TWU Alum Starts Spanish Immersion School in Mexico

Brazzell, an occupational therapist, and her friend Juli Goff, a physical therapist, left Tucson, Ariz., for La Paz, Mexico, with the dream of opening a Spanish language immersion school for medical professionals. Their dream became reality this May, with the opening of Se Habla ... La Paz Language Academy. Located on the Sea of Cortes, the school features a total immersion program that combines language curriculum, medical language, practice in a clinical setting and homestay experience in the Spanish language and culture.

According to Brazzell, the service the school provides is absolutely essential to those in the medical profession.

"There is a tremendous need for this in the United States," she says. "Therapeutic relationships between health care providers and Spanish-speaking patients, even with a translator present, are quite difficult. If you are a health care professional, chances are you are not delivering the same standard of care to those patients as you are to your English-speaking patients. On the same token, it is very likely that your Spanish-speaking patients are not able to effectively communicate to you what you need to know in order to provide them with adequate treatment."

At Se Habla ... La Paz Language Academy, sessions are typically three to four weeks in length. Students not only learn Spanish in a classroom setting with native speakers, but they also live with local Spanish-speaking families to ensure they have some genuine cultural interaction during their stay. On top of that, each student works in a hospital setting (La Paz is the medical center for all of Baja) with a native doctor who shares their particular specialty.

"Let's say the student is an eye surgeon," Brazzell says. "That surgeon would accompany an eye surgeon at the local hospital and talk to patients, doctors, etc. It's an extremely valuable experience for them because they learn the specific language components they need for their specific profession."

Originally from Maryland, Brazzell moved to the North Texas area almost 20 years ago when her then-husband was transferred by the New York-based company he worked for. Aware of the TWU School of Occupational Therapy's reputation, the mother of one jumped at the chance to finish her degree at the institution. After graduating, Brazzell moved back to New York and eventually wound up in Tucson, where she began working for Carondelet, a multi-system health care organization. However, something still nagged at Brazzell, something she'd always wanted to do.

"My dream had always been to join the Peace Corps," she says. "I'd wanted to do it ever since junior high, when I heard President Kennedy speak about it. So, when my son graduated from high school and joined the service, I said, `Hey, I can finally do it now.'"

And she did. Not only that, but Brazzell asked to be assigned to a Spanish-speaking country in the hope that she might learn how to better serve her Spanish-speaking patients in the U.S. As it turned out, she wound up in a rural health center in the mountains of northern Nicaragua, where she functioned as general health care volunteer and educator. In addition to providing training for local midwives on identifying risk factors for the women they were treating, she taught different hygiene techniques and worked with health care volunteers on how to go out and train others in the area.

Brazzell says she got what she wanted from the experience.

"When I came back to Tucson in 1996, I returned as a bilingual occupational therapist. As a result, all the Spanish-speaking patients who needed physical therapy were sent my way. I was working in a hospital rehab center at the time, and I saw everybody from infants to geriatrics, all of whom spoke chiefly Spanish."

After she returned to the States, Brazzell also began discussing a career change with Goff.

"When I got back, we talked about my experience in Nicaragua and her goal to own her own business," Brazzell says. "We started brainstorming and thought about a way in which we could not only expand on our personal and professional skills, but also fill in the gaps in so far as what we were missing in our lives."

So Brazzell and Goff compiled a list of goals, skills, ideal situations and possible business ventures, eventually settling on the idea for their school.

To date, Brazzell, Goff and their three-person staff - Fernando Ortega, administrative advisor; Antonio Reynoso, supervisor of education; and Gaby Rivera, secretary - have seen 11 students through the curriculum at Se Habla ... La Paz Language Academy. And, although they have expanded upon their original premise by also offering the program to those not in the health care field, they still believe strongly in the school's initial mission.

"For me, it all goes back to being sick when I was in Nicaragua and needing to see a doctor," Brazzell says. "That feeling of helplessness and the frustration of not being able to tell them what was wrong with me really had a profound impact - so much so that when I went back to the U.S., I realized that I hadn't been doing a good job of servicing this population or their needs."

- MICHAEL HILL

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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