Volunteer: Alexis Hopkins
Program Site: Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Year: 2008
Alexis Hopkins studied Latin American culture at Ohio University and took several years of Spanish. She wanted a way to hone her language skills and give back at the same time, so she applied for and won a World Service Grant which funded a three-week trip to Guatemala with Cross-Cultural Solutions.
While in Guatemala, Alexis worked in the community’s school and taught English to kids in kindergarten through 6th grade. The three weeks that she spent immersed in the culture forced her to speak Spanish often, and she came home with greater sense of the language. Alexis says that she learned more Spanish in three weeks than she did in all of her years in the classroom.
After her experience with CCS, she came home inspired. Alexis gathered with other Spanish students weekly to keep her language skills up, and she even graduated with a minor in Spanish. Her long-term goal is to use her Spanish-speaking skills in her future career.
