Virginia Fernández de Cabo-Spanish
by Lynn Bowder
¡Hola! My full name is Virginia Fernández de Cabo; Fernández is
my father’s last name and de Cabo is my mom’s, that’s the way it
works in Spain, the country where I come from.
This is my third year as the Spanish teacher at Cedar Bluffs High
School and my fourth year living in Nebraska.
I’m here with a program called “Visiting teachers”, it is a
collaborative program supported by the Ministry of
Education/Embassy of Spain and several departments of education and
school districts across the United States and Canada.
I went to “Universidad de Valladolid” (Valladolid College) in Spain
for five years where I got my bachelor’s and master’s degree in
foreign language and literature and one semester of graduate study
in education.
Why am I here? Same question I ask to myself every morning . Right
after I graduated I moved to England to improve my English, I went
by myself, I had no job, no money and no friends there but I
enjoyed the challenge and ended up living there for 6 months
working for the prestigious video game company Code Masters. After
that, life had just begun, I love challenge and traveling more than
anything else and winters in Nebraska are pretty challenging.
Since I’m a big city girl when I first arrived here I thought this
challenge was too tough. I was ready to finish what I had started
but also ready to leave right after that, one year here sounded
even too long. And here I am, still here. There are many reasons
why I’m still here but my students are #1.
I’m very passionate on what I do, passionate about my language and
my culture and everyday I enjoy this opportunity to bring an
international perspective to these classrooms but I don’t just
teach…I learn so many things from my students everyday and I
receive so much understanding, love, smiles and care that I don’t
feel like leaving right now.
