# data[].attributes.body
Both of my parents were born in Indiana. They both attended college- my mom got her architecture degree, and my father got his in business management. They both spoke English. My family on both sides were primarily born in the US and are native English speakers.

# data[].attributes.headline
Italian background/ Mom's side of family 

# data[].attributes.subject
Italian background/ Mom's side of family 

# data[].attributes.body
My mother was adopted by her father when she was 3. My grandfather, Al, was born in Italy. He came to the US as a child and spoke no English. He passed when I was 2, so I did not know him well. Growing up, and now, my family from his side incorporates some Italian into our conversations. I know some vocabulary in Italian. Ciao, Grazi, Capicio, Ti Amo.

While I heard some of this Italian language at family events, unfortunately, it was never consistent within my family or kept up with. I always remember thinking how neat and beautiful the Italian language sounded, though, as a child and now still.

# data[].attributes.body
I took Spanish all four years of high school. I started taking the advanced Spanish classes my junior year. Going into college, I had some of the Spanish basics learned and that helped me jump ahead in these classes. My Spanish class was very interactive in our lessons. We would only be able to speak Spanish while in the class room. Same with asking any kind of questions. I think this helped us progress our Spanish much more than just taking tests and doing homework. I remember we also took a field trip to the Spanish market in this class. We all got to order our own food, speaking Spanish. This experience in high school was great!

My high school was in North Olmsted. I will discuss in the "Living" section on here why-but we also had an Arabic speaking class and many students who could speak Arabic. This was neat to be surrounded by because I know many schools that only offer Spanish or French for their language requirements.

# data[].attributes.body
Undergrad: I did not complete any language-specific course throughout my undergraduate experience. I went to Bowling Green State University. However, I took a "Music Around the World" course. In this class, we learned about the different types of music from different cultures worldwide. For each new culture, we would listen and sing songs in whatever language of what we were learning about. This class was an elective, but I enjoyed it greatly and feel it greatly expanded my horizons on culture and language.

Post Bachelor's/Grad School:

I am currently attending Cleveland State University. I am in my second semester back at school and am working to obtain my teaching license, Intervention Specialist license, and TESOL endorsement. This class, Applied Linguistics, has been a great experience in learning more about teaching English as a second language. I have learned much from my peers about their backgrounds in different languages and how they compare to native English speakers. I will use much of what I learned about language here in my future teaching career!

# data[].attributes.body
When I was 10, my Dad took us on a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with our step family. I stayed for a week. This was another one of those times where I looked greatly up to my step mom and her ability to speak Spanish. I can remember that by the end of the trip, I was able to greet everybody in Spanish, order in Spanish and have basic conversations. It was really neat to be able to go here and be surrounded by the language of Spanish.

# data[].attributes.body
During my senior year of undergrad, I completed an internship at the Ronald McDonald House in Toledo. One of my projects here was translating all of our programs and information for families into different languages. The Ronald McDonald charity has many locations all over the world. This charity provides a home for families of sick children. Ours specifically was tied with Promedica children's hospital. While I was an intern here, we had Spanish speaking families and there was one family who had come from Kenya. Our goal at this house was to help families during our during very hard times of a family member being sick. I was able to translate all of our information packets and what not to Spanish and at this time, Swahili. I did not pick up any of this language, but I learned a great lesson from it. Language is a huge factor in connecting with others, making them feel welcomed, seen, heard. It felt like I was doing something so little for families who were going through such a hardship, but it made the world's difference to be able to connect with them despite speaking different languages.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
North Olmsted Prom. (I am first on left, Samer with glasses in the middle:) )

# data[].attributes.body
As previously mentioned, I went to North Olmsted High School. I lived in North Olmsted from when I was 13 to age 20. North Olmsted has a large population of Middle Eastern people. I knew many of my friends who spoke Arabic, and their families spoke only Arabic. My best friend, Samer, was from Lebanon. He also had been to Egypt a ton as a child. He moved here as a young child; I met him in high school. Samer's mom spoke mostly Arabic. I always thought it was cool being mid-conversation with Samer, and his mom would call, and he could switch to speaking fully Arabic right away. This went for many of my peers in high school, but Samer is the greatest example I could think of. He passed away in 2018 from cancer. His "funeral" was held quickly after at the Islamic Center of Cleveland. It changed my life, having to experience his death and burial. It was beautiful to hear and see how the Muslim community honored his life and death. Our community of North Olmsted came together and honored him many times with different ceremonies and different languages, all for our friend. The Muslim and Arabic presence in North Olmsted alone has taught me so much through their culture and their language.

# data[].attributes.body
I lived in North West Indiana from birth to age 12. We lived about 30 minutes from Chicago. Moving to Ohio, I am constantly told I have an "accent". This always sounded funny to me because I started to learn about subtle differences I have when speaking just from being a state away- but both being in the midwest. The biggest example I can think here is how I pronounce my "a" and "o" sounds. I say doll like "dawl" or towel like "tah-wel". I personally could never notice a difference in what would call an "Ohio"/"midwestern" accent.

# data[].attributes.body
My mother remarried as I entered high school. My step-family on this side was Lebanese. My step-grandparents, especially my step-papa, spoke English but with a heavy accent. He had come from Lebanon as a child. When I met this part of my family. I was surrounded by more cultures than I had ever known. My papa taught me some French, as he was a high school French teacher throughout his adult life. He also spoke Lebanese occasionally. The greatest thing I learned about the Lebanese culture was respect. When Papa died, a lot of his family came from Lebanon. None of them spoke English, but they were still some of the most welcoming, kind-hearted people I have ever met. It truly was an honor to be submerged in my step Papa's Lebanese culture and different language throughout the few years I knew him.

# data[].attributes.body
My father remarried when I was 12 to my step mother. My step mom is Mexican and Italian. She spoke English mainly, but was bilingual in Spanish. I quickly picked up on more Spanish than I thought I could. I would ask her how to say things in Spanish or listen to her speak Spanish with her family members. When we went to her side of the family's gathering, they all spoke Spanish and little English. This also guided me to learn more Spanish starting at age 12.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Grandma, Sister and I at BTS concert 2022

# data[].attributes.body
My Grandmother, pictured in the middle, has introduced me to the world of Korean entertainment. This always makes people laugh a bit. During covid (2020) , she came across K dramas on her facebook video highlights. From these K dramas, she found herself interested in Kpop, Korea pop music. The biggest interest being BTS! She introduced me to these things as well. We to this day enjoy watching K dramas. They are completely spoken in Korean and we turn on the English subtitles. This goes for the K pop music as well. She invited my sister and I in Spring of 2022 to go to Las Vegas to a BTS concert. It was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced! The fan base was so diverse and I was surrounded by many different cultures with people from all around the world to see BTS, especially people from Korea! I was excited to experience something that was so diverse. Within the past few years, I have learned almost all of the BTS songs that are sung in Korean, same with my grandmother and sister. We enjoy looking up the translations to their music and it has been a great introduction to the Korean language for us.