This week, we’re going to hear from Justin Davis, a more recent graduate of the Master of Arts in the Teaching of Languages (MATL) program. After becoming a licensed teacher, Justin earned a teaching assistantship and joined the MATL with an emphasis in Spanish in 2021. I had become coordinator of the MATL at the start of Justin’s second year, so I got to know him quite well and I got to see him as a student and as an instructor. His students described him as compassionate, and they loved all the different authentic materials (especially music) that he shared with them. His skill in the classroom and the dedication he took to his own studies made the World Languages faculty nominate him for the title of “Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year” at the University of Southern Mississippi, and we awarded him the "Most Outstanding On Campus Student" honor at the School of Social Science and Global Studies awards ceremony. Soon after he graduated in 2023, Justin took a job as a migrant advocate with Mississippi State University.
Read along to hear about Justin’s trajectory, his new job, and his dreams for the future. As always, if you want to know more about the MATL or be put in touch with Justin, click on “Contact the MATL.”
Dr. Katie Angus: Could you tell me about your path? What led you to the MATL?
Justin Davis: When I transferred to USM, during my third year getting a bachelor's, I knew I wanted to teach, but I wasn't sure what. I started out as wanting to be an English teacher, so I was taking English classes. I liked them, but something wasn't clicking.
Because obviously, there's a language requirement with most degrees, I was taking Spanish. I'd already taken 101 and 102 in junior college, but I had to take Spanish 201 with Miss Mary Ann Holt on the coast. I took it online. She actually challenged us. She respected us as students, as intellectuals, as individuals. She challenged us to actually communicate, to use the language to actually communicate an idea. There was something about the first time that I actually put something coherent together in a second language. I was like, “You know what? I'm going to learn Spanish.” Then it clicked again. I was like, “Well, if I'm going to learn Spanish, I might as well teach Spanish. That way I can do a two in one thing: I'll get to learn another language, and I'll get to teach something that I really enjoyed doing. So I declared a Spanish licensure major. I went through that coursework, and then I did student teaching, right there in Hattiesburg, under Dr. Fonder Solano. She was really, really, really helpful. I graduated with my bachelor's in the Spanish licensure program. I did very well, but at the time, there wasn't really a lot of job openings for a Spanish teacher in my area. I wanted to stay in the area, because I have a lot of family around here. I didn't want to move. Dr. Laurel Hodges reached out, and she said there was an opening for a TA position in the MATL. I had heard about that kind of vaguely from Miss Cynthia Baertich when I was an undergrad. I'd heard “you can get a stipend and get your Masters for free, basically, and get paid to do it.” At that time, I was thinking to myself, “that could never happen to me. I'm not that lucky.” But when Dr. Hodges reached out with that, I immediately knew that that's what I wanted to do. That's how I came to be in the MATL.
Dr. Katie Angus: Nice. I didn't realize that you didn't have a lot of Spanish before coming to USM. How did you get so good at it? Your Spanish is phenomenal!
Justin Davis: Once I realized that I wanted to learn Spanish and that I wanted to be a Spanish teacher, I just treated it like a full-time job. In my waking hours, whether I was working or doing something else, I always had headphones in or I was doing something to improve. I used the wonderful world of the internet to expose myself to language. Not only the typical academic Spanish, but I would listen to Spanish from different countries. I made it my job to learn Spanish. I took it very, very seriously.
Dr. Katie Angus: So you became an on campus student and a TA. How would you describe your time in the MATL? What was it like?
Justin Davis: My time the MATL, especially being a TA, was super fun. Being a TA, and going through it all with other TAs, you develop really close relationships with other people that are not only doing the MATL, but also doing an assistantship. I really enjoyed making friends from literally all over the world. I still talk to them from time to time, and I still know what they're up to. It was fun, and it was academically very challenging. That challenge led to a lot of enrichment in my life.
Dr. Katie Angus: Yeah, I definitely want to hear more about that. Let’s talk a bit more about teaching first. Just in case anyone doesn't know: our TAs teach their own classes during their second year. Justin, what was your favorite class to teach and why?
Justin Davis: My favorite class to teach was the second semester of teaching. I had some repeat students because a lot of students actually chose to take me for again the second semester. I had some 101 students that wanted to take 102 with me, and so getting to see them again and build on the momentum from the first semester was really fun. A couple of students who were particularly interested in learning Spanish, it was really fun to see how far they progressed from day one to the last day of 102. So that was my favorite class to teach.
Dr. Katie Angus: It's also a little flattering to, right? Do you have any tips or strategies or activities you liked to do in class?
