Four students selected as ‘Cultural Ambassadors’ to teach in Spain

Three current UW-Green Bay Spanish majors — Mara Spanbauer, Jessica Schmidt and Nina Paavola — and one Spanish alumna, Rebecca Pollack, have been selected by Spain’s Ministry of Culture to become “Cultural Ambassadors” for the 2011-2012 academic year. The UW-Green Bay students will be teaching English and American culture, with Spanbauer and Paavola in northern Spain (the Basque region) and Schmidt and Pollack in the south (Andalucia). Each of the four is a study-abroad alumna, with semesters spent in Bilabao or Leon, Spain, or in Merida, Mexico. Those experiences, explains Prof. Cristina Ortiz, “changed the life of the students and they decided to apply for this program and spend a whole year overseas while being paid this time.” Under the auspices of this program, students receive training, health insurance and a monthly stipend in exchange for teaching English in a K-12 Spanish school. This is the first time that UW-Green Bay’s Spanish program has had four students apply and be selected. There about 2,000 grants for college students from North America. If you’re interested in learning more about the program.