Spanish Has Left the Building

When Judah Christian School’s longtime Spanish teacher and behind-the-scenes wonder Señora Rogers retired in May of 2022, she passed the torch to “Maestra,” aka Mrs. Nicole Haegele. On top of teaching all four levels of Spanish, Maestra faced the daunting challenge of carrying on the legacy of Señora. Yet in less than three years at Judah, Maestra has become a key staff member and an influential mentor to many students. 

Maestra has taken a new approach to her duties as Spanish teacher. Inspired in part by Señora and in part by the work in her own life, Maestra teaches Spanish not only as a tool to communicate with other people, but also as a way to get involved in our community and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. This double focus has led to out-of-class learning and service opportunities for every Spanish class under her leadership.

For Spanish 1 and 2, opportunity has come in the form of visiting local businesses. Spanish 1 visited a Mexican grocery store, El Progreso Latino, in November. Spanish 2 plans to visit La Michoacana, a Mexican ice cream shop, at the end of the year. Why? Maestra introduced us to her philosophy of community-based language learning: “Part of language learning is connecting with people who speak the language natively and connecting with their culture, so that we can understand them. I want the Spanish program to start making these connections in our community.”

While the underclassmen stayed local, Spanish 3 ventured outside the Champaign-Urbana area. On November 22, Spanish 3 students joined Biology 2 students on a joint field trip to Chicago. The first stop on the field trip was the National Museum of Mexican Art. With a chapter on art still fresh in the students’ minds, Judah Spanish students explored sculptures, paintings, clothing, movie posters, and early tools with a tour guide, who gave context to the exhibits. For example, the guide explained Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebration and its representation of death in many of the artworks. At the end of the tour, the students stopped at the museum gift shop, which was full of all sorts of gifts — from Maestra’s iconic numbered cards, upgraded to match the Day of the Dead theme, to books about the people and art represented in the museum.

Like Spanish 1 and 2, Spanish 4 stayed local. Beginning in October, Spanish 4 started taking monthly trips to Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center. Champaign’s Pregnancy Resource Center is one of twelve across Illinois and Indiana. It is a place where women can go to get educational resources to help support them in their pregnancy. The faith-based ministry also offers some medical services, such as pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, and parent mentoring. On the first Thursday of the month, from 11 am to 1 pm, the center does its “curbside care,” a giveaway for families in need of material resources. 

Spanish 4 has been volunteering at the Pregnancy Resource Center every month, as the center lacks bilingual volunteers and staff, which is a roadblock for the many families coming to curbside care who cannot speak English. Maestra, who has volunteered at Living Alternatives for four years, was aware of the center’s need for Spanish speakers and decided to take the Spanish 4 class to help translate on curbside care days. “I was connected with Living Alternatives before, and I knew that they had a huge need for help with speaking Spanish,” said Maestra. After a successful test run in May of last school year, Maestra started taking Spanish 4 students to the Pregnancy Resource Center in October. 

When asked what motivated her to take the senior Spanish class to Living Alternatives, Maestra said, “Our goal at Judah Christian School is that students have opportunities to develop the skills to be lifelong servants, and a great way to do that is to use our Spanish to serve. It is a huge need in our community. It is a perfect opportunity for us to serve in the kingdom of God.”

While she is uncertain about the future, Maestra hopes that these outings can blossom into something like GodTreks, where she would have small excursions during the school year and perhaps a larger trip to another country during the summer. As for right now though, she hopes these out-of-class opportunities prove to be valuable lessons for her students, not just in Spanish but in life as well. 

—Zach Schaefer, class of ’25, & Michael Oshimokun, class of ’26