We’re asking students, recent grads, teachers, and counselors five questions on how languages play a role in shaping personal and professional success…
Meet Rebecca—a Georgetown graduate from Maine who speaks Spanish and also studied French & Arabic in college. The organization she launched in Guatemala provides economic security for local women and relationship-centered language education to learners globally.
Learning another language means discovering another version of yourself and a new perspective on life!
1. We’d love to hear about your experience completing high school in Spain!
When I first arrived in the little town outside of Sevilla, Castilla de Guzmán, at 16 years old, I maybe understood 25% of what was happening around me on a good day. I was also thrown into fourth-year physics, biology, French, German—all in Spanish. It was exhausting, but I found the little wins to be invigorating in ways that I had not experienced so far in my education. This sense of purpose and challenge was one of the things that led me to stay another year and graduate from the Spanish public school system rather than the U.S. system.
One of the other reasons was that fluency is generally achievable at around 6 months, but it was around that time that the cultural differences really started to stand out. I remember sitting next to a friend in class, and thinking: I understand every word she’s saying, but I don’t get why she’s saying it.
During the second year, I took on the challenge of applying to U.S. colleges while finishing school in the Spanish public system. Dealing with the enigma of the U.S. college application process through the lens of another country’s education system gave me a new perspective on how academic success is defined in different cultures. For example, in the U.S. the emphasis is on critical thinking, argumentation, and showing your character through action in the form of extracurricular activities. In Spain, success was almost entirely about mastering content and processes through memorization.
While in the moment it could be frustrating to live between these two worlds—asking for letters of recommendation in a system that doesn’t do this, or getting my transcripts translated—I walked away with more freedom to define success on my own terms after seeing the pros and cons of both education systems.
2. What motivated the launch of Project Olas
during your first year at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service? Tell us a little about the organization’s impact to date.
Project Olas started during my first year at Georgetown, right as COVID-19 hit. When the government restricted access to the Guatemala City dumpsite for sanitation reasons, tens of thousands of people who depended on the informal recycling economy lost access to their livelihoods overnight.
Olas started as a response to that immediate need by carving out a space in the online gig economy for a community that typically would not have access to it.
In a deeper way, however, it became a platform for connection. Women from the community who were dealing with stringent lockdown orders in overcrowded homes and the intense emotional stress of economic and health concerns, were connecting with students thousands of miles away who were experiencing isolation and the total disruption of their academic plans. This depth of relationship has transcended pandemic times and is why Olas exists today.
The term 'Olas mom' evolved naturally in the community through this process, and it has become a proud self-identifier for the Olas conversation partners to point to the level of care they want their students to feel in the relationship.
Today, Olas is a nonprofit run by a local team in Guatemala. Since launching during the pandemic, we’ve worked with thousands of Spanish learners, and our core team of Olas moms—about 15 women—have earned thousands of dollars through their work as language partners. Many have gone back to school, and over time, the program has also become a space for building community leadership, confidence, and trust.
3. What has been your biggest lesson learned in developing Projects Olas and working closely with the Olas tutors?
Working with the Olas team has taught me to slow down and be present. I am constantly impacted by the ways Olas team members show up for one another in times of both struggle and celebration, with remarkable generosity of time, energy, and attention. I naturally have a goal-oriented personality, so this influence has definitely shifted the way I work over the past five years.
4. In what ways would you suggest that young people explore using their cultural or language skills to make a difference: Any tips or advice on how to get started?
The main thing I would say, especially to young people, is to strive to understand, rather than be understood. If you’re coming into another community—whether locally or abroad—with the intent to help or make a difference, it’s important to start with curiosity and be open to the idea that the skills or solutions you thought you were bringing might not be what’s actually needed. This is key to developing cultural humility.
For example, when Olas began, my focus was on the economic factor—building sustainable livelihoods for women outside of the informal recycling economy. Over time, we learned that for most of the women, the relational element of our work—the bonds women form with each other, with the staff team, and with their students—was just as, if not more, important than the economic factors, because healthy bonds and relationships have been deeply damaged in the community due to experiences of discrimination, violence, and machismo. The way our team now thinks about Olas’ mission has shifted as a result.
5. Complete this thought: “Learning another language means…”
Learning another language means discovering another version of yourself and a new perspective on life! I moved to Guatemala after graduating, and today I speak mostly Spanish at home with my husband and in our community. Ten years ago, I never could have imagined the turns my life would take as a result of language learning and cultural immersion, and my life is certainly richer as a result of these different cultural and linguistic spaces I have had the honor to inhabit.
Check out our Connect with Languages or Language Programs & Funding pages to explore language scholarships, university programs, testimonials, and more! And, as always, visit @LangConnectsFdn on social media to share your story with us.