Justin Davis: I would definitely say anything with authentic material. Particularly, my students enjoyed listening to music and doing lyric activities. I would always show a music video at the beginning of each class, and sometimes not even ask them to do anything with it. Just let them enjoy it. Let them enjoy it, as a Hispanic or Spanish person would enjoy any music video – not having necessarily to do anything academic with it, but just to kind of warm up for the class. Then, of course, I would have other more challenging activities, where we actually did something with it Anything with authentic material is always really wonderful, because it is actually interesting. It's not forced. It's just genuinely interesting in and of itself. Besides that, I didn’t worry about trying to dumb down language. I just let it be what it is. And I challenge the students because they're capable of so much. Sometimes they could be bored in class because they're not challenged, because everything's too easy, and so I didn't shy away from challenging students. I think they appreciated that and they all rose to the occasion.
Dr. Katie Angus: I was just thinking that when I watched you teach, you had such an such an organized, intentional lesson plan, and your students did not shy away from the challenge. You held a high bar, and they met you there. It was really impressive to see.
Justin Davis: Absolutely.
Dr. Katie Angus: You graduated in Spring 2023. Why don't you tell us what you're up to now?
Justin Davis: Now I work at Mississippi State University. I do work remotely. I am the migrant advocate for the migrant education program. We kind of have two names for it: Migrant Education Program is the state name, and then our actual center is called a Mississippi Migrant Education Service Center. We're housed out of Mississippi State in Starkville, but really, we're statewide. I work remotely, and I do my paperwork remotely, but the majority of what I do is actually travel literally all over the state meeting with students. We help and provide supplemental education to students of migrant agricultural workers. Basically, all that means is families that move around for seasonal agricultural work. Because they move around so much, a lot of their education gets interrupted. They'll spend sometimes a half a year outside of school from all the moving. Some less than others, some more than others. We have a couple of different categories. we have PFS, which is “Priority For Service.” Those are the ones that have really had a major interruption in their education. Then we have high needs, and then we have general needs. “General Needs” means they're doing well, and we just make sure they're continuing to do well. “High Needs” are at risk of becoming “Priority For Service,” and w e want to make sure they become “General Needs.” The ultimate goal is for all of them to succeed academically – not just not just pass grades, but to become some of the best students. That's our goal.
With that, it's a challenging job emotionally at times, because a lot of migrant children have had a very traumatic past with their migration journey here. I've only been working this job for six months, and I have sat with at least three students crying about their past. This only six months. I’ve probably met with somewhere around 80 or 90 students. You hear about a lot, and you realize how complicated political situations are, how complicated economical situations are. It really opens your mind to understand migratory patterns and why they happen. They are very, very real life situations that that have a big impact on the students. I had one student she was about five years old, and I still meet with her family. She has an older sister, about nine years old, who still lives with her. They have a younger brother who’s about three, and they have an older sister that lives in California, who’s about around 16 or 17. Anyway, this five year old girl, she ended up crying and talking about how they came here and how scary it was. She was telling me about walking through the jungle and with a group. Most of the group went one way, but her and her family went another way. Somebody from the other group ended up actually getting killed by whatever it was in the jungle, whether it was you know, an animal or just exposure. That’s a five year old girl talking about really adult stuff. It's tough. Obviously, it's most difficult for them, but obviously you get a little bit of secondhand trauma. It's impacted me. That's for sure.
Dr. Katie Angus: I’m really glad to talk to you, because so many of our students are in a more traditional classroom. You're still in education, but you’re teaching in a really different context. How would you say the MATL has impacted you professionally, personally, or both?
Justin Davis: It's definitely both. It's impacted my whole life. Professionally, it prepared me extremely, extremely well for this job, both in actual Spanish ability, linguistic knowledge, teaching strategies, second language acquisition. While I didn't do the TESOL certificate, I was still exposed to a lot of ideas from TESOL. The principles work in any language, whatever language is being acquired. It's been really, really fun to see second language acquisition happen in real time with these students and to see how different age groups react differently to being exposed to new languages and new culture. I'm prepared for all that. I know how to identify different things. I have actual terminology that I can concisely describe what's going on with a student. The MATL has very much prepared me for this job. I wouldn't say I'm overqualified for this job, but I'm very, very well qualified for this job. Yes, it's challenging, certainly emotionally, but in terms of just delivering education, I feel very competent and confident to deliver those services.
The MATL just in general, it affects all aspects of my life. It was definitely the most academically challenging. I feel like I think differently, and more clearly, and more widely, and more deeply about everything in my life. Going through all the different classes and again, having professors that actually challenged me gave me the ability to really, really, deeply analyze the situation and think outside the box. I feel like my brain is just more powerful, so to speak, than it's ever been after going through the MATL. I feel like I can think of a solution to anything. That's been the biggest thing for me. I’m not going say that it made me smarter, but it just made me capable of addressing issues, whether it's a language issue, or just a life issue. It gave me tools to analyze the situation and come up with a solution.
