Jennifer Rock
Spanish teacher Fernando Oleas is giving back to his community what he feels was given to him.
Oleas switched from part to full-time teaching during the 2005 winter semester. The 41 year-old Spanish teacher also organizes activities such as the open readings.
At a Read-a-thon, Feb. 22, poems were read for the month of February which Oleas refers to as “the month of love.” Poems from Hispanic writer Pablo Neruda were presented in English as well as Spanish
“We read poems in Spanish and any other language to project the sensibility that is lost in this new age…Neruda manages to evoke this,” Oleas said as Randy Mallery, 41, read Sonnet 40 from “A Hundred Love Songs” by Neruda.
Among others who read was an 8-year-old boy. He read in Spanish and English according to Oleas.
Last semester, Oleas put together a Read-a-thon where students read Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes in the same place, in front of the Pierce library–all day.
“I call this space, this interaction ‘MySpace’,” Oleas said. “It gives students something rarely given today; an idea of human community surrounding art.”
Oleas, born in Ecuador in 1964, moved and grew up in Columbia since the age of 9. In 1987 Oleas came to America to pursue education.
He seeks to inspire students to be active in their communities.
The first college he attended was Los Angeles City College in 1989. From there, Oleas reached University of California Los Angeles where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degree and became a teaching assistant and associate.
Oleas also took his education abroad, spending a year in Italy, two years in Geneva and a year in France. Currently, The UCLA committee is reading the dissertation for his Ph.D.
His first teaching experience began at UCLA where he taught Spanish civilization, history and literature survey classes for six years.
Before becoming a teacher, Oleas taught part-time at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, UCLA and Pierce during the year of 2004. After eight years of teaching, Oleas is enjoying his full-time position at Pierce.
“I would love to give back to my community college what it gave to me,” said Oleas.
One of Oleas’s current Spanish students, Heather Basra is enthusiastic about her enrollment in Spanish 2.
“So far I like it. He only speaks in Spanish for Spanish 2 and it makes you feel like you’re really in the language,” she said.