Dana Holahan, a Spanish professor in the Foreign Language department, is one of the newest members of the Fairfield University faculty. In her first semester here at Fairfield, Professor Holahan has been given the opportunity to use both her extensive knowledge of the language and her own personal experiences in the Spanish speaking world in the classroom to help her students reach their highest potential in their study of a foreign language.
1. When did you first decide that you wanted to have a career as a college professor?
I didn’t actually decide that. I knew that I wanted to teach Spanish. This job actually came up by chance.
2. Why did you decide to pursue Spanish as your field of study?
Because I think that more people should know Spanish and that has to do with the fact that there are so many Spanish speaking people…It’s really good for people to know a lot of languages. It opens up your possibilities of meeting new people, interacting with cultures in a more meaningful way.
3. Which places in the Spanish speaking world have you traveled to and what was that experience like?
I lived in Chile for about 15 years. I have also traveled to Argentina, Peru, Columbia, Brazil, and Bolivia. I have actually have never been to Spain…Living in Chile, it was wonderful. I made some very amazing friends that will be friends for the rest of my life. It was a really good experience for me in the sense that living in a country that is not your own opens your eyes…I think it in the long term, makes you realize that there is not only one way to do things.
4. When did you live in Chile?
I was in Chile from 1997 through August of 2009.
5. What made you decide to stay there?
I just really liked it there. I was able to find work. I worked as a freelancer…I worked for the international campaign to ban land mines as a researcher…. I pretty much worked as a freelance translator.
6. When did you first begin to develop your interest in the Spanish language and culture?
I think it was when I was in ninth or tenth grade in high school…There were cultures that we didn’t learn about in high school. They certainly don’t teach you about the bad things that the United States has done in South America…I started realizing that it was quite important to learn about what was going on. I wanted to be able to know more about it so I could help avoid that type of situation from happening again. Once I got to college, I studied Spanish and majored in Latin American studies.
7. Where did you attend college?
I went to Wesleyan in Middletown, Connecticut.
8. Did you always want to be a teacher?
I was teaching English and I wasn’t very interested in teaching English. I would rather teach other languages other than English. There are so many things that are worth talking about and so many interesting issues. That’s the fun thing about teaching a language. The thing that kind of motivates me about teaching is maybe helping students go through a process like I’ve gone through, maybe opening your mind and learning about different parts of the world. It’s ok to have a different culture.
9. How has your experience at Fairfield been thus far?
It’s been great. I really think it’s a good university. It’s a university committed to the students.
10. What advice would you give to a student who is pursuing a major or minor in Spanish in order to have a career in Spanish Education?
I would say definitely study abroad. Try to travel to more than one Spanish speaking culture because there are so many differences language and culture wise and maybe try to tap into some of the Spanish speaking communities right here. It is really easy to be in a Spanish speaking environment without even leaving the country. And I think that it make Spanish speakers feel really happy when other people take an interest in their language.
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