What inspired you to work for Middlebury - C.V. Starr Schools Abroad?
Middlebury's vision for creating an inclusive top-tier educational program in Puerto Rico where all qualified students from US Colleges and Universities could travel to and learn about Puerto Rican culture and history, in a new environment and context, while improving their Spanish language skills through experiential and placed-based learning opportunities, internships, and via direct-enrollment in regular courses at the top universities of the Puerto Rican archipelago: Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, and Universidad de Puerto Rico in Mayagüez.
I was also inspired by Middlebury's commitment to language immersion and learning, as well as its focus on environmental and intercultural education.
PR flag at beach
What advice would you tell your pre-travel self?
As a college student myself, I studied abroad for a semester in Salamanca, Spain. If I could, I would tell my pre-travel self that traveling abroad would be one of the most enriching and empowering experiences of her life.
I would also tell her to make friends with local students and volunteer or do an internship at a local Spanish organization so as to learn more about the day-to-day life and concerns of students and working people at the host city and university.
This, in addition to coursework, will greatly enhance their experience so that they may take full advantage of their time abroad and delve more deeply into what it means to live (not only study) in a different country. Traveling within the country, if possible, is also a must.
Describe a typical day at work.
My typical day at work includes many hours in contact with diverse university administrators, both local and from Middlebury, either in person or virtually, to ensure our current and future students have the best and most enriching educational experience available to them in Puerto Rico.
Daily tasks may include having lunch or coffee with a student, planning our next group excursion, chatting with an internship supervisor, or making sure our incoming students are well prepared for their future semester away.
Why do you do what you do?
I do what I do because I love teaching and find joy and purpose in seeing students grow, learn, and take on exciting new challenges. I also love teaching others about Puerto Rico and having them learn and connect with the island's rich and diverse culture and history.
I'm so fortunate to be able to do this while living in Puerto Rico, and to have the support of wonderful coworkers and collaborators both in the US and inside the archipelago.
What is your favorite part of your job?
With Wiski <3.
Exposing students to new experiences and opportunities. Supporting them as they choose their courses at their host universities, seeing them connect with locals and improve their Spanish language skills, and enjoying all the archipelago has to offer.
How do you use your education and international background in your current role?
My background and education have been pivotal in helping me navigate all that my current role demands. Being a native of Puerto Rico and growing up in Mayagüez (one of our host cities) gives me invaluable insight into Puerto Rico's life, history, language, and culture.
On the other hand, my experience as an undergraduate and graduate student in the US, at both Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, helps me understand our incoming students' universities' cultures and demands, academically, professionally, and emotionally.
Being a professor of Spanish, Literature, Cultural, and Gender Studies, for over 15 years, and Coordinator of the Minor in Women and Gender Studies for 4 years, at University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras (also one of our host universitites) provided me with the academic and administrative experience needed to be the first director of Middlebury's School in Puerto Rico and informs my academic and administrative work.
Finally, I believe my background in Psychology has also given me the necessary tools to engage with the different challenges a student nowadays faces, particularly when faced with a new context and with new challenges.
Why should someone choose Middlebury - C.V. Starr Schools Abroad over competitors?
Being a small program, all students get to receive one-to-one attention and support directly from me as director, from prior to arrival until their final day at the School, while internship opportunities are also specifically tailored to the student's needs and interests.
Students also get to learn from and enjoy the different excursions Middlebury designs for them during their time in Puerto Rico and benefit from Middlebury's Language Pledge, where all students are expected to speak in Spanish throughout the entire time away/abroad.
In addition to the four courses students must enroll at their host university (or three and a Middlebury-coordinated internship for credit), they are also enrolled in a .5 unit Middlebury course on Writing for Linguistic and Cultural Competency.
What is Middlebury - C.V. Starr Schools Abroad's mission and how do you continue to work toward it?
At my first Apple Orchard visit, Vermont 2025.
Middlebury's C.V. Starr Schools Abroad mission reads: "Through guided independence, our students engage with their host society on a number of different levels, advance their academic and personal interests, and attain enhanced language proficiency, a solid grasp of the cultural, social, political, and historical conditions of their host country, and a deeper understanding of themselves and the world."
As part of our program, we incorporate all of these ideals and following intercultural goals, and provide students with the structural, academic and emotional support needed to achieve them. At MSiPR, we hope to continue this mission by providing significant learning opportunities and experiences.
What do you hope participants take away from your programs?
I hope participants leave the program feeling more empowered and with a more mature sense of self. I also hope they come to appreciate Puerto Rico's unique history of resistance, the richness of its culture, the beauty of its different landscapes, and the friendly disposition of its people.
I hope students will cherish their time in Puerto Rico as a unique learning and enriching educational and intercultural experience, which also helps them improve their Spanish language skills, while enhancing and informing their own academic and professional path and future.
I hope students leave with the desire to come back and share their new appreciation of Puerto Rico with family, friends, and loved ones.
Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?
Learning about other cultures through experiential learning opportunities allows people to gain much more insight about the world that surrounds them and about their own.
Living abroad, if only for a few months, promotes self-understanding and reflection, while fostering appreciation towards others, their cultures, and their well-being. This, in turn, creates a more empathetic world, rooted in principles of solidarity, love, and respect for that which is different and for that which unites us.
Visiting other countries while exposing ourselves to new experiences helps us expand our world-view, appreciate the world's natural and cultural diversity, and acquire new ways and perspectives on life , both at home and away.
With Midd Co-workers and Friends!
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
To me, meaningful travel means you get to learn about the world and about yourself by engaging with people from other cultures or backgrounds. By active listening, in-language dialogue, respectful engagement, and an open mind and attitude, a traveler may not only support local communities and organizations, as well as their visions for the future, but may also become part of a larger community built on mutual respect, work, friendship, and solidarity.
Meaningful travel includes, of course, doing things that are also meaningful to you, that add value to your life, and help you and your fellow travelers achieve their intentions for their trip. In other words, meaningful travel is potentially transformative.
