Melinda Franke strives to create a collaborative learning environment that prioritizes oral communication and students’ engagement with their lived experiences as they explore the Spanish language. She received her bachelor's degree in physics and Spanish from DePauw University. Melinda participated in and later acted as the instructor for the university’s Bob Hershberger Servicio Program, a Spanish-immersion and service-learning program. Her seven years with the program, in which she traveled to Peru, Costa Rica, Spain, and Panama, affirmed her passion for mentoring Spanish language learners. While obtaining her master’s from the University of California, Irvine, in Spanish literature, Melinda served for three years as the instructor of undergraduate Spanish language courses. Now in the dissertation phase of her Ph.D. at U.C.I., Melinda brings her experience with immersive and task-based language courses to The Downtown School and looks forward to sparking her students' joy for language learning.