The Nazareth community welcomes Abby Gemmel to the World Language Department as one of its newest Spanish teachers. 

Gemmel loves teaching now, but she didn’t always know that it was her calling. In fact, when she attended Taylor University in Indiana, her focus was actually unique since there weren’t many other Spanish majors. “Taylor is a smaller school and if I knew then that I wanted to teach Spanish, I probably wouldn’t have gone there,” she said.

Despite the fact that she hadn’t originally planned on becoming a Spanish teacher in college, Gemmel learned all she needed to build a solid foundation as an educator. Now, she is able to showcase all of her education and experience at Nazareth in her Spanish 2, Spanish 2 Honors and Spanish 3 classes.

Prior to coming to Naz, Gemmel taught in Chicago where the Spanish curriculum sometimes took a backseat to discipline. She said that she really appreciates students who want to learn and who are invested in their education. She believes that her students at Naz are here to learn and to improve their Spanish and for that, she is grateful.

While she loves teaching Spanish, it isn’t the only thing that Gemmel enjoys. She is very social by nature and loves any occasion to socialize. She said, “My favorite thing to do outside of teaching is to hang out with my family and friends.” 

Gemmel took to Nazareth very quickly. She said that it only took her about two weeks to learn her way around the building and that she’s got the hang of it now. That’s pretty impressive given all of the ins and outs of the building.

The Spanish students, and the Nazareth community as a whole are lucky to have Gemmel join the family and we look forward to many years of learning and socializing together.