The first time I longed to speak another language was in elementary school, when I was living in Texas. My school had a Spanish immersion class of 20 kids who were chosen by a lottery. The chosen few got to take their classes in Spanish and learn about Spanish speaking cultures, foods and festivals. I was not among the chosen but I would always hear them speaking Spanish to each other on the playground and wanted to be part of that inner world.
At that time in my life, Spanish was everywhere I looked and even if I didn’t understand it, it was still part of my life. I remember hearing Spanish music on the car radio, not knowing what the lyrics meant but being drawn in anyway. Around Dallas, there was no shortage of Mexican culture and Spanish words. It was the food served at my favorite taco joint, the names of streets in my neighborhood and a huge percentage of people living in my city.
I now live in Chicago but my interest in culture immersion hasn’t left me. I have always lived close enough to Spanish speaking culture to see it but I haven’t truly participated in it. I want to be immersed in a culture that goes beyond just observing it and be part of it in a meaningful way. Learning Spanish for me is not just an academic goal but a way to step into a world I have only been able to look at from the outside. This is why I have enrolled in the Xperitas Costa Rica immersion program for the summer of 2026.
Last summer, I volunteered as a sports camp counselor with Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association, which serves kids with disabilities. I was partnered with a 7-year-old boy with Cerebral Palsy. We had a lot of fun playing wheelchair basketball but he spoke little English and I, having never spoken Spanish outside of a high school classroom, hesitated, which stopped me from truly getting to know him better. This experience reminded me about the importance of language and how much it can be a bridge or a barrier. My lack of confidence in attempting to speak Spanish kept me from fully getting to know someone that I cared about. Even though we were able to communicate through gestures and smiles, I still felt like it was a missed opportunity.
Language can change the way people interact with each other and shape our connections to one another. As an American, there is not a lot of encouragement to learna second or third language as there is in other regions of the world like Europe.
This isolates us as a society. Without being able to speak and listen to people of other cultures and languages, we can not create meaningful relationships between each other. Understanding and relating with other people also creates more empathy between cultures. More than 78 percent of Americans only speak English, according to the US Census American Community Survey taken from 2018 to 2022. In contrast, 59 percent of Europeans can speak at least two languages, according to a 2024 Eurobarometer Survey. The more we are able to communicate with people of other languages the more bridges we create.
Although technology has made our world feel a lot smaller than it was for my parents and grandparents, things like Google Translate have given many people a false sense of comfort with their language skills. While it's a quick and easy way to translate a word or sentence, you miss the important parts of the conversation such as emotion and humor.
That is what I hope to do by continuing to study Spanish and immerse myself in Costa Rican culture. By staying with a host family it will give me the opportunity to start building bridges for deeper and more meaningful connections outside of my comfort zone. I don’t just want to be able to communicate, I want to connect.
As part of this scholarship, Graham will be continuing his story with a second installment following his immersion program in Costa Rica this summer. We're already looking forward to reading about the real-world bridges he builds while living and learning with his host family!