Student ambassadors from the World Languages and Cultures (WLC) department hosted a trivia night Wednesday in Pearson Hall, featuring free food and drinks available to all students.
Throughout the evening, attendees were quizzed on their knowledge of geography, national flags, cultural facts and more, with winners of each round receiving a “goody bag” of candy to take home.
Currently, Iowa State offers courses through WLC in nine different languages. According to the WLC’s website, this includes “coursework in American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Latin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.”
The event was organized by a group of students known as WLC Ambassadors, which is composed of peer-mentoring students from different departments within WLC. According to the website, it was “developed out of a need for students to hear from their peers and for potential students to learn more from current ISU students who’ve had a variety of college experiences.”
Rachel Hellman, a senior studying anthropology and Spanish and president of the anthropology club, has been a WLC anthropology ambassador for two years. She shared that, during her time as an ambassador, many students asked questions about paying for a study abroad trip.
“It’s a lot of financial aid and scholarship [questions],” Hellman said. “That’s probably our biggest [question].”
While it’s not a requirement to be an ambassador, Hellman said it is preferred for those who take the position to have studied abroad previously. She said she has studied abroad in Spain and Ireland and shared her experience with living in the moment while in Spain.
“The value of putting your anxieties aside, as difficult as that may be… and being open to anything that you can learn,” Hellman said. “For example, I had a host mom and she was so amazing, but also so terrifying as this old Spanish señora. But it was so much fun to just sit with her and chat and get to know her.”
Meghan Agnew, a senior studying linguistics, Spanish and international studies, has also been an ambassador for two years. Agnew said she has studied abroad three separate times, featuring trips to Trieste, Casid and Valencia, Spain throughout her college career. She said that during her first trip to Spain, she felt a bit overwhelmed by the switch from English to Spanish but soon got used to it.
Agnew said the biggest culture shock she had was the “slower pace” in Spain.
“It’s not so go go go all the time,” Agnew said. “Siesta is actually a thing that they do during the day, which was awesome.”
Agnew said her experience as a WLC ambassador has allowed her to meet new people and create connections with faculty.
Jazmin Chavez, a senior studying business management, Spanish and international studies, has been a WLC ambassador for three years and has studied abroad four times. Chavez said she has been on trips to Spain, Italy, Paris and recently got back from Costa Rica. She shared that she grew up speaking Spanish, which helped her when studying abroad in Spain.
“I wanted to go to another Spanish-speaking country,” Chavez said. “So Spain was pretty easy and it was like the biggest ISU [study abroad] program.”
During her time as an ambassador, Chavez said she has gained experiences she otherwise wouldn’t have had.
“You get to know a lot of really cool people that I probably wouldn’t have known without doing the program,” Chavez said.
Rivers Ludvicek, a senior studying history, anthropology and Spanish, has been an ambassador for one year. He has studied abroad in Belize and plans to study abroad in Peru over the summer.
Ludvicek said that, as a WLC ambassador, he has gotten to organize different events for the group. One such event was a “Hot Ones” question-and-answer event in March, where WLC faculty were asked questions while eating hot wings in an homage to the popular series by Sean Evans.
“We got a bunch of professors that we all really like,” Ludvicek said. “I was really amped up about doing that… I’m really glad that I got to see that through.”
Since Ludvicek will be the only remaining ambassador when fall rolls around, he encouraged other students to apply to be a WLC Ambassador next semester.
“It’s super fun,” Ludvicek said. “It’s a great way to get involved with WLC. It’s a great way to get to know people a lot better and form a lot more friendly relations with faculty.”
The deadline for ambassador applications is Friday. For more information, visit the WLC Instagram.
