Biography:
I am a first year at Penn State, with the intent of double majoring in Spanish and HDFS. My main goal after college is to become a missionary for my church denomination. I am anticipating working in a Spanish speaking country; thus, this trip will prepare me in social skills and push me to be more independent than I ever have been. Outside of school I love playing sports, being active, traveling, and making meaningful connections with people around me.
My study will advance knowledge of the formation of codeswitching conventions in the speech community of Puerto Rican bilinguals. I will be researching Spanish and English bilinguals who are habitual code-switchers with their friends. Given that code-switching is a systematic and socially meaningful phenomenon, my research will add to the understanding of how this is established within bilingual communities.