18 FACULTY
juanita rosa Juanita Rosa was brought up in a household surrounded by the beauty of languages. She grew up bilingual, with Spanish as her first language and English as her second, which is where her love for languages first began. Rosa decided she wanted to learn something new, so she turned to a new language — French. “When I got to highschool, I thought, ‘Okay, I’m done with Spanish. I’ve had enough Spanish in my life, let’s try something new and different,’ and that’s where I discovered French,” Rosa said. Upon entering college, Rosa participated in the Hollins Abroad Paris Program, which gave students studying French the opportunity to live in Paris for one semester or one year. “I personally love French, obviously, as I’m a French teacher, so I decided to do the year-long program. So you start in January and you come back in December — calendar year,” Rosa said. “They gave us a questionnaire and asked us a series of questions of what we wanted in a host family. I personally wanted a family with kids; if they had pets that would’ve been great. They didn’t, but that was fine.” She reminisces about her time in Paris and looks back on it with fondness. “I ended up in a family with four small children. The youngest was four and the oldest was 13. They are the best teachers you can imagine because they have no fear, no shame in correcting you and so what little mistakes I did make in French, they were sure to correct me almost instantaneously,” Rosa said. “The parents were great because they were involved to help teach the French language, so if there was cultural stuff I didn’t know about, they helped me out.” Rosa stresses the importance of knowing and learning a language because it enriches one’s life and allows one to connect with those from other cultures. “The more languages you know, the more your perspective on life changes, and I think I’m more open-minded… I’ve lived it, but it’s been scientifically researched that that’s what happens — the more languages you know, the more open you are, and you see life differently. The more you know, the better you think,” Rosa said. The Hollins Abroad Paris Program taught Rosa more than just French as a language; it also taught her independence and gave her selfconfidence to solve problems and take care of herself. “On a personal level, it made me more resilient and [taught me] how to rely on myself, be responsible for myself...‘Okay, what am I gonna do with myself?’” Rosa said. “It makes you become more independent. You grow up and realize you can do more than you ever thought you could.” DESIGN BY GEMMA TORRAS
