Ball State University
2011-2015 | Spanish Linguistics & Human Resource Management
Intro
The story of my college career is about as unique as any other. I came in with no idea of what I wanted to do, and left the same. However, I do believe a few improvements and insightful experiences were gain throughout this time.
My core academic path briefly started out as an undecided major, but was shortly changed to an international business major because I wanted some sort of direction with what I was learning. I thought the potential of working in a global work-space mixed with thought of traveling and living abroad could be very rewarding. Following the addition of my international business major I soon added a Spanish major to now be double majoring. After a couple more semesters I was starting to realize that both the international business and Spanish majors were more of a secondary major type, which were better paired with a major that provided a hard skill. I need a major that I could market myself with after graduating. Because of this I switched my international business major to a human resource management because I had been enjoying my management classes and preferred jobs that were people oriented. Thus, I wound up graduating with Spanish (concentration in linguistics) and human resource management majors.
Study Abroad
I took a semester to study abroad during the summer between my sophomore and junior year. I studied in Granada, Spain which is located in the southern region of Spain. There, you will find a heavy influence of Moorish influence through the architecture, culture, and language (which is why I was inspired to take an Arabic class when I returned). While there, I was enrolled in an intensive language program that allowed me not only to learn the language, but more importantly is where I built the confidence to actually use the language. I had always struggled with stuttering since I was young, and as I got older the stutter had gone away. Unfortunately, my stutter had remained when I spoke Spanish. My time abroad had done wonders to alleviate this unwanted characteristic from my speech. So, aside from the common belief that I took a two month vacation to Spain, I left this experience with not only enjoy the immense culture while traveling through Europe and Africa, but also as a more confidently built speaker of my second language.
PSUxLING
During the fall of my senior year I attended and presented at the Penn State Undergrad Conference, PSUxLING. Here, I had the chance to present my capstone project, to tour the Penn State campus/grad program facilities, and to network/meet with iconic figures in the linguistic field such as John Lipski. My project discussed bilingual code switching and it tested the triggering hypothesis on the bilingual (ENG/SP) sitcom, “¿Qué Pasa USA?”. The triggering hypothesis says that a bilingual speaker will more likely code switch (change languages) when “prompted” by a previous cognate. If you are interested to see our results, I will have our final paper, poster presentation, and raw data linked on my website.
Resident Assistant Experience
Aside from academics a good majority of my college years were spent as a Resident Assistant (RA). I spent two years working in a primarily freshman residence hall (Knotts/Edwards in LaFollette complex) that was known for being one of the worst places on campus. This also happened to be the same place I had lived my freshman year so it was nice to be in a familiar place that I ended up living for 3/4 of my college career. Here I had many experiences with calling the police for illegal substances, EMT for a variety of reasons, and dealing with crisis situations. My senior year I lived and worked in the international residence hall. Here I was able to build connections and relationships from people all over the world. I also had to understand how to work with and make an impact on people whose primary language was not English and stay responsible for their safety. During this year I had experiences which had an impact on how I viewed leadership and my superiors.
Alpha Mu Gamma
Alpha Mu Gamma - Harvest Fest
Alpha Mu Gamma - Harvest Fest
Chinese Club
Spanish Club
German Club
 Harvest fest is AMG's largest event, hosting all BSU foreign language clubs and over 300 attendees |  |  Multi-lingual Valentines created by AMG members for part of our spring fund raiser |
|---|---|---|
 Penny wars was another part of our spring fundraiser during national foreign language week |  Fall fund raiser |  |
 |
While I was at Ball State I was involved in the academic foreign language honors society, Alpha Mu Gamma. Here I served as the treasure for all three years that I was a member of the society. The organization's purpose was to facilitate foreign language use around campus and be an intermediary for all of the clubs and organizations revolving around foreign language. As the treasure, I had the responsibilities you might think a treasure would hold such as collecting and depositing membership dues, monitoring and heading the organization's budget, and handling transaction made through the organization. In addition I also served on the executive board, which helped decided and execute the core actions of Alpha Mu Gamma.
BSU Flow & Juggling Club
I was heavily involved with the Ball State Flow and Juggling club on campus. I served as president of the club for the majority of my college experience. When I first joined the club was very small, all of three or four regular members. By the end of my time with the club we had grown our membership to about 20 regular members and held weekly meetings. Some even coming from outside of the Ball State/Muncie area to participate in club functions or events. The club even collaborated with several on campus groups such as Late Nite, College Mentors for Kids, and Ball State Photography Club. The club was even recruited to perform at local bars such as Be Here Now. BSU Flow even held their own Flow fest in the spring of 2016 for the surrounding community. I learned a lot about starting small and working with what you have to build a community and grow an organization.
