Silvia Fernandez | 2022-2023 | Coordinating Organization: IDC | Hosting Organization: Leap Lestonnac
Edited by: Bianca Rêgo | Wake-Up 2022-2023
Hello, everyone!
My name is Silvia, I’m 23 years old, and I come from León, a small city in the northwest of Spain. Back home, I usually spend my time swimming, reading, playing padel (a very popular sport in Spain that is similar to squash), and going out with my friends for tapas, which are free in León and totally recommended if you ever visit there.
Before coming to France, I studied in the University of León a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature, during which I did two international mobilities. My first mobility was a year in Stirling, Scotland, with the Erasmus+ programme and my second mobility was four months in Daegu, South Korea. After coming back, I worked for eight months as assistant in the International Relations Office of my university. These were very enriching experiences for me, and from them I learned a lot about other cultures and people and about myself. It was thanks to this that I discovered a passion for getting to know new places and cultures and decided that I would love to keep living in many different countries in the future. Due to this, as well as to my love for languages in general and Spanish in particular, I made the choice to study a master’s degree in Teaching Spanish as a foreign language, which I finished last year. Now that I’m a qualified Spanish teacher, my plan is to teach Spanish all over the world and get to know as many new places as possible.
After finishing my master’s, I started thinking about doing volunteer work because the idea of it had been on my mind for a while but I never had had enough time to focus on it. Initially, I was going to do volunteer work in my hometown, but I heard of the European Solidarity Corps thanks to a former coworker in the International Relations Office and decided to give it a try. After all, it combined helping people in need with the opportunity to visit a new country, so it appealed greatly to me. Among the countless missions, I found several related to languages and international mobility in France, which seemed to be a great match for my qualifications, competences, and interests. And that is how I found myself volunteering in LEAP Lestonnac in Beaumont de Lomagne.
At Lestonnac, I mainly help out with Spanish courses, sharing with the students extra information regarding my culture, the practical use of the language, and language variety. Moreover, I collaborate with the Spanish teacher in the development of the contents and materials for the lessons of première. The reason is that this class will be doing a two-week internship in Zaragoza, Spain, in June, so I aid in preparing them for their future stay in Spain. I will also join them in the trip in order to help them find their way around and act a bit as a guide. Aside from this, I prepare cultural activities from time to time, such as cooking a Spanish meal (some examples at the end of the article). Finally, my secondary objective is to arouse the students’ curiosity about the world and other countries and cultures. For this reason, I spend a lot of time simply speaking to them and doing activities together at the boarding house.
So far, this experience has allowed me to experience the high school environment from the position of the teacher. I have also seen what a real Spanish class looks like and I have learned how to better interact with students. Last but not least, I have been able to greatly improve my competence of French and have learned a lot about French culture. In the future, I expect to continue learning and to be able to further contribute to the school’s life and the Spanish courses by proposing more and better activities.
