Ericka Ghersi, PhD

Hello! My name is Ericka Ghersi. I got my doctoral degree at the University of Florida in Latin American Interdisciplinary Studies.

Before coming to the United States, I got my bachelor's degree in Mass Communications at the Universidad de San Martín de Porres (Peru). At that time, Universidad de San Martin de Porres published my first poetry book: Zenobia y el Anciano.

Later on, I got a master’s degree in Spanish Literature and Teaching Spanish As Second Language at Bowling Green State University (Ohio) I did enjoy teaching Spanish, and learning about teaching strategies and styles. H.H. Stern’s scholar writings were very useful to understand how to apply strategies when one is teaching a second language. At Bowling Green, I got involved with the international abroad program to Spain. The summer program opened several doors to me when I realized how important Spanish was to the world. While I was teaching Spanish for the abroad program in Spain, and tutoring our American students, I took courses such as "Teaching Spanish for Business". The experience with languages for specific purposes caught my attention, so I asked the instructor to allow me to work with her during the time I stayed in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid (Spain).

Very excited with the scholar’s life in the United States, I decided to study at the University of Florida (UF) where I got the doctorate degree in Latin American Literatures and Interdisciplinary Studies, as well as a Latin American Studies Certificate for Graduate Students. Once at UF, I published my second book of poetry: Contra la Ausencia. I also studied Portuguese in the Centro Cultural Brasil-Peru (Brasil-Peru Cultural Center) sponsored by the Brazilian Embassy in Peru. I got the CELPE-Bras certificate in Portuguese, and since then I haven’t stop enjoying and learning more about Brazilian culture. However, during my time as a graduate student at UF I taught Spanish only.

Once I got my PhD, I taught at Stetson University and Santa Fe College (SFC). I am still teaching at Santa Fe College since 2008 Spanish and Portuguese courses, as well as Latin American Humanities and World Humanities courses. When I started teaching at Santa Fe, I offered Santa Fe College a project I had started with the Latina Women’s League by 2006 “Cuentos en español para niños" It was a Spanish Immersion program (SIP). This was a great opportunity for me to show how we could extend the project from an institution such as Santa Fe College to our community. For our purposes at Santa Fe, I called the project “The Bilingual Storytelling Project” (the BSP). It was a great experience for my students, they were able to share the target language (Spanish) with students from different local schools, including Little School (Institution that belongs to Santa Fe College). If you want to know more about the SI program or BSP click here.

Another project I got involved with it was the Spanish Lab at Santa Fe College called Got Spanish!. I called it Got Spanish! because that’s the name I used when I started tutoring Spanish at UF while I was a Grad. TA. Our program at Santa Fe, the Spanish program, was able to get a lab for our students. The I building (1-001) became our base. This experience allowed students to practice Spanish off classroom, and at the same time I was able to introduce and share with the students other networking sites and applications for learning Spanish. We had students from Santa Fe College that started coming to the lab just to practice the language, although they were not taking Spanish courses. Their participation made me realize how many people still love learning another language for fun. Due to the demand for a place to practice Spanish I helped students to create the Spanish Club (SC). I became their mentor and they organized readings and tutorings in Spanish. Students came to share technological tools and phone applications for learning Spanish as well as to share their learning methodologies as free learners. This type of students had knowledge on Spanish already, but needs to practice more.

These and other experiences have showed me that we, as instructors, need to guide and teach students how to use all the technological tools and extracurricular activities for learning a second language (digital games, designing a fiction comic online, creating videos), using tools for programing and designing, and playing video games in the target language. We are digital immigrants, and that means we adapt to what is new. As digital immigrants, we master learning strategies and styles while digital natives (most of our students) know how to use technologies. This useful generational gap is positive for us because we master learning strategies, we are the researches while a digital native understands how technology works, but not many of them know how to get the most of it. That is our mission, to show them how to use what they have at their fingertips.

If you want to know more about me, click here

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