¡Feliz otoño a todos! I hope that you all had an enjoyable summer full of travel and time spent among family and friends.
It is always bittersweet getting back to the fall routine. It’s an adjustment for me every year personally. The summer is certainly the busiest time of the year for us, with most of our programs running at that time, but it is always the most enjoyable. My wife, Kate, and my daughter, Ayla, were able to spend most of the summer with me in Spain this year, and having them with me as I traveled the country to spend time with each of our groups was quite the adventure, but it was so rewarding to be able to share with them some of the wonderful experiences our students were having. Summer is clearly the time when Michela, LITA’s Assistant Director, and I have the chance to see our students in action and witness the benefits of all of the preparation that goes into creating these experiences for them. As two former teachers, it is the time of the year that we most enjoy. Spending time with our students and seeing them grow through this experience is one of our greatest joys and the best reward after a school year full of travel to visit with Spanish teachers and students, Skype calls, interviews, training and preparation. We feel so lucky to have the summer to spend with our students, and returning home to Vermont is always a bit of a shock.
This summer we had three fantastic groups of students, two based in northern Spain and one focused largely in southern Spain. I continue to be amazed at the kindness and engagement of our students and the warmth and welcoming nature of our host families. As many of you know, we rarely repeat host families from one year to another. We put a tremendous amount of effort and care into vetting and working with new families each year and try our best to personalize our homestays. The effort is so worth it when we see life long friendships form between our students and their familias. The connections and language skills built amongst host families and friends, at times through challenging miscommunications and bouts of homesickness, are always what stay with our students long after the summer is over. During the homestay, our students also participated in some very unique internships and research projects. We had a student working one-on-one with the mayor of her host community, one working in the kitchen of a local, family-run restaurant, another working with a ceramics artist in her home studio, and others in bakeries, pastry shops, summer camps and even a local radio station studio. Other students researched topics ranging from local food systems and multi-generational roles of women in their host community, to traditional architecture of the pueblos of Castilla y León and religiosity in Andalucía. All of this with the support of a fantastic set of group leaders. This summer was a big success and we thank everyone that helped make it so.
As we close out summer 2016 and begin preparations for summer 2017, we look forward to continuing to keep in touch with alumni and friends across the country. We hope to see many of you in your respective cities as we travel this fall and winter to connect with families and colleagues about Spain and LITA. As many of you know, we are a small program, and as much as we would love to be able to visit every area of the country each year, ultimately this is impossible (my own kids are growing up too fast and I don’t want to miss too much here at home by being away for weeks on end!). We hope that this newsletter may serve as a welcome update, but we do certainly look forward to seeing many of you in person this year as we plan our school visits!
Again, we promise not to inundate your email inbox with newsletters more than once or twice a year. Please let us know if you would prefer to not receive these updates and we will gladly accommodate that and respect your privacy.
Thank you again for your continued support. It means so much to us.
- Jordan Romm, Director, LITA
