by Holly Hendricks
Contributing Writer

When you walk into the classroom of Amelia Acosta, a
short woman with long, brown hair greets you with an
“¡Hola!” and a smile. A sense of comfort and familiarity
overwhelms you. An upbeat, energetic and cheerful voice
fills the air from a friendly woman in an Eyore sweatshirt
and jeans. This is the classroom of Spanish professor
Amelia Acosta.

Acosta had wanted to teach since she was a little girl,
living in Los Angeles, California. Since the days of forcing
her brother to play school with her as a young child, Acosta knew that this was always what she wanted to do.

Her grandmother, who was a Spanish professor at a nearby college, always influenced Acosta. She says, “I never contemplated doing anything else.”

When Acosta was 18, she attended college at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, a small town about 45 miles south of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/ St. Paul). She later had trouble deciding between majoring in English or Spanish. In the end, Acosta chose Spanish when she attended the University of California Santa Barbra for graduate school, where she became a teaching assistant.

After graduating, Acosta started her Spanish career by tutoring students in California. She eventually moved to Seattle because she was offered a teaching position at Shoreline Community College, where she has been instructing for the past ten years.

The requirements for a Spanish major include studying abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. Acosta chose to study in Santa Domingo, a city in the Dominican Republic for one semester of her final year at St. Olaf. While she was there, she had many eyeopening experiences.

The water was undrinkable, the electricity only stayed on for 12 hours during the day and there were definitely no luxuries such as hair dryers and curling irons in sight. She couldn’t even wear her contacts while she was there because she didn’t know if she would have pure enough water to wash them in.

Overall, she counted it as a great experience and a once-ina- lifetime opportunity. The experience helped her realize that she took many things for granted back home in the states.

Ever since studying abroad, Acosta has wanted to design a study abroad program to bring this experience to students.

Shoreline Community College works with other local community colleges to offer study abroad programs for the students, but even though Acosta would love to instruct in one, she doesn’t seem to have enough time to make that happen.

Acosta also traveled to many cities in Spain, and the Dominican Republic. Her favorite destination was Mexico because her father is from there and she has strong emotional ties to the country.

The two main cities she stayed in were Chihuahua and Durango, although she has also spent some time in other areas as Mexico City. “The bigger cities look just like any other big city except the billboards are in a different language,” said Amelia, “the smaller towns are where you get the flavor.”