Dr. Montserrat Linares-Farras, an associate professor of Spanish and the chair of the department of modern languages is the new interim director of the Study Abroad Office at Elizabethtown College this year.
Linares-Farras is from Barcelona, Spain, where she attended Universitat de Barcelona for her undergraduate degree, studying Spanish Literature.  She then received her doctorate in romance languages at the University of Pennsylvania.
She started teaching at Etown in 2002 and in 2008 was tenured and promoted to associate professor. In 2009, she was appointed department chair of modern languages.
Linares-Farras’s new position is not permanent; she is simply filling in until a more permanent person is hired for the job.  However, she has a great interest in the study abroad program and is very familiar with the concept.  All modern language students must study abroad for a semester and, therefore, many of her advisees have been involved in the program, which makes her very familiar with it.
Linares-Farras is also interested in international education.  Although she is only an interim director, there are many responsibilities that come with the position.  She must go over all of the programs Etown offers or is affiliated with to any student who is interested in studying abroad.  She also assists students in the application process and deals with all the paperwork that must be sent to and from Etown and the receiving school.
Linares-Farras helps students to make sure everything runs smoothly before their time abroad as well as during their stay overseas.  She also reviews all of the programs and chooses which are best fits for Etown.  She speaks with faculty about options and encourages them to promote studying abroad.
Linares-Farras was promoted to the job when the previous director of study abroad programs, Dr. Amy Simes, resigned this summer.  Linares-Farras worked with Simes in regards to many of her students and advisees.  She is very familiar with the process and the students who have gone abroad or are interested in the opportunity.  She has a lot of experience evaluating, developing and promoting study-abroad opportunities for students at Etown.
When asked what her biggest challenge will be with taking this position, she said combining her job as department chair and being director of study abroad.  “I want to encourage students to study abroad for the right reasons.  It is not only a fun experience, but it is a very important academic experience, as well,” she said.  She would also like to convince students to broaden their options to not just English-speaking countries.  She feels that this gives the student a whole different experience because they are powerfully immersed in a different culture and language. “They learn a different way of thinking, a different way of seeing the world.”
Linares-Farras does not want to see much change in the program now that she is interim director.  She wants to see every major have the ability to study abroad, giving room to each student to have the option.  She said, “I want to create a culture where studying abroad isn’t the exception, it’s the norm.”  She wants to encourage and work as a team with the faculty to encourage their students to study abroad.
In addition, she wants to make studying abroad more feasible to each student and see it at as a necessary college experience here at Etown.