Student Spotlight

by Danielle Morrow 

Reflection on SPAN 202: Business Spanish 

Never in my academic career have I been very interested in business. I’m currently studying to be a high school Spanish teacher, and business has seemed like quite an opposite field. But when I needed an extra Spanish class this semester, one of my friends convinced me to register for SPAN 202: Business Spanish. In all honesty, I was not excited about this class because it seemed far from my interests. But even on the first day of class, I knew my expectations were wrong. First off, the instructor, Ann Abbott, is a wonderful woman who genuinely cares about each and every one of her students. Every day, each student is greeted with a smile and a warm «¿cómo estás?». Ann’s attitude really set the mood for class each week. I always felt so comfortable and valued in the classroom. It also surprised me how much I enjoyed the subject material- we learned about the different economies of Latin America, and it reminded me of the time I spent studying in Costa Rica. Also, many of the business terms and etiquette we learned are extremely helpful as a young adult without much prior knowledge of finance and economics! One of the most valuable experiences of SPAN 202 for me was our social marketing project. We formed a “team” and made posts for our client’s social media accounts so they could gain more followers and activity on their accounts. It taught me a lot about how to catch someone’s eye and really grab their attention in ways I had not thought of before.

While I started off with mixed feelings about Business Spanish, ending the course, I can think of nothing but great things to say about the class. With a fairly small class size, I became close with many of my peers and gained a lot of team work experience that I definitely will apply in my career as a teacher. Business Spanish provided me with skills that I did not even know I needed! While the class is taught in Spanish, this would be the only restriction for who can take the class. Any student could gain essential business skills for the modern world and learn about the economies of Latin America!