Dr. Katie Angus: What advice do you have for graduate students in world languages?
Justin Davis: Whatever your second language or third language that you're working with, and whatever context it happens to be with the MATL, whether it's your actual language of emphasis or just language of instruction, I would say consider devoting a significant amount of time to improving your language skills because that's going to make everything else easier. I had to write some very complicated things about complex topics in Spanish – my second language. I feel like taking the time out both in undergraduate and graduate school to not only maintain my Spanish level, but continuously push it and push it and expand vocabulary, expand linguistic knowledge. it prepares you so much better for the academic challenges that you will have ahead. I would say, you know, become the speak the best Spanish you can. Speak the best English you can. Work on all four areas of communication (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), and it's going make everything else go so much smoother.
Dr. Katie Angus: Then later on when you're on the job market and you have an interview, when part of it’s in Spanish, you're cut right away if you don't do well during that part. That's a red flag.
Justin Davis: Actually, when I did my interview for the job I have now with MSU, I had two native speakers interview me. I knew Spanish was coming. They introduced the Spanish part, and we did a little bit in Spanish. They were like, “wow, it seems like you spent a significant amount of time in a Spanish-speaking country.” They were both very impressed. Having a high level of Spanish was big for me for getting this job. Take your craft seriously.
Dr. Katie Angus: What would you tell someone who was thinking about applying to the MATL?
Justin Davis: I would say do it because it's going to prepare you for whatever you want to do in life, whether it's language education related or not. I would say regardless, it's going to make you just a more well-rounded person. Because I know it did me. Like I said, it has made me a much more potent thinker. I would say do it. No matter what you're thinking about doing for the rest of your career, it's only going to enhance your marketability in the job market and your quality of work in whatever career you decide to do. No matter what you're wanting to do, or if you're not even sure what you want to do, you will take a big step in the right direction of being very, very well prepared for it.
Dr. Katie Angus: And finally, to go on to more lighthearted things. What do you like to do with your free time?
Justin Davis: What I like to do with my free time goes back to the MATL in the sense of it has allowed me to think so much more deeply about things. Yes, I do love education, and I love teaching, but I've thought about other things to my life to do later on in life as a career, and how I could integrate education into whatever I decided to do. I'm a lifelong learner. I love learning, and I love planning. I love creating. I've always kind of wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I have really fallen in love with regenerative agriculture. This was actually something that we learned a lot about in a food class with Dr. Miles: how the current food system is really vulnerable and really chemically dependent, toxic dependent, inhumane to animals, not sustainable for the health of the earth. So what I have been very interested in and have learned a lot about is regenerative agriculture (I could have probably have a bachelor's degree worth of knowledge in it). What I would like to do is to be a small regenerative agriculture farmer, but do everything in a way that is not only is good for the Earth, but even enhances the quality of the Earth: more clean water, more breathable air, more clean food that doesn't have pesticides, insecticides and whatever other -cides that are in 99% of the food today. I have spent a lot of my free time lately, developing a business plan and marketing plan and thinking through the capital and how I would do all this stuff, so I could become a farmer.
I've been thinking of ways how I can integrate farming with education. A lot of farmers employ migrant workers on H2A and H2B visas. I've seen a lot of these big farms in the Mississippi Delta. They’re almost like small communities, because they have apartment buildings and housing that they live in. I can do a similar thing, but it not just be like, “okay, here's a place you can come and work and make money.” It’d be “here's a place where you can come bring your families, and yes, work and live, but have a holistic community around you.” We’d with weekly meetings where everybody gets together on Friday night or Saturday night.” We can do English classes once or twice a week because I'm very well qualified to teach English. Just build a community that has love for each other. They're not just workers, but they're people, part of a community that's working together for something bigger than themselves. I would love to see families and little kids running around on a nice playground, and when mom or dad come home, they don't feel like they've been taken advantage of. They're well paid, and they're cared for. They know that they have support, and I'd love to sponsor visas if I could. So like I said, I've been doing a lot of thinking. That's why I do my free time. I think.
Dr. Katie Angus: That's a beautiful vision. You paint a nice picture of it.
Justin Davis: Like I said, I've thought a lot about it, and I continue to think about it, because I know that it's easier said than done. I want to make sure that I have a plan that's actionable.
Dr. Katie Angus: It seems like you're making a difference right now and that you're going to continue to make the difference. It's really exciting to see what you've been up to, even though it's only been a year since you've graduated. I really wanted to check in with you, and I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me.
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