I graduated: Brief reflections from the past four years

Welp, I did it - I am officially an alum of Illinois State University.  On Friday, May 9, 2014, I graduated with my B.A. in Spanish Education with a minor in TESOL.  It still hasn't really sunk in that I worked my way through four years of my undergraduate career!  These past four years have been the greatest four years I could have ever asked for.  I "grew up" and experienced the life that every college kid deserves - which DOES include a roller coaster of emotions and opportunities that I will likely never have again.

From meeting my randomly assigned roommate the very first day, I knew that my college experience was going to be special.  What are the odds that Annie and I would end up living together almost every year at ISU and become the best of friends?  I wonder what the statistics are of people who actually enjoy living with their randomly assigned roommate(s) from freshman year so much that they stick together until the end - probably not very high.  It is really interesting being able to share my four years alongside the same person and notice each other's highs and lows, emotional, physical, mental growths, and spill our guts to one another.  Love you Annie!!

Being involved with the university is something that really made me fall in love with ISU.  I met so many amazing friends, colleagues, and faculty mentors who I learned so much from.  All of my interactions with these people inspired me to become the best person that I can be, and to enjoy these four years because there will never be another time in my life quite like them.  The ISU Spanish Club, Spanish Honor Society (Sigma Delta Pi), Honors Program, study abroad semester, as well as random campus-related events and off-campus events allowed me to meet individuals from diverse backgrounds.  I would not have made it through these four years without all of the wonderful friends I made these past four years.  I never thought I could build such strong connections with so many people in such a short amount of time - and manage to keep in touch with each other!!  To my friends at ISU who are also graduating: I wish you the best, best, best of luck in all of your endeavors!  Live your lives to the fullest and always, always, always stay optimistic.  Pursue whatever makes you happy and you will find your true passions in life!

Working at the Athletic Study Center helped to prepare me as an educator because I gained valuable insight into the complex lives of student-athletes and the many responsibilities they hold.  I learned to be flexible in my teaching methods as well as build personal relationships with a different student-group that was unfamiliar to me.  Working as an ESL Tutor at Heartland Community College with the adult program was insightful in that I worked with students from all over the world - Ghana, Egypt, Mexico, Guatemala, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Turkey, India, among others.  I loved sharing my American lifestyle with the students while also learning about their lifestyles and cultures.  Essentially, what I love about teaching is that I often learn just as much as I do the teaching!

My love of languages and cultures originally developed from my experiences with the Spanish-language and Hispanic cultures throughout junior high and high school.  Coming to ISU, my mind was opened even further, and I was exposed to languages and cultures from all over the world, which piqued my interest and passion to pursue the opportunity to travel abroad.  Ultimately, my decision to teach English abroad in South Korea was heavily influenced by my interactions with others and my growing enthusiasm for ESL and teaching in general.

My friends from home could never be forgotten, either - I didn't come to college with a huge amount of close friends in the first place.  My BFFs back home - you know who you are - I love you all to pieces and I would not be in the position I am in today if it were not for all of your love and support.  I have loved growing even closer to you all even when we are all on our own paths.  Our reunions when we were all back home made our time together even more special, and every summer I was always ready to recover all of our lost time together from the school year!

And finally, my family!!!  My mom, dad, and older brother are the best support group I could ever ask for.  They have truly inspired me and supported me throughout my four years at ISU.  They encouraged me to try new things and really discover who I am while at ISU.  Even though we weren't too far from each other, it was the perfect distance.  They gave me my independence but were readily waiting with open arms when I needed some home-cooked meal or a shoulder to cry on.  Thank you for everything, mom, dad, and Wes - I couldn't have done it without you!

OK -- enough sappiness.  As many of you know, I leave to teach English in South Korea on July 4th (ironic?).  I will be gone for about 13 months, but can choose to renew my contract for an additional 1-2 years, should I desire to do so - we will just have to see!  Being awarded as a Fulbright Grantee, some of the local news organizations reached out to me and asked to conduct some interviews.  I feel really lucky and overwhelmed at times about receiving this attention, but I aspire to be a positive role model and cultural ambassador for ISU and our country.  The amount of support I have received from everyone is so amazing - I cannot thank you all enough.  I feel so blessed and humbled by this opportunity, and I am excited to share my experiences with you all, right here on this blog - through words, photos, videos, and beyond!  Below are links to the articles that I had the pleasure of being interviewed for.

