Daniel Donovan is a junior majoring in Spanish education with a minor in integrative biology. He spent the spring of his sophomore year studying and practicing Spanish in Granada, Spain.
During his time studying abroad in Granada, Daniel had many opportunities to experience local life and bolster his speaking skills by consistently practicing with Spaniards both exploring the city independently and with his host family. After a while, Daniel and his host mom became very close, and he began to experience many local aspects of Granada because of her. Every Saturday, her son and grandson visited for a family dinner. Being invited into this family ritual was one of the many bonding experiences that the two shared. Some of his fondest memories in Granada were doing simple things like going shopping with her because he was able to practice Spanish with locals while spending time with his host mom.
While in Granada, Daniel’s teaching ideas and philosophies grew as well.
“Granada is a city that is so rich in history and culture from different groups of people. This whole experience really strengthened my belief in the importance of inclusivity in language education curriculum. As a Spanish teacher, I will make it a point to ensure that when teaching history, everybody’s history is a part of the lesson. When teaching the language itself, I think it is so important to teach the different variations of how things are said in Spain, Latin America and South America. It’s one language, but spoken in many different (yet equally beautiful) ways. I can’t wait to teach my students as inclusive of a version of Spanish as I can.” - Daniel Donovan, junior in Spanish Education