I'm Isabella Caban Velletri, but you can call me Bella :) I'm a 23 year old Puerto Rican and Italian, and I live with my mom in Johnston with our five cats. (yea, I know. five...) They're all rescues, that made their way to my house, and the oldest is named Oui Oui. Then come the boys Frank and Lester, who are brothers. Next is Queen (she's my favorite), and the baby is Asher. I'm a recent addition to the YDEV major and I'm really excited to learn with everyone.

Over the summer I was accepted into the Fullbright-Hayes scholarship to study in Guatemala for thirty days in the month of July, with 13 educators in Rhode Island. 

    I studied Spanish for two weeks in Nuevo San Jose in the morning and in the afternoon I taught a few classes at the local high school. I stayed at La Escuela de la Montana (the mountain school) while I was in Nuevo San Jose, and ate every meal at my host families house. I met some amazing people while I was there like Abelino who runs the school, my Spanish teachers, my host mom and her daughters, and the teachers at the high school. 

I studied K'iche' for one week in Xela which is a Mayan language. While I was in Xela I stayed with a new host mom named Mercedes. Mercedes owned two properties very close to each other and hosted 16 other college students who are med students in Xela. I studied at PLQ which is a non-profit language school in Guatemala. It was a beautiful community of people from all over coming together to not only learn a new language but experience a different culture. While I was there I met Eduardo my brilliant K'iche' teacher, and Willie who is his advanced student who helped him with out class.