The Vidette (ISU's School Newspaper)
Fulbright Award recipients to teach abroad

The Pantagraph (Bloomington-Normal and surrounding area local newspaper)
Global graduate - Unlikely path leads ISU student to Korea

WJBC (Central Illinois local radio station)
ISU's Fulbright Scholars look ahead to big trips

The News Gazette (Champaign area newspaper)
Mahomet globetrotter bound for South Korea

Thanks for reading, everyone - talk to you soon!

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My first post of 2014... in April!

Hola everybody!

It is hard to believe that I haven't updated my blog since December of 2013 - time sure has flown by this semester.  I suppose that is what happens when you are in your last semester of college.  I'll give some updates about what I have been up to this semester - please forgive me if I am a bit brief and if my sentences are run-ons and stop making sense (haha)!  My mind moves a lot more quickly than my hands can type!

In January and early February, I hung out a lot at ISU.  I didn't start my student teaching experience until mid-February, so I was enjoying the extra down time that I had.  I knew things were about to get hectic once student teaching began, and I was correct!

I have been student teaching at Morton High School since the middle of February, and my placement is a duration of 12 weeks.  I am working with mostly 9th and 10th grade students, teaching Spanish I and Spanish II levels.  For the most part, I have really enjoyed my student teaching and really grasped the concept of all the responsibilities of being a teacher.  It has been somewhat of an emotional roller coaster at times, but this experience is definitely worth it and I know that this is a profession that I wish to continue throughout my life.  I love the passion and drive that I feel, and mostly I love that I learn something new every day with this job.  Whether it is learning something new about my students, my coworkers, myself, my content, or something totally unrelated to any of those things, I have never passed a day of this experience where I haven't learned something.  Something totally nerdy that I realized that I LOVE is having my own plan book.  I love how organized and pristine it looks, and I love it even more after planning each week, erasing activities, drawing arrows to readjust, scribbling in my thoughts and reflections on what to modify for the next class period, and more.  I just love monitoring my progress and I enjoy having the extra pairs of eyes to help me improve my teaching methods and build rapport with my students.

On the other hand, as much as I have learned from this experience, I have learned that it is so difficult to maintain a personal life and keep in close contact with many of my friends.  My schedule is so busy day in and day out, so when I finally get a spare moment, I usually spend it laying on the couch and watching junk TV (don't hate me... I know we all do it).  It has been awesome having a support system via friends, family, and fellow student teachers with whom I can share my joys, sorrows, and frustrations.  They are always encouraging me and give me such positive support, and I truly appreciate it.  Without all of you guys, I would not have made it through this experience!  My student teaching finishes up on May 2nd, and I will be graduating May 9th (What's that look on your face... shock!?) I KNOW!!!  I cannot believe it either.  It is so close - these four years of college have truly flown by.  Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking in retrospect, pondering the abundance of opportunities and experiences that I had throughout my collegiate career.  I wouldn't change anything if I had to do it all over again.  Between making lifelong friends, advancing my academic interests, networking with colleagues, studying abroad, learning to become self-reliant but also leaning on my support when necessary, and so many other activities in between, these four years have been amazing.  I am blessed to have had such an insightful and jam-packed college career, truly embracing the lifestyle of a college student.

So, you are probably wondering, "So what, you graduated college? It doesn't mean anything unless you do something with it." Well, I was certainly in the same boat as every other college kid freaking out about what they are actually going to do with their life up until last week. Back in September, I applied for a Fulbright Scholar position to teach English in South Korea. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching worldwide. The program currently awards approximately 1,900 grants annually in all fields of study, and operates in more than 140 countries worldwide. Fulbright U.S. Student alumni populate a range of professions and include ambassadors, members of Congress, judges, heads of corporations, university presidents, journalists, artists, professors, and teachers.  It was such a prestigious and taxing process, but I have always been a little ambitious and known to go after what I want and not stopping until I get there.  I finally found out last week that I have been accepted, and I will be teaching English at a middle school or high school in South Korea for one year (July 2014 - July 2015).  I am so excited, as teaching abroad has been one of my dreams since my study abroad experience during my sophomore year of college.  It will be so difficult to be away from all of my loved ones for an entire year, but I know that this experience will be a chance of a lifetime, and I will be back before you all know it!  I cannot wait to blog about my experiences abroad and share with you all that I encounter.  I officially leave on July 4th (how ironic, Fulbright always says how we will serve as cultural ambassadors of the United States), so I have a few months to hang out with everyone and enjoy this time in the good ol' USA until I return in 2015.  During my year as an English Teaching Assistant in South Korea, I will live with a host family, which I am very pleased about.  I am sure I will love them as much as I love my host family in Spain!

