A group of 18 Spanish language students along with three faculty advisors traveled to Spain for educational immersion March 24 to April 10.

Participants spent their first weekend in Madrid before attending Aula Toledo, a Spanish language institute, in Toledo.

“I think the teachers were very good in both institutes,” Adin Ring ’18 said. “They really helped facilitate my learning of Spanish. We were in school for a lot of hours, so that helped us.”

The group then traveled to Cordoba and spent a week in Granada. They attended Escuela Montalbán, another Spanish language institute, and stayed with local families. The trip ended in Barcelona.

Students visited famous Spanish landmarks, such as La Alhambra in Granada and El Prado in Madrid.

The trip occurred just days after terrorist attacks in Brussels, leading to safety concerns for all school-sponsored trips to Europe during spring break.

“As you know, we just had the bombings in Brussels,” Spanish teacher Javier Zaragoza said. “So, that made us coordinate things. I had already planned the trip to make it as safe as possible. We have been having problems throughout the last decade. Since 9/11 we’ve taken absolute precautions on all of our trips, especially trips I’ve been involved in. It’s just part of the situation. Safety was already there.”

Students felt as though they strengthened relationships with one another or learned something new about themselves, Michelle Seung ’18 said.

“I saw tremendous progress in the kids,” Zaragoza said. “I saw them confront their challenges in the classroom in Spain.”