“My main motivation to start this program is to expose my students to the benefits of spending time immersed in a foreign country. I was lucky to do that as a teenager and those experiences have shaped who I am and opened numerous doors in my professional career.”
Dr. Pablo Montoro Alonso
I was born and raised in Salamanca, Spain. I began learning languages since I was young and I was fortunate to spend multiple summers studying languages in England, Ireland, Canada and Austria. I attended Universidad de Salamanca for my undergraduate studies in History and my Masters in teaching Spanish as a foreign language. After two years of teaching Spanish in Salamanca I decided to come to the United States and experience life on this side of the ocean. I found a new home in Pomfret, CT and I have been living and working here since 2007. I am currently serving as the World Languages Department Chair at Pomfret School, where I also teach Spanish at the high school level. In my 16 years working here at Pomfret I have led 4 trips with students to Spain, one to Costa Rica and one to Chile. In 2019 I completed my PhD Cum Laude on Advanced Research in Spanish Language and Literature at the Universidad de Salamanca, an institution that in 2018 celebrated its 800th anniversary.
Charity McClure, FNP-C
Although I am a family nurse practitioner by trade, travel has always been my passion. As an undergraduate student, I spent a semester in Granada, Spain, which was one of the most formative experiences of my life. My time in Spain sparked a life-long curiosity in the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. Since then, I have traveled extensively through South and Central America, including medical mission trips to El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Haiti. Studying abroad in Spain gave me the confidence and language skills to be a life-long learner and adventurer. Whether hiking the Inca Trail en route to Machu Picchu, scuba diving in El Jardin de la Reina, Cuba, scaling the temples of Tikal in Guatemala, camping in the salt flats of Bolivia or taking classes as an adult in Salamanca, each one of these trips happened because of my first experience abroad in Spain.
“I am thrilled to be able to bring students to Salamanca and get them started on a life of adventure and learning.”