Some of you may wonder, "Why Asia?  Aren't you a Spanish major?"  Well, your question is valid.  I like to see that my passion for the Spanish language developed into a passion for various languages, literatures, and cultures all across the world.  I also minor in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and my courses and professors throughout my last two years of college have really encouraged me to give this a shot.  I have never been to Asia before, and I have always wanted to learn another language, so this will be the perfect opportunity!  I also have a few friends who are South Korean, and one of my professor/mentor is also South Korean and she has been one of my main motivations for pursuing this opportunity.

Okay, aside from all this boring talk, you all probably want to hear some funny stories that have happened this semester.  I really like to embarrass myself in front of my students.  My 2nd and 3rd hour classes are as quiet as can be, and so I begin these classes with a popular song that has been translated into Spanish and sing and dance in front of them.  Unfortunately, they still give me blank stares and straight faces, but I will keep trying!  Eventually they will come around (maybe when I'm gone, haha!).  

The other day, one kid must have had too many beans for lunch, because someone was letting it rip in the middle of our class (it smelled worse than rotten eggs).  This naturally led into a discussion of my most embarrassing story because it also related to farting and bad scents.  I will tell you all my story too.  I was sitting in Chemistry II class my junior year of high school, and I sat behind this really cute boy.  I was singing "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood, and I really had to fart, but I was trying to hold it in.  Well, I couldn't hold it in anymore so I tried to sneak it out quietly.  Naturally, it did the opposite and it reverberated off of my seat and ended up farting so loud everyone heard.  The cute kid in front of me turned beat red.  All I could do was laugh because I was (and still am) a little immature (but aren't we all?).  It was hilarious, but definitely embarrassing.

On that note, I will end my post here.  I will try and update more frequently now that my semester is coming to a close and I will have more free time.  I look forward to writing more and keeping you all updated on my adventures in South Korea!  Be on the lookout!  

Lots of love to you all,

Hillary

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Too busy to catch up!

Hi all,

Wow - hard to believe I haven't posted since the end of the spring semester back in May.  I will try and give some brief updates with what I have been up to since then.  I shall start with the summer.

During summer break, I worked as a Spanish tutor for the student-athletes at ISU, as well as working as an ESL tutor for adults at Heartland Community College.  A smaller job that I developed an interest in was being a Research Assistant for one of my professors at ISU.  She is conducting a study about Korean learners of English, and I helped my professor conduct the experiments on the U of I campus.  This job proved to be valuable because I am interested in pursuing a graduate degree, and any research experience will help on my applications!  Luckily this job also focuses on the area I am interested in - applied linguistics.  These jobs were such a fun opportunity, and a great way to get my foot in the door for future networking.  It was a nice preview to what I may be dealing with as a future educator :).  I loved every minute of it!

With my ESL job, I worked with adults who have immigrated from all over the world, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Mexico, Egypt, Pakistan, India, among others.  I loved learning about all of my students' backgrounds, cultures, languages, and lifestyles while being able to help them learn English.  At the end of the summer term, we had a good-bye party for all of the ESL classes and the theme was "We Are Family".  Our class focused on wedding customs, which was interesting to hear about the traditions from a variety of cultures and how that compares to typical American customs.  I learn just as much (if not more) from my students than what I teach to them, which is one of the main reasons why my passion is to become an educator.

Working with the student-athletes was also an interesting experience.  This was the first time that I have actually "professionally" tutored students in Spanish.  I mostly worked with the football players since they were on campus prepping for the upcoming season.  It was challenging at times, trying to find different ways to teach the material to the students - as we know, every student learns differently!  It is all about adapting the material to the students' needs to help them learn and retain the information.  At the conclusion of the summer term, I was asked to return to tutor for the fall semester, which I was ecstatic about!  I was looking forward to continuing to work with the student-athletes on campus.

Aside from working three jobs this summer, I relaxed with my family and friends.  One of my best friends recently moved to Colorado, and I had the opportunity to visit her in July.  I had such a blast!  We went hiking and sight-seeing together, although my body was not used to running in such a high altitude!  I also went to the Illinois State Fair with some of my best friends, which was a great way to end the summer break.

