Welcome, Ms. Swain

Melanie Baculima, Reporter

This school year has begun with lots of new members within our community and with a diverse number of new teachers. It is great to welcome a new member of the community, one of our Spanish department teachers, Ms. Swain.

Ms. Swain is originally from Long Island. Growing up she had an interest in child psychology and education that eventually inspired her to study those topics, though it took her some time to find that path. Ms. Swain originally studied business in college and started a career in that field, but she had also minored in Spanish because she admires the language. Eventually, inspired by a childhood interest, she decided she wanted to study education and become a Spanish teacher. She didn’t have any native speakers around her to learn Spanish so she began learning through reading and writing but struggled with speaking. However, that didn’t stop her from pursuing what she loved. To improve her language skills, she visited Puerto Rico. Originally she planned to stay for a year and ended up staying there for another four years. After her first year there she started thinking in Spanish after interacting with other Spanish speakers to enhance her ability of the language. After living in Puerto Rico for five years, she had the ability to speak and comprehend at an intermediate level. This comes to show that she’s a passionate and independent person who has been learning Spanish for 20 years. Ms. Swain explains that, “Learning a language is fun to learn because of so many aspects.”

Ms. Swain is currently still practicing her Spanish and has a mentor in our Spanish department, Mrs. Drohan. Overall, she loves what she does and will settle in Hampton Bays because of what the community has to offer: the amazing people, scenery, beaches, and more. In fact, she can’t wait to continue her journey as a teacher at Hampton Bays High School and is very excited for what awaits her in the future.