FACULTY PROFILE: SENORA BEA SWEENEY

THE SEED OF CURIOSITY

When a person first encounters Señora Bea Sweeney, they are quickly captivated by her remarkable personal history and wonderfully rich storytelling. Bea radiates warmth and authenticity, and so it’s easy to feel immediately at home in her presence. She has a way of making everyone feel like a beloved friend. What takes a bit longer to understand, however, is the interplay of Bea’s life experiences and those uncommon qualities that bespeak to all who know her, “you are important; your ideas, feelings, and perspectives are relevant and valued.”

BEA GREW UP IN MEXICO CITY. Her grandfather was French, and it was important to her family that the children learn his native language. When she was 13, her parents sent her to study in Paris in the hope that she would acquire cultural and linguistic fluency. She recalls the year that she spent in Paris as being formative in a number of ways. “Being away from my parents was new, but it was exciting, and being immersed in a very different culture—that opened my mind, my interests, my horizons. All of a sudden, the world became bigger, but more accessible and real.”

Bea returned to Mexico City for a few years, but when she had the opportunity to travel abroad for a summer, she jumped at the chance. In Chicago, she again found that living in an unfamiliar culture was a significant experience beyond the new language she learned. “I felt that the cultural immersion and intense exposure to difference affected my worldview in really positive ways. I became more empathetic in the sense that I could relate to others, and understand their ways of being.” Bea looks back on her expanded worldview as a step toward self-actualization. “We all have instances in which we fall victim to prejudicial judgements, but varied life experiences make a person less likely to be paralyzed by negative misconceptions.”

As a young adult back in Mexico, Bea put her language skills to use teaching English to expats, executives, and private citizens. She found that being fluent in Spanish, French, and English put her in high demand, and so she opened her own company, Beatriz Albin Language

Services, through which she organized language instructors to teach at large company offices in and around Mexico City. “Professionally, foreign language skills and travel experiences opened doors for me constantly. Personally, they helped me to become a flexible, adaptable person.”

When Bea married Dennis Sweeney in 2000, she and her three teenage daughters relocated to Pennsylvania. “That kind of a move didn’t intimidate me. Instead of being afraid, I was eager and excited. I embraced the experience happily, and worked to help my daughters do the same. We integrated easily.” Knowing that in order to teach, she would need a degree from a U.S. institution, Bea enrolled at Chatham University. She was 51 years old. She taught at various private schools while she worked through her degree program, and upon graduating in 2009, she accepted a teaching position at Valley School.

“Teaching Lower School Spanish is a dream job for me because I believe that culture exists at the intersection of two perspectives, and that is a place I love to live.” Also, for Bea, there is an ethical imperative embedded in the work she does with students each day. “I think most clashes between individuals or cultures are rooted in ignorance and lack of familiarity and understanding. When we create authentic cultural experiences for our students, their worldviews and enjoyment of otherness expand along with their minds.” Bea believes that it’s difficult to do harm to someone whose thinking you can understand, and so learning about others is a moral act.

In the classroom, Bea’s work with her students includes linguistic and cultural components. Conversation plays a central role in teaching Spanish vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. Students learn Spanish much like any young child learns their native language—through conversational engagement and imitation. Collaborative projects contextualize new words and concepts, and offer the students a glimpse of Spanish and Latino holidays, traditions, and customs. When Bea thinks about what she would like to accomplish with each of her students, she is endlessly optimistic. “I hope to plant the seed of curiosity in my students; I hope that they will grow up to experience difference with comfort and enthusiasm, and to pursue new experiences with open minds and hearts. I feel fortunate that each day at Valley School I have an opportunity to play a small part in constructing a beautiful future for our students—a future of widespread, compassionate, human connectedness.”

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