Delanie Miller
Accountancy, B.B.A
Spanish Minor
Nonprofit Management Minor
Boise, ID
Pursuing a Spanish minor created the opportunity for my career in nonprofit accounting to expand internationally. Just a few months after graduation, I was given the opportunity to take a trip to Tehuacán, Mexico, with the Loveland Rotary Club. They were visiting their sister club, el Club Rotario de Tehuacán Manantiales, and while I am not a rotarian, my connection to members in the club and my academic background earned me the invitation to tag along. This would be the first time I had ever visited a Spanish speaking country. It was an opportunity for me to explore many nonprofit efforts that the two clubs had paired together to develop and fund in Mexico. These nonprofit projects included an organization supporting water sustainability for families in agriculture, a school that serves children with special needs, and a dental clinic that serves children who can’t afford dental services.
In my time there, I learned about how nonprofit organizations are built and sustained in Mexico, practiced my Spanish with native speakers, and explored different aspects of Mexican culture in the comfort of such wonderful hospitality. My background in Spanish from BSU not only became the basis for going on this trip, but also enriched my experience there because I was able to communicate and to learn in ways not possible if I didn’t understand their language. I developed relationships that will last a lifetime and opened a continuous dialogue with particular members of the Tehuacán Rotary Club on the nonprofit world in Mexico and how we can come together internationally to support communities all over the world.
Shortly after my time in Mexico I was hired at Jitasa, a company that offers bookkeeping and accounting services exclusively to nonprofit organizations worldwide. I know my Spanish minor and my passion for learning about different cultures and languages appeared to be a great quality in me as a potential employee, considering their global scale.
I was asked many times while on my trip where I learned my Spanish. People were always shocked to hear that it came solely from school, assuming that my fluency had to have come from spending some time in a Spanish speaking country… The World Languages Department must be doing something right!!