Her Story
About Luann
I've been teaching full-time now for over 6 years, and right now I teach Spanish full-time at a university. I'm currently in my second semester of a PhD program, taking two classes while teaching 4 classes, so 2 nights a week I go to class from 6:30 in the evening until about 9:30. As an employee here at the university, they actually pay for my tuition, so it was kind of a great opportunity that I couldn't pass up. My life has kind of become crazy right now, but I know it's gonna pay off because it's something I've always wanted to do. I've also taught in other capacities - I traveled to South America back in 2010 where I lived for half a year and taught English at a school. The main reason I went was to really improve my Spanish and immerse myself in the culture, because I wanted my Spanish to get better, and that's really the best way to do it. It was challenging being away that long, but overall it was definitely worth it. I started learning Spanish when I was 13, and I always say that I had a great first teacher because after that year, I just loved Spanish and never looked back. I had a knack for it right away and just continued learning it, basically seeking out opportunities to practice, like making friends or speaking to people in restaurants, anything I could do to practice speaking the language. Before I got into higher education, I worked at a property preservation company, basically a company that managed foreclosed homes for banks, and I did that for about 6 years. It was an office job, and I just kind of knew that was not what I wanted my future to be. Before that, I'm a musician, so I worked at a couple of music stores and did the musician thing. I decided to go back to school later in my 20s and finish my bachelor's degree, and then finished my master's in my 40s. I'm kind of a late bloomer, but that's just the way my path has gone.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Luann
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would definitely say, you know, if you are driven to do something, and you really have the passion for it, you know, just keep pursuing it. Don't let yourself get discouraged - it's easy to get discouraged, of course, I think that's normal, right? Everybody does. But just kind of keep your eye on your goal. And just remember, like, it doesn't happen overnight. As long as you put a little bit into it every day, you know, even if it's just 20 minutes of studying, or whatever it is that you're trying to learn, over time that builds, and you know, before you know it, you've reached a new level.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Not being a native Spanish speaker has kind of presented some challenges, because I kind of consider myself a student as well - I'm always learning. I mean, obviously, I'm fluent now to a degree, but there's still things that, like, there might be words that I don't know, or verbs I don't know. I'd say in the past, the biggest challenge was when I first started teaching, just stepping into that role and being really confident in it, and just feeling like, okay, I belong in this role, you know, I know what I'm doing, I have a master's degree in Spanish. So kind of just getting the confidence, especially with speaking, pronunciation and all that, which my pronunciation has come a long way, I'd say. And then just, I guess for right now, my biggest challenge is just balancing everything, and it really comes down to just my time management. I've got to stick to a schedule every day to make sure I give enough time to all of my tasks - grading, I have office hours every week for my students to come if they need help, getting all that done, getting my PhD work done, which usually I do a lot of that on the weekend. So there's days when it feels like, alright, I got this, smooth sailing, and then there's other days where it rocks you.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · Texas
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.