It’s spoken across multiple continents and widely used as a secondary language in the United States, and is one of the world’s most spoken languages. Because of its utility, Vandegrift includes Spanish as one of its language classes offered to students.

In Spanish class, students learn everything from basic Spanish phrases and how to conjugate them to various grammatical structures. In more advanced Spanish classes, students begin to translate or even write entire passages in Spanish.

“The most rewarding aspect of being a teacher for me is getting to interact with students,” Spanish teacher Paige Stevenson said.

Stevenson learned that Spanish was her passion as the result of an experience abroad.

“I really enjoyed Spanish after spending my junior year of high school in Nequén, Argentina as a foreign exchange student,” Stevenson said. “It helped me gain a new cultural perspective, which after graduating from college I wanted to share.”

Stevenson said that teaching a Spanish class involves a busy schedule, with teachers putting in a lot of effort into their classes in order to teach the language.

“I start the day at eight, making myself available to tutor or just going over lesson plans and hopefully answering emails,” Stevenson said. “I love spending time with students speaking Spanish and using songs or other authentic materials to broaden their experience.”

Students choose to take Spanish class for a variety of reasons, whether it be satisfying their language credits or wanting to learn it to use it for a career. However some students take Spanish class since they have a background related to the Spanish language.

“Most of my family on my dad’s side speaks Spanish,” senior Robert Miranda said. “I thought I would be able to understand them better.”

Miranda said he loves it when teachers work with their students in order to ensure that they are not having any difficulty in class.

“I appreciate the teacher actively involving us in the lesson,” Miranda said. “Typically, we have speaking and exercises.”

Spanish is seen as an important class to many, as it teaches one of the most spoken languages in the world. Many believe that if one is fluent in the language, it opens up many opportunities.

“Obviously, I feel that knowing Spanish can become a tool for any person after graduation,”  Stevenson said. “Whether it serves to help expand a student’s client base or just gives them global access to understand people in different situations, most careers can make use of Spanish.”