Personal Statement

I am currently a sophomore at the University of Washington studying Education and Spanish. I love to travel, meet new people, and immerse myself into different cultures. It has been a long-term dream of mine to travel to Spain and finally be able to put my Spanish skills to use, along with learning more about the Spanish culture and day-to-day life. I am currently taking education classes at the University of Washington, where we have daily discussions surrounding the rights and struggles of immigrants and minorities in the United States. We have talked in depth about how the challenges they face are not only because of people’s personal prejudices, but also a result of the current policies implemented in America (?). These topics have increasingly

She has always talked about how vibrant and inclusive the Spanish people and culture is, and how everyone she met had a lust for life. Ever since I was little, I have wanted to experience this for myself. As much as I would love to be able to study abroad in Spain for an entire year, I unfortunately do not have the availability in my school schedule, which is why this exploration seminar seems to be the perfect option. Several of my friends here at the University of Washington have studied abroad during the summer last year, and I have heard over and over again how close you grow with your group and how much of a life-changing an experience it can be. I want to share in that experience of making an incredible group of lifelong friends who I can share unique memories and adventures with, and one day be able to tell my children about. I truly hope to be able to be a part of this program, not only to learn more about Spain’s culture, politics, and current issues, but to make those lasting connections that I have heard such great things

My grandparents took my cousin and I to Hamburg, Berlin(?) when I turned sixteen years old. We have family friends there that have come to visit us in the United States every few years since I was six years old. They are all proficient in English, and only speak English when they come to visit. When we arrived in Germany, it most definitely took some time to get used to hearing everyone speak a language that sounded nothing close to our own. One day my cousin and I were attempting to find the Beethoven statue and wound up extremely lost. Many people we had encountered on our trip thus far had been able to speak English, so we stopped a man on the street and I asked him if he knew where the monument was. Unfortunately, he did not speak English and could not understand what I was saying. Just as we were about to find someone else to help us, he said, “¿Hablas español?”. I responded to him in Spanish and told him what we were looking for, which he in turn was able to give me instructions to, allowing us to find the statue within ten minutes. This encounter showed me the value of being able to connect with others using different languages and cultural norms, and I was touched by how far a stranger was willing to go to help me. Not only did this experience make me much more open to exploring foreign places alone, but also made me eager to form similar connections