tienen mucho que ver con nuestra clase."

This is another example of a student who works after graduation and then starts down another path towards success.

Good luck, Will!

Ann