A Bit About Me and Why I Decided to Teach in Spain

Hello and welcome! My name is Katie Mayock and I’m very excited to share with you my experience living and teaching in Spain this upcoming year through this page. I depart for Madrid at the end of the week, so to kick off the blog I wanted to share a little bit about myself and why I decided to teach in Spain.

First, a little bit about me. I’m 22 years old and I’m from Berwyn, Pennsylvania, located in the Philadelphia suburbs. I graduated from Saint Joseph's University in May of 2022 with bachelor’s degrees in Business Intelligence & Analytics and Spanish. I also was a four-year member of the women’s basketball team at SJU. 

I’ve retired from basketball now, but I still love to play sports, walk and run to stay active. I’m a huge foodie and can’t wait to check out the Spanish food scene and hopefully learn how to cook some of it for myself. I also love to read and write (hence why I applied to be a CIEE blogger). Lastly, I love to travel and am planning to see and experience as many new places as I can throughout the year.

Speaking of travel, I spent three weeks traveling throughout Spain during the summer of 2019 and have been impatiently waiting for my chance to go back to Spain ever since. I knew that chance likely wouldn’t be until after college, however, because of my basketball commitments (and then the coronavirus pandemic). Teaching in Spain was the perfect means to experience life abroad and immerse myself in the Spanish language, all while gaining valuable work experience. My ultimate goal for the year is to become fluent in Spanish. 

With that goal in mind, I chose the Immersion + 4 weeks of Spanish program to fully immerse myself in the language and to best prepare myself to navigate life in Spain. Once the immersion concludes, I will be teaching at both a preschool and elementary school in Mirasierra, which is located north of the Madrid city center, in the Fuencarral-El Pardo district.

I’d love for you to follow along my year living and working in Spain! Come back here for stories, insight and advice on living abroad and working as an auxiliar in the Community of Madrid.