Who are we?

Alejandro Figueroa is a native Spanish speaker born and raised in Honduras (and Venezuela, and Brazil!) with a Ph.D. in anthropology and archaeology. Whitney Goodwin is a bilingual fluent Spanish speaker with a Ph.D. in anthropology and archaeology who has traveled to and worked throughout Latin America (Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize) for over 20 years.

We are both anthropologists, and part of our passion continues to be outreach work with children, particularly in teaching them about the work we do to understand people in the present and the past. We have extensive experience in offering culturally-rich learning experiences to children of all ages. You may have seen us running hands-on exhibits at events like the Columbia Young Scientists Expo, Art in the Park, or the CCUA Harvest Hootenanny!

The idea for CóMo Estás grew from our desire to help children, including our own two young children, to not only learn Spanish, but to gain confidence in using it—whether they’re absolute beginners or building on what they already know. We believe that language learning should be joyful, creative, and rooted in culture. Because of our deep familiarity with Latin American cultures and long experience as educators and parents, we believe we are ideally suited to offering immersive and engaging Spanish enrichment classes to the children of Columbia.