Aarav’s Intro to Spanish program was popular, with plenty of positive feedback from parents and students, and even got his students passionate about Spanish. Through his passion for Spanish, Aarav has positively affected many people's lives. He has taught people practical skills in life and ignited a joy for Spanish in all of his students.

However, this was not Aarav’s first time teaching classes with FCSN. Previously, Aarav has also taught subjects ranging from coding to math to children with special needs at the South Bay FCSN Center.

Since a young age, Aarav has been passionate about Spanish. Throughout elementary and middle school, Aarav attended Stratford, which had Spanish as a required class. While there, he discovered and honed his affection for Spanish. Eventually, Aarav joined an after school Spanish club, which only boosted his fascination with Spanish. As Aarav became more intrigued in Spanish, he also found an interest in teaching Spanish to others. This desire and him already being an FCSN volunteer led to him creating a Spanish class. As Aarav states: “Because I was interested in Spanish, I wanted to share this passion with FCSN students, which ultimately led me to start this program.”

Aarav’s class of 5 students

Eventually, his desire to share his passion with others manifested into his Intro to Spanish Course. Aarav dedicated countless hours into the program to turn his dreams into reality. However, there were many challenges and obstacles in his way from the very beginning. The fact that the class was held online, created a plethora of complications for Aarav. To combat these hurdles, Aarav decided to make the main focus of his class on “making sure that they [the special needs students] learned the vocab words and lessons I taught them.”

To achieve this goal, Aarav wanted to make sure his students were engaged. He used online platforms like Blooklet, a website that combines playing games with learning, and implemented the use of visuals, games, and videos to make the class fun and engaging. Aarav made sure to keep his classes simple yet effective to make sure that students were focused at all times.

This method proved to be simple yet effective as Aarav got plenty of positive feedback from both parents and students, and even got his students passionate about Spanish. As one student of his said: “I learned a lot from Aarav. I am going to teach my family Spanish.” Another parent said: “[His] initial response was ‘there’s no way I’m taking the Spanish class’. But after your 1st class, he said he loved it. [He brings] it up by himself that he has [to attend] a Spanish class at 4pm on Saturday. I don’t even have to remind him. Thanks for making the class fun!”

As Aarav himself said: “Along with knowing more about Spanish, I definitely have observed an increase in their [the students] curiosity, diligence, and dedication to learning Spanish.”

Not only was this class fun for his students, Aarav also described the experience as affecting him positively, and creating many great memories. One of Aarav’s favorite memories from this class was seeing “the students’ reaction whenever they were playing the Blooket quizzes with their classmates. I would always see myself in them, in terms of competitiveness, dedication, and diligence to name a few attributes.”

For anyone looking to turn their passion into a class at FCSN, or anywhere else, Aarav advises, “Make sure to use simple concepts that students can understand. The easier it is to understand, the smoother the class will go”, “use practical concepts while teaching, [such as] teaching how to count numbers from 1 through 20 in Spanish,” and “make sure to use visuals in order to simplify the content. Pictures, videos, and songs are much more impactful than words written on a screen.”

Through his passion for Spanish, Aarav has positively affected the lives of many people. He has not only taught people a practical skill in life, but has also ignited a joy for Spanish in all of his students.