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Voices of DSHA

¡Sí Se Puede!

Q & A with Retiring World Languages Faculty Martha Parks
World Languages Faculty Martha Parks is a staple of her department at DSHA, and has been since her arrival more than a decade ago. A native of Quito, Ecuador, she teaches Spanish with a passion and understanding that is invaluable — to both faculty and students alike. She strives to develop a confidence in her students’ abilities and an appreciation for both language and culture. In addition to her dedication in the classroom, she has given countless students the opportunity to immerse themselves into the Spanish culture outside of the classroom. She coordinated a service mission trip for Spanish students to the Working Boys Center in Quito, Ecuador for 12 years. She also had a desire to put Latina students on the map at DSHA, and therefore worked to organize and grow the Furia Latina Club, which celebrates and promotes Latino culture. Though she is retiring, she has left her mark on the place of DSHA in ways that matter to the mission.
Q: What is ¡Juntos!? What inspired you to coordinate ¡Juntos! after the founding teacher left DSHA?
 
A: ¡Juntos! is a mission program; it is not like a trip to Spain or Italy. Every summer for the last 14 years — except for the last two years — I take 10-12 DSHA students at the end of the school year to serve the poorest of the poor in Ecuador for two weeks. The mission, the Working Boys Center in Quito, Ecuador, is run by my aunt, who is a BVM (Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and Fr. Halligan. We are led by American volunteers, some of whom are former DSHA students who have spent a year or two in service after they graduated from college. I am from Quito and I’ve known the mission for 50 years; I connect with the people working at the site and see the need for the day. Students work where the need is the greatest — washing dishes, helping to prepare meals, or teaching students and adults.
 
I brought the name ¡Juntos! to the program; in Spanish, it means “working together.”
 
Q: What has it meant for you to be able to provide an experience like ¡Juntos! for DSHA students?
 
A: It is such a fulfilling experience for them. It makes me happy to see that my hard efforts in teaching them from August to May have paid off. Once we get there, they cannot use English, only Spanish.
 
It is also fulfilling for them. They find compassion and caring; they come back with a sense of gratitude. They might complain that they can’t go shopping over the weekend, but those at the mission are complaining because they don’t know when they’re going to eat next. It gives them perspective that lasts.
 
The mission really touches their lives quite a bit. After they come back, they go into their communities and talk about what they have experienced and learned. While I am leaving, my hope is that the mission of ¡Juntos! lives on, because it’s done so much for the students.
 
Q: Tell us why the phrase Sí se puede(yes you can) means so much to you and your teaching style?
 
A: I am a native speaker of the language, and when students hear me speak my normal speed of Spanish on the first day of class, they are so scared — especially those who are taking the upper level classes. They say they can’t do it. In my classroom, we do away with that. We start with “Yes, I can; of course I can.” We’re in this together.
 
Sí se puede is the logo of my class. I end lessons with that phrase; it gives students confidence. Once they know they can do it, the confidence just flows and they are not as scared.
 
Q: What do you hope students have gained from the classes you have taught?
 
A: I have been a rigorous teacher from the beginning until now. I receive emails from former students telling me the concepts I used to teach them are easy to apply to their current Spanish studies.

I don’t hope I did my job right; I know I did my job right. I don’t hope my students have learned; I know they have learned. And I hope future Spanish students experience the rigor my students have.

The students are accomplished, they learned, and now they are confident to move onto other levels of Spanish.
 
Q: What is your favorite DSHA memory?
 
A: I used to translate the music of the day into Spanish—like Shakira and Selena Gomez—transfer the words into the correct tenses and everything. The students would sing along and dance along. They gave it their all; they would shout out all of the verbs and jump up and down for the different tenses. They really got into it.
 
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

A: I was an elementary and junior high teacher for a while, but I am grateful that I ended up teaching at an all-girls high school where the commitment to teaching is outstanding. I am proud to finish my career here. I belong at DSHA because I put my heart there, and I taught with ganas (desire). I am certainly retiring with a bang—I will always remember my last semester of teaching virtually!
 
MARTHA PARKS AT-A-GLANCE:
 
Years at DSHA:14
 
Classes taught:
• Spanish I and III
• Spanish for Spanish Speakers I and II
 
Clubs, activities, and trips moderated:
¡Juntos! service trip to Ecuador
• Furia Latina (worked with the student founder of the club and helped it grow)
 
What she will miss most at DSHA, besides her students:The friendships and relation­ships she has built with her colleagues, as well as the prayerful community surround­ing Campus Ministry.
 
Family: son, Brandon; daughter, Isabel, 4 grandchildren; 10 nieces who are DSHA alumnae (Parks taught 9 of them!)
 
Education:
• BS in Education, Specialization in Bilingual Education (Spanish), UW-Milwaukee
Certification in Spanish, Mount Mary University
 
Señora Parks, thank you for…

“…all the joy you added to my life — from dancing around your classroom singing about Spanish grammatical concepts, to making my classmates and I run in place whenever we seemed low on energy. You’ve inspired me to want to return to Ecuador; I think about ¡Juntos! all the time. You’ve made sí se puede my life motto.”
- Bonnie Raechal Beres, DSHA ‘19
 
“…your faith in my ability to improve my Spanish. Thank you for always pushing me to learn more and work harder, because my Spanish has improved exponentially due to your teaching. Thank you for the funny stories, catchy songs, and how you always say sí se puede! Gracias!
- Riley Halpern, DSHA ‘21
 
“…pushing me to do my best and teaching me the importance of understanding language with an open mind and heart.”
- Tori Koch, DSHA ’21
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