While working with my professor this summer, we had the opportunity to apply for an Undergraduate Research Fellowship scholarship.  We created a proposal which consisted of making our own research design and implementations to follow through with it.  We were awarded the fellowship, and I would start my research project at the beginning of the fall semester!  Our research study deals with teacher candidates and their perceptions of ESL writing.

By the end of summer, I was looking forward to getting back to school in Normal.  Little did I know that this fall semester would be the most difficult yet rewarding thus far of my collegiate career.  On top of managing 15 credit hours of classes, I was tutoring the student-athletes 4 hours a week and investing 5-10 hours a week on my research project.  However, it is all about time management - and it paid off!  I think I was able to maintain my responsibilities as a student while still creating the time to hang out with my friends and family - maybe a little too much party, but that never hurt anyone, right?

This semester was so fun - I was back to living in the house with my two roommates, and we had a blast together.  There were definitely some nights where we de-stressed with a few glasses of wine.  The course load of this semester was overwhelming at times - many of my classes required service/activity hours on top of teaching/clinical hours to meet our major requirements.  This included going to the local Boys & Girls club to teach Spanish once a week, volunteering extra days each week, and going to a local high school to help in the ESL classroom.   Each experience was rewarding, and helped me to become a more well-rounded educator.  I grew in my strengths and weaknesses, as well as discovered more qualities to improve upon.  My classmates and I were stressed out each week, which resorted to us going to the local Mexican restaurant to enjoy half-price margaritas almost every Thursday.

Aside from all of the classroom commitments, I kept my position as the Public Relations/Webmaster coordinator for ISU's Spanish Honor Society.  This semester, we participated in a variety of service activities.  We helped create a día de los muertos event at the local children's museum, which proved to be a grand success.  We also had the opportunity to visit the local children's hospital and pass out teddy bears to the patients.  This was a very sad yet humbling experience, and it was so fun being able to interact with the patients and their families before the holidays.

One of my favorite personal events that occurred throughout the semester was attending my cousin's wedding in Aurora in November.  I had a great time hanging out with all of my family and sharing the happiness and love that will continue to grow in the years to come for Mikey and Lyndi!  Another more hilarious experience was being nominated for ISU's Homecoming Royalty.  I guess it was a pretty big deal because I made it to the interview round, and only 24 people out of over 250 applicants received an interview.  For a second, I was convinced that I may actually become royalty.  Until I royally messed up the interview!  As soon as I walked into that room, I just knew that royalty was not my cup of tea.  The other candidates were too good at sucking up and telling the interviewers what they wanted to hear - I guess I was just a little too "real" for their liking.  Haha!  It was a great experience though, and I came out with a lot of laughs and a couple new friends.

I also applied to become a Fulbright Scholar as an English Teaching Assistant in South Korea in 2014-2015.  This proved to be the most grueling process I have ever endured, but it was worth it.  Most of you know that I push myself to my limits, and beyond.  This program is quite prestigious, which is why it was so attractive to me.  I went through five different applications, and rewrote essay after essay.  At times it felt a lot like the Homecoming process - am I writing these essays merely to impress the judges, or am I really writing them because I like them?  I realized that I shouldn't just write things simply because I think that is what the judges are looking for - so I started from scratch after my Fulbright interview and went with my gut.  Here's to hoping it works out!  I will find out at the end of January.

After Thanksgiving break, it was really time to buckle down and get to work on those final projects, papers, and final exams.  I only had two final exams, but had to complete three final projects and write two final papers.  My most difficult and time-consuming project consisted of writing 45 lesson plans and include supporting materials, along with a reflection paper.  This was a draining process, but hoping it will come in handy when I am student teaching at Morton High School next semester!

The semester ended and I was happy with the grades I earned.  I can finally relax for a month until I return to ISU on January 13th.  I am still pursuing my research project with my professor, and we have gathered data and plan to gather even more throughout next semester and start the analyzing process.  I will be student teaching at Morton High School, teaching Spanish I and Spanish II.  I begin on February 17th, but plan to be helping out in the classroom before then and familiarizing myself with the environment ant students.  My Cooperating Teacher seems very fun and outgoing, and is especially helpful and comforting about guiding me through this process.  Even though I thought this semester was long and difficult, I am sure my student teaching experience will have its moments of trials and tribulations.  Overall, it is a learning experience and I am looking forward to analyzing my strengths and weaknesses, implementing innovative activities, and putting my training to practice!  I am SO ready to student teach and graduate!!!

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