HISP Student Focus, October 2023: Ms. Isa Pinchevski

HISP Student Focus, October 2023: Ms. Isa Pinchevski

HISP is proud to present its Student Focus for October of 2023, Ms. Isa Pinchevski.

A double major in both Spanish and Public Health, Isa exemplifies exactly the sort of broad ranging intellectual curiosity that is a hallmark of the sort of liberal arts education that that the College of Charleston strives to provide its undergraduates.

On the side of the arts and letters, since arriving on campus, Ms. Pinchevski has involved herself in clubs and activities such as the Club de lectura (a Hispanic Studies sponsored Spanish language book club in which students get to read and discuss—for the pure pleasure of doing so!—works of literature with their peers and HISP faculty); on that of the sciences, she is a member of the Public Health Society and has spent time shadowing medical personnel in the E.R.

Related to the above, Isa–whose path has led her from Caracas, Venezuela to Charleston, South Carolina, by way of Florida– is an active member of Hispanic Studies Spanish Heritage Language Distinction (SHLD) Program, as well as a regular attendee at SHLD’s ever-popular Hora de la limonada, routinely hosted by HISP’s own, Dr. Silvia Rodríguez Sabater.

In her own words…

“[Upon arriving at the College of Charleston] I knew I wanted to pursue a career in the health field, so I chose to be a Public Health major. To my surprise, I later found an in-depth interest in deepening my understanding of Spanish and Spanish culture and found myself pursuing a Spanish major.

Coming from a Spanish background, I had interest in learning more about my heritage and [language], so I considered pursuing a Spanish minor. Upon speaking to my academic advisor, she agreed this would be a great idea, so that was when I took the first step into declaring Spanish as my minor.

Since I am a native speaker, I took some placement tests to see what classes I could place into and I placed into SPAN 312 with Dra. Sabater […].  Although I am proficient in Spanish, I realized I was lacking some grammar and literature skills, as well as knowledge of different Hispanic cultures. This piqued my interest in wanting to learn more. In addition, I also realized that Spanish is slowly becoming a second language in the United States and that I can use my roots to help my community in the health field.

After taking SPAN 312 with Dra. Sabater I spoke to her about how I was only a Spanish minor and she gave me the idea to become a Spanish major. Thanks to her I declared […]. Hopefully in the future I am able to pursue a career in the health field as well as [within] the Spanish community.”