Genevieve Riley (Spain, 2024-25)

Genevieve Riley is a Linguistics major at UC San Diego studying abroad at the University of Barcelona, Spain. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, she first became fascinated with language when she began studying Spanish in high school and listening to music in a variety of languages. When the pandemic hit and her high school transitioned to remote learning, she took the opportunity to learn the writing systems of some of the languages that interested her the most. In her bedroom, while completing her sophomore and junior years remotely, she self-studied the orthographies of Arabic, Russian, and Thai. Having become the most proficient in Spanish over the years, she chose to study in Barcelona. Genevieve writes, "What I'm most excited about is living in a dormitory with other international students. We'll get to learn about each other's cultures while sharing the experience of being in this bustling and multilingual city for the first time." With plans to be a speech-language pathologist, Genevieve is looking forward to broadening her awareness of both the commonalities and differences between people from various countries, and approaching those differences with cultural humility. Genevieve is studying Spanish, Catalan, and Irish literature in Barcelona during her first term.