Assistant Professor of Spanish, Eastern Michigan University

Since graduating from Hillsdale College, I completed a master’s degree at Michigan State University, then I lived in New Orleans while pursuing a Ph.D. in Spanish at Tulane University. My first full-time faculty position was with Emory & Henry College in Virginia. In fall 2005, I returned to Michigan to work as a Spanish faculty member at Eastern Michigan University (my parents’ alma mater). I have two children, Kelly and Johnson, and recently celebrated 13 happy years of marriage! Every summer, I take a group of my own students on a study/travel tour of Spain or Mexico; I’ve also volunteered for mission work in Mexico. I have a perfect job—every year, I celebrate my students’ successes and have the opportunity to recall my own college experience!

At Hillsdale College, I learned to appreciate a vast cultural heritage by studying a wide array of material from many different disciplines. My Spanish classes taught me how to express myself in another language and to broaden my view of literature. Philosophy courses taught me to question and wonder. In my biology and psychology classes, I learned a new system of thought. The most important lesson for me is that the world is limitless, and every subject relates to another on some level. I will forever be grateful to Hillsdale College for my true liberal arts training. An important part of my time at Hillsdale was actually spent in another country! I lived abroad in Seville, Spain, for a year, and developed a lifelong commitment to Hispanic culture and the Spanish language.

Find your passion and pursue it with dedication. Consider everything until you find THE thing that captivates you.

As a high school senior living in Dale City, Virginia, I was considering what a variety of colleges had to offer. I contacted Hillsdale College because my uncle was a graduate, and it was located close to everyone in my extended family. I chose Hillsdale for the broad-based liberal arts education that would ground my studies before specializing later. I was also impressed that a college of its size had five faculty members in Spanish, and a well-established program abroad in Seville, Spain! Studying at Hillsdale was a homecoming of sorts for me, because it brought me closer to my grandparents.

The Spanish faculty members worked with me on a personal basis; they gave me the tools I needed to advance in the Spanish language until I could comprehend literature and reflect meaningfully on what I read. The hours of one-on-one conversations about poems, novels and short stories all shaped my skill and interest in the field of Latin American literature.

I’m torn between the Spanish classes on campus (with Dr. Rick, Dr. Cousino, Dr. Wyatt-Hayes, Dr. Puvogel, and Professor Grillo), and my time spent abroad—both were wonderful! I also have to comment on the social life. At Hillsdale, I met lifelong friends and now have great memories of fun, crazy times.

dmihaly@earthlink.net