For Max Kivi ’22, Maple Grove, the road to a Fulbright adventure in Iquitos, Peru, started in the extracurricular Spanish language programs—the Jane Addams Project and community English as a Second Language program—at the University of Minnesota Morris.
UMN Morris Spanish teaching specialist Windy González Roberts describes Kivi as an active and enthusiastic participant in both programs, going so far as to continue to provide support for his ESL students in Morris while he was participating in a study abroad program in Peru during spring semester 2020. She calls Kivi an ambassador for UMN Morris among the Hispanic community in Morris—”someone who cares for them, who respects them, and someone who has played an important and positive role in their lives.”
Kivi’s decision to attend UMN Morris was unexpected. “I decided to do a last minute visit to Morris in December of my senior year of high school. I specifically remember turning to my mom as soon as we got back in the car after our tour and telling her that this was the school. I still don’t know exactly what it was but I instantly knew that it was the school for me.”
Kivi already had strong Spanish language skills when he arrived at UMN Morris, but he says the atmosphere and values of the teaching and Spanish programs opened new opportunities for him, including the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant program.
“I applied for the Fulbright program because I knew that I wanted to expand my linguistic abilities and I wanted to truly immerse myself in a Spanish-speaking country.”
Kivi is living and teaching English in Iquitos, the capital city of Peru’s Maynas Province and Loreto Region. It is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road that is not an island. You can only access Iquitos by water or air.
“I am working with students from third and fifth grade at the secondary level which is similar to high school freshmen and seniors. As a high school Spanish teacher, I am loving my time working with the students and am finding it to be very similar to the Spanish classroom in the United States. I am applying many activities and strategies from my Spanish classes in the U.S. and am loving seeing the other side of the language classroom.”
Kivi will teach in Iquitos until July, then he will be moving over 700 miles south to Ica, Peru to continue teaching until December.