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Meet our Spanish Alumni

Graduated Spanish majors and minors are currently:

Doctors: Leah Olivier (2000) took the M.D. at Saba University and uses her bilingual skills as an internist in Opelousas.

Bilingual literacy specialists: Gloria Hébert (2007) teaches adult literacy and high school equivalency courses for bilingual adults in Ascension Parish.

Businesspeople: Carmen (Orozco) Khan (2006), is a bilingual accounts executive for Apple, Inc. in Austin, Texas.

English teachers abroad: Justin Theriot (2002) and Sandy Lewis (2006) are enjoying life in Spain where they have both secured permanent jobs teaching English in language institutes. Sandy has also appeared on Barcelona television as a ballroom dancer and dance teacher, while Justin and his wife Marta have opened an arts and crafts store in their village of Manzanares el Real.

Faculty at colleges and universities: Wendy Braun (2002) continued her studies with an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from LSU-Baton Rouge. She is on the faculty in English at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Erin Breaux (2005) took the M.A. in Comparative Literature at LSU-Baton Rouge and is on the faculty in English and World Literature at South Louisiana Community College. Valeria Hallett (2000) took the M.A. in Hispanic Studies at LSU-Baton Rouge and is on the faculty in Spanish at the University of New Orleans. Nick Person (2002) taught English and traveled in Costa Rica, and took the M.A. in Hispanic Studies at LSU-Baton Rouge. After teaching there and at Tulane University, he joined the faculty here.

Graduate students: Stephanie Colin and Nano Rojas (2013) took the M.A. in Hispanic Studies at LSU-Baton Rouge and are now both working toward the Ph.D. in Comparative Literature there. Liliana Naranjo (2012) took the M.A. in Hispanic Studies at LSU-Baton Rouge and is now a candidate for the Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese at Tulane University in New Orleans. Christopher Fontenot (2010), a high school teacher in Ville Platte, took the M.A. in Education at Louisiana College in Pineville, and has entered the Ed.D. program in Educational Leadership at UL Lafayette. Brittany (Saucier) Moronta (2014) taught high school Spanish for a year before entering the M.S. program in Education at LSU-Shreveport. Cristián Rivera (2015) entered the M.S. program in Psychology at UL Lafayette. He plans to take the Ph.D. and work as a research psychologist focusing on language acquisition.

Lawyers: Amber Murray (2010) took the J.D. at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge and is an immigration attorney in New Orleans.

Nurses: Ryan Grob (2002) taught Spanish in area middle schools for several years and is now a bilingual R.N. at Lafayette General Medical Center. Linda Irwin (2005), also a bilingual R.N. at LGMC, first worked for United Airlines and traveled extensively in Mexico and South America. Lauren (Coleman) Sanders (2006) used her bilingual skills as a petroleum landman and a high school Spanish teacher before entering the B.S.N. program at Texas A&M University.

Preparing for graduate school: Hillary Carlisle (2014) spent a year teaching English in Madrid, Spain, on a paid internship program organized by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Back in Lafayette, she is reworking one of her honors papers on Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and essayist and poet Octavio Paz for presentation at the 2016 conference of the Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica / International Association of Hispanic Feminine Literature and Culture as she prepares for graduate study in Spanish and Latin American art history. Esteban Quispe (2017) is a McNair scholar here. His project is the translation of Peruvian modernist poet César Moro's collection La tortuga ecuestre / The Equestrian Tortoise. Some of this work was published in the Summer 2015 issue of the translation journal Alchemy, and more appeared in Tripwire 10 (April 2016), a poetics journal which also awarded Quispe a microgrant for translation. Luke Thomas (2011) spent three years teaching English in Spain and a year teaching Spanish and English in New York. After a months-long trek through South America he is in Denver preparing for graduate school in Environmental Science, where he will use his bilingual skills to collaborate on inter-American and trans-Atlantic projects.

Spanish teachers: José E. García (2001) took the M.A. in Hispanic Studies at LSU-Baton Rouge and teaches advanced Spanish at Lafayette High School. Yolanda Mayeux (2001) and Madeline Boudreaux (2007) are also teaching advanced Spanish at area high schools after earning M.A. degrees in Hispanic Studies. Katrice Addison (2008), Jane Calloway (2002), Cindy Mayeux (2009), Kelly Olivier (2007) and Dina Rodríguez-Landry (2006) are all secondary school Spanish teachers. Stephanie Riley (2009) certified as a primary school teacher and has created a billingual daycare/preschool.