Careers

Our alumni go on to build meaningful careers across industries, from law and education to international development and public service. Explore how studying Spanish at UVM helps students turn language skills into real-world opportunities.

My time studying Spanish not only opened new worlds to me but made my current one so much more interesting. I feel very proud to have been a Spanish major at UVM and to apply the creative and analytical skills I learned in my career as an attorney.
Mary Petronio, Class of 2017
Associate, Verrill Dana LLP
Graduate, Northeastern School of Law

Where Our Graduates Go

Emma Hayday, ’23

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Double Major in Spanish and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies

Emma writes: “Growing up, I always dreamed about traveling the world respectfully. One goal in that process was learning a language and all about the cultures that utilize it. After taking Spanish classes at UVM such as Race, Identity and Migrant Labor, and Women and Activism in the Americas, I knew it was aligned with my values and declared the major. The professors are dedicated and consistently offer new and exciting courses, which aptly prepared me for a semester abroad in Oaxaca, Mexico. Weeks after I graduated, the Director of the Spanish Program sent an email out with the link to apply to the job I have now, as a third-grade Spanish Immersion teacher in a nearby elementary school. I am so grateful to 19-year-old me, who followed her heart to the success I have achieved by choosing to study Spanish at UVM.”

Sean Cray, ’18

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Double Major in Spanish and Political Science

Sean is working for the Urban Teachers program in Baltimore, which is affiliated with Johns Hopkins School of Education. He has been assigned to teach at the elementary school level, and will also receive training on how to be a special education teacher. En route, he will receive his master's degree in elementary education/special education and a teaching license. He will likely be assigned to a school that has Spanish speakers because he can speak Spanish.

Raymond Ki, ’10

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Double Major in Spanish and Psychology

After graduating from UVM, Raymond served in the Peace Corps in the Philippines, where he taught English as a Second Language (ESL) for two years, mostly to 7th and 8th grade students. While there, he founded his Filipino [public] high school's English Club and learned to speak Tagalog at an intermediate level. After returning to the U.S.A., he enrolled at the Boston Academy of English where he received a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate. Then, for a year and a half, Raymond studied at Boston University and graduated with a Master of Arts in Teaching Modern Foreign Language Education; his student teaching was done at Boston Green Academy, a Boston Public School. Afterward, he taught Spanish and ESL at CATS Academy Boston, a private boarding high school for international students. For the last few years, Raymond has been teaching introductory Spanish to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students at Framingham Public Schools in Massachusetts.

If you are an alum of our program, we would love to hear where you've been and where you're going. Please email the Director of the School of World Languages and Cultures, Joseph Acquisto (Joseph.Acquisto@uvm.edu), to have your story included.