As exam season kicks in, many students feel absolutely immersed in their studies. For students in the Latin American Studies Semester (LASS), however, that has been the case all spring long.

LASS is an immersive language-learning semester meant to accelerate students' comfort and fluency with the Spanish language. From day one, all courses in the program (totaling 18 credits) are taught and spoken entirely in Spanish. The only prerequisite is one semester of university-level Spanish, and students of all levels are welcome and encouraged to take part.

The semester culminates in a three-week trip to a Latin American country, where students live with a host family, take courses and experience life and culture in a new country. This year's trip was to Peru, where students spent time in the capital of Lima, explored the historic village of Cusco and even visited Machu Picchu. We had the opportunity to talk to five students from this year's program about their time in Peru and growth over the intensive semester.

What made you decide to take on a LASS semester?

Abby Alderama (Junior, Advertising Major): I always planned on going abroad in my junior year. I was searching for external programs, and none of them stuck because the process is a little harder than doing something internally with Temple. With LASS, I could still get that study abroad experience in a Spanish-speaking country, and between the cost and being able to stay in Philly most of the semester to work and see my friends, it seemed like a really good compromise.

Liam Silva (Freshman, Sociology/Spanish Double Major): I had only taken one Spanish class in the fall before the LASS semester. I would like to have Spanish as one of my majors, but I didn't want to spend several semesters stuck in lower-level coursework. Given that, LASS seemed like a great fit for me to fast-track acquiring the language, and I was right!

I love the idea of studying abroad, but as a working student, I never thought I'd be able to do it. LASS is different from many other study abroad programs in that, while we had language immersion the entire semester, we were only abroad for about three weeks, which was as much as I could consider doing and still keep up with bills.

Language immersion is a major component of the program — how did that impact your growth as a Spanish speaker? Particularly on the trip, were you ever overwhelmed?

Maddie DePiano (Sophomore, Economics/History Major): I'll admit, even after the first few weeks of classes on campus, I wondered what I was getting myself into. We meet for almost four hours a day, entirely in Spanish, so by Thursday, my head would be hurting a little bit. But that definitely helped prepare me for the trip. In Peru, my host family didn't speak much English at all. It was all Spanish, all day, but I think all of us got used to it. Sometimes it became easier to just continue speaking in Spanish than try switching back to English.

Amber Bowman (Junior, Political Science/Global Studies Major): My Spanish was mediocre at best. I knew basic grammatical structures, but I was not conversational at all before LASS. When you're forced to fully immerse yourself in a language, it's just so rewarding. Seeing your growth, seeing your progress, and being able to talk to people and have them understand you, even if you make mistakes, is such an incredible experience. 

Francesca Tweedy (Sophomore, Spanish Major): I think that my skills are pretty strong, but I lacked a lot of that confidence. Something that's really difficult when you're learning another language is having the confidence to fully speak that language, even if you might make a mistake. That was something I was always worried about — making a mistake and being embarrassed or having someone switch to English when they're talking to me.

Having all of your classes be in Spanish all the time, you're really forced to find a way to speak that language. We're not allowed to speak English in class, and if we did speak English, our professors would tell us to switch to Spanish or pretend they couldn't understand us. That helped me learn to problem-solve and find a way to say what I want to say in Spanish, even if it wasn't perfect.

What was your favorite part of the Peru trip? Was there anything that surprised you? 

Amber: It's really hard for me to choose one thing! This trip was my first time out of the country and my first time away from the East Coast, really, so it was a total culture shock. We went on so many different excursions. Every single day, we were at a new museum, a new historical site, a different community engaging with Spanish-speaking kids our age, or even in a cooking class — it was insane how many different things we did. The whole experience was so eye-opening for me, and so, in general, my head kind of exploded when we were in Peru.

Abby: One of my favorite memories was going to La Candelaria, which was an event space in Barranco. There was a dinner, and they performed traditional dances, but then they would open up the dance floor. It was funny to see everyone all dressed up letting loose together — all of us can remember when Professor Fernando (Fonseca Pacheco, Assistant Professor and LASS Director) started getting down on the dance floor.

Maddie: My favorite part was probably just living in Lima. We were there for over two weeks, so there was time to develop a real routine there: going to class, eating with my host family, going to the beach and exploring different parts of Lima. We were always meeting and speaking in Spanish with locals, like shop owners or other patrons at restaurants.

Liam: I think my favorite part was getting to practice jiu-jitsu at a gym in Lima in my free time. I got to develop my confidence in meeting and talking to people and connect with others doing what I love, which helped me feel more comfortable while we were there.

Francesca: The friendship that developed between everyone in the program was really cool. To be honest, I thought we'd all just be ordinary classmates, but we all really did end up becoming close. That was a really special outcome of LASS that I wasn't expecting.

What was it like visiting Machu Picchu?

Maddie: It was amazing. We learned a lot from our tour guide, theories about why it was built and things like that. But we were just standing there thinking, "It doesn't even look real." It's so beautiful.

Abby: That was something I'll remember for the rest of my life: scaling the scary mountain in a bus, doing the hike, seeing the ruins and the incredible landscape. We even witnessed a double rainbow! It felt like a sign that we were supposed there at that time.

Now that you've had the experience, what would you say to a student who's considering the LASS program but is still on the fence?

Maddie: It's a really great way to jump-start your fluency in Spanish. For anyone who's worried about their Spanish not being good enough for the trip, there are people of all levels. Most of us weren't Spanish majors, and some were beginners who had only taken a class or two.

Francesca: I think traveling and leaving the place you know is such an important thing to do. Living in the US, we have this idea about Latin America as a homogeneous region. But if you actually go there, it's really eye-opening. There are so many diverse bioregions, climates, and cultures just within Peru. It's not something that you can read about, you really have to be able to go there to see and understand something like that. And the professors are so amazing. They care so much about what they're teaching, and they really have your back and want to see you succeed.

Abby: With any study abroad experience, any immersive experience, the whole point is for you to get out of your comfort zone. That's what I had wanted to get out of my study abroad experience: learning a new language, traveling to a new country, experiencing a new culture, and just being in a class with the same people every day. Like Francesca mentioned earlier, I never would have become friends with some of the people in class without this program, and I would never have experienced the things that I did without LASS. 

Check out some amazing pictures from their journey!