To begin:

Hi!  I’m Keith Woodall and I am a Lecturer of Spanish at Ohio University and in a little over a month I have the privilege of leading a very special group of 28 Ohio University students to Toledo, Spain where I will teach and direct the program with the help of our Teaching Assistant, Hannah Grace Morrison, who is a student in our Master’s program.

Among our students we have several Business majors, Journalists, Photojournalists, one Pre-Dental School, one Pre-Medical School, one who is studying to be a Midwife, various people from Visual Communications, Speech Pathology, Psychology majors, one accountant and one studying Actuarial Science.  Several are enrolled in the Honors Tutorial College and all are either minoring or double-majoring in Spanish.  We are from all parts of Ohio but also have three connected to Alabama.  We come from as far east as Boston and as far west as Texas. There are eight musicians, four athletes, and twelve who have done a lot of great volunteer work in their spare time.  All are nervous and excited for the opportunity to travel to such a beautiful, historic and exotic place to study for a semester.  I am proud to be directing such a group, the best, I believe, that our University has to offer.  If Ohio University had a Seal Team Six, this would be it!

Hannah Grace and I will be arriving a couple of days early to make sure that all is ready for the most intensive, academic and cultural, life-enriching experience that any university could offer.  If this isn’t the best study-abroad program ever, I would like to see the one that is!  Big words, I know, but this group is going to accomplish a lot and I’ll be posting our achievements for the world to see.

Some of the students are also blogging and I have them linked on the right margin of this page so that everyone will have the opportunity to get a variety of perspectives on what is going on.  Stay tuned…!