College Tips

Graduating senior reflects on the unexpected moments that led her to a career dream

For Kaleigh Kunkel, the path toward becoming a future Spanish professor wasn’t shaped by a single decision. It was built through a series of moments throughout life — some small, some overwhelming — that gradually pointed her toward a future she now feels deeply passionate about: sharing her love of language and culture with others. 

Moment one: a song that stuck 

Kunkel’s first memory of Spanish is a song. 

In preschool, her teacher, Ms. Mariandine from Peru, had the class moving around the room, singing as they greeted one another with fist bumps and high fives. 

“Buenos días. Buenas tardes. Buenas noches,” they sang in unison. 

The rhythm stayed with her long after class ended. She remembers walking the hallways, still singing and remembering every word. 

Something about the language clicked early. It just felt natural. 

Moment two: all eyes on her

By middle school, that early spark had turned into something more. 

Kunkel moved quickly through her Spanish assignments, often finishing ahead of her classmates. Her teachers began asking if she could help others. 

Then one day in eighth grade, everything shifted. 

Her teacher was gone. The substitute didn’t understand the lesson plan. And suddenly, the entire class turned and pointed at Kunkel. 

All eyes were on her. 

Her stomach dropped. 

“I’m like, no—you guys I don’t know what I'm doing,” she recalls. “I was so overwhelmed.” 

Still, she walked to the front of the room. 

Her heart pounded as she picked up the teacher’s notes and read the first question aloud. The room was quiet at first. So she adjusted — splitting the class into groups, encouraging discussion and guiding them through the lesson. 

They made it through all 45 minutes. 

It went better than she expected. 

“To me, that felt natural. It felt good,” she says. 

It wouldn’t be the last time she felt that way. 

Moment three: the wrong fit

When Kunkel arrived at college, she had a different plan. 

She loved watching sports with her dad on TV —analyzing plays from the couch, a bowl of popcorn between them. She imagined herself one day on a sports panel, breaking down games for a broadcast audience.  

So she pursued sports communication at UW-La Crosse and landed an internship covering UWL basketball as a media intern her sophomore year. 

But the reality didn’t match the vision. 

Instead, she spent late nights glued to her computer screen with emails, social media posts, graphics, video clips and constant deadlines. She was always working—but rarely watching the game. 

“I would dread going sometimes,” she says. “I was exhausted. It just wasn’t natural for me.” 

The realization came into focus during a Global Cultures & Languages advising day her junior year. 

As she tried to explain to an advisor how Spanish might fit into a sports broadcasting career, something felt off. The words left her mouth, but they carried no energy behind them. The more she talked, the less convinced she sounded — even to herself. 

That’s when advisor Antonio Martín Gómez asked a simple question: Had she ever considered teaching? Or graduate school? 

She hadn’t. 

But for the first time, she started to. 

Moment four: Granada, Spain

That possibility became something real in Granada, Spain the summer after her junior year. 

Kunkel studied abroad with Associate Professor Victoria Calmes, a mentor who had long encouraged her to keep exploring her natural aptitude and love for Spanish. 

One day, sitting on a cobblestone ledge overlooking the Alhambra in the city in southern Spain, everything came into focus. 

The sun was casting a golden glow over the medieval palace. A warm breeze moved through the air. She was still for a long time. 

She realized she was exactly where she was supposed to be — immersed in a new culture and speaking Spanish constantly. She was learning in a way that made her feel alive. 

“I felt like the most authentic version of myself,” she says. “It was a wake-up call.” 

She even had her first dream in Spanish that night. “When you dream in Spanish, you’ve reached a different level,” Professor Calmes had told her. 

More than anything, the experience made one thing clear: She wasn’t done learning Spanish. 

On the drive home from the airport, Kunkel told her family she wanted to become a Spanish professor. 

And this time, when the words left her mouth, they felt full of energy. She kept talking — about teaching, about Spanish culture, about language and everything she wanted to explore and share. 

“I couldn’t stop talking about it,” she says. “That’s how much I love it.” 

For the first time, the future didn’t feel uncertain — it felt exciting. 

Moment five: turning curiosity into research

That excitement turned into action. 

In a Capstone Communications course her senior year, Kunkel began researching how students learn language and culture—inside classrooms, through study abroad, and with digital tools like Duolingo and other platforms. 

She interviewed 14 students studying languages ranging from Spanish to Chinese, looking for patterns in how people build fluency and cultural understanding. 

Her findings were clear: students crave real interaction and face-to-face learning. They want cultural immersion — even when it’s uncomfortable. 

That discomfort, she found, often leads to the greatest growth in confidence and proficiency. 

Blending her Spanish and Communication Studies backgrounds, Kunkel is now exploring how media, film and technology shape cultural connection—work she plans to continue in graduate school. 

Kunkel’s specific area of research led to being accepted into a master’s-to-Ph.D. program in Spanish at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she’ll continue studying language, culture and communication next fall. 

Her long-term goal is clear: To return to UWL to teach. 

“This place is my second home,” she says. “It’s where I was inspired as a student—and where I hope to inspire others.”