Isa Rivera, M.A.

Isa Rivera brings the joys of language into the classroom. Originally from Puerto Rico, she shares the culture and literature of her native Spanish. “My goal is to deepen students’ understanding and appreciation of the Spanish language and the diverse cultures it represents,” she says. She earned a B.S. in Mass Media Production at Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, also in Puerto Rico.

When I started my M.A. in Creative Writing, I knew that I wanted to become a college professor, but I had no experience being in front of people. At first, I wanted to teach literature and grammar in Puerto Rico, but the opportunity I found was teaching English in a small school, and I noticed a high need to teach the language. That’s when I fell in love with teaching languages. When I moved to Maryland, I fell in love even more with my native language, so I wanted to share it and show students how wonderful Spanish is.

When I was a Spanish linguist at a law firm — my first job in Maryland — I learned and understood completely that Spanish varies from region to region. There are some other ways to communicate one idea depending on the country you’re from. We native speakers have an idea of this phenomenon thanks to telenovelas, but it’s not the same as working in a field outside of your country where you are constantly exposed to words that you knew but are used differently in other areas. Ironically, I ended up learning more Spanish than English in this job. That’s what I teach my students: not just the language but the cultural aspect of the language.

My academic background allows me to give my students a creative and interdisciplinary approach to teaching Spanish. I talk about Hispanic literature and integrate a lot of cultural experiences into my lessons. When students take my courses, my biggest hope is that they fall in love with the language and feel the need to learn more about it. I know that learning a language you didn’t grow up with is a challenge, but if the person has enough interest in it, they can become fluent regardless of their age.