After spending a gap year working and studying in Spain, Abigail Guertler is helping students pursue their passion for foreign language

Kingston, R.I. – Oct. 23, 2026 – First-year student Abigail Guertler made such a great first impression on Spanish professor Susana de los Heros that she immediately tasked Guertler with reviving one of the University of Rhode Island’s dormant student clubs.

The Spanish Tertulia Club – open to all students at URI who want to practice their Spanish-speaking skills or learn more about the culture – is now under the watchful guidance of the 19-year-old Barrington, RI, native, who enrolled at URI this semester following a gap year in Spain working as an au pair.

Having Guertler revive the tertulia club made perfect sense; growing up with an Ecuadorian mother and an American father, Guertler learned Spanish from her mother and spent the gap year overseas to work, travel, and become more proficient speaking the language. She set aside several hours each day to study her Spanish and acclimate herself with the culture and wanted a similar experience on campus – for herself and others – upon enrolling at URI.

Enter de los Heros, who met Guertler at one of URI’s Study Abroad fairs and was immediately drawn to Guertler’s dedication and enthusiasm for the language. With the tertulia club having struggled in recent years to draw students, de los Heros was confident Guertler would lead the club in the right direction.

“I was immediately impressed by how enthusiastic and full of ideas she was,” said de los Heros, who collaborated with Guertler’s Spanish professor, Judy de Oliveira, to bring Guertler on board. “Abby has done an amazing job recruiting students and organizing everything herself, including designing the flyers. Her initiative, enthusiasm, and commitment are impressive. I believe she will help make the tertulia a more welcoming, comfortable, and adaptable space for students to practice Spanish, connect with one another, and feel part of a community.”

Guertler has hit the ground running with grassroots efforts to promote and recruit new members. The club met earlier this month and plans to meet Tuesdays throughout the semester at 3 p.m. in room 303 of Swan Hall.

Guertler’s experience in Spain during her gap year motivated her to push the club to new heights and create a non-judgmental, low-pressure space for students who want to expand their Spanish-speaking skills. While overseas, she noticed a stark contrast in the Spanish she learned at home and the way Spanish natives spoke the language.

“It was a complete culture shock, because all the little phrases and casual idioms were so different,” Guertler said, “and people would look at me like I had three eyes when I was speaking a language I thought I was completely fluent in. I knew a lot, but what I was speaking versus what I knew were night and day.”

As an au pair, Guertler lived in Valladolid, the de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León, where, according to Guertler, natives are fluent in Castilian Spanish, which is widely considered the standard form of Spanish but is also less common than the Latin American Spanish spoken in the United States.

“It was like learning the highest level of Spanish in Spain,” she said. “Now, I’m a complete melting pot of the Spanish I learned in high school, the Spanish I learned from home, and the Spanish I learned in Spain. It’s interesting to have those cultural comparisons.”

Guertler, a double major in environmental science and management and Spanish, was initially drawn to URI because of its club sailing team, but the more she learned, the more she realized it was the right fit for many reasons – the Narragansett Bay Campus, its oceanography program, and its recent designation as a Carnegie R1 research institute. In addition to her role with the tertulia club, Guertler is also a member of URI’s Outing Club and Sailing Club and is part of the College of the Environment and Life Sciences (CELS) Peer Mentor Program, which connects new students with a more experienced CELS student during their first semester. Next summer, she plans to explore possibilities within the Center for Student Leadership Development (CSLD).

“I really love URI,” she said.

Guertler hopes to one day work in the environmental science field as a potential consultant to help companies reach their sustainability goals, and she envisions a future where she can travel for work and use her Spanish-speaking skills on the job. For now, she’s guiding those who want to learn more about the language and acclimate themselves to the culture. The tertulia club is a “super low commitment,” Guertler said – no pressure to attend weekly and no dues to pay.

“It’s just getting people used to speaking Spanish and being in a comfortable environment where they can really advance themselves if they don’t have the opportunity to speak it at home. If you just want to chill and hang out with your friends and speak Spanish, then just come in and we’ll have some chips and salsa and loosen the tongue, get people like used to it, and bring different cultures to the table, too. I just want people to start talking and feel comfortable in the language.”