Dr. Ardis Nelson’s reserved nature can easily fool you.
Behind her glasses and shy smile, Nelson has a unique outlook on life and culture – one she shares willingly with her quiet, steady voice.
“I was always interested in other cultures,” said Nelson, former chair of the Foreign Language Department at ETSU.
That interest has brought many opportunities and changes to the department. Since Nelson served as chair from 1994 to 1999, countless programs and projects have been initiated, some of which have become curriculum.
The most noted projects grew from a W.K. Kellogg Foundation sub-grant that was awarded to the Language and Culture Resource Center/Bilingual Media subcommittee in 1999 “to develop sustainable partnerships with the community in order to serve the needs of the Hispanic community and, at the same time, produce bilingual, bicultural graduates.”
ETSU faculty and students have been fulfilling the goal of the grant by forming relationships between the university and the Hispanic community in several ways.
A program that developed from the grant is the Applied Spanish minor, which takes students out of the classroom and into the Hispanic community.
Within this minor, students have the opportunity to participate in projects established by Nelson, her colleagues and students, who often serve as community liaisons.
These projects include “Bridging the Gap,” a curriculum that exposes young children to Hispanic culture and language, initiated by ETSU students in Nelson’s Conversation class in 1999; Hispanic Student Day, begun by Dr. Elena Pedroso-Sausman and Holly Melendez in 2000; El Nuevo, a Spanish newspaper supplement which was the original idea of Dr. Jack Mooney of the communication department; and the Migrant Education Program, coordinated by ETSU graduate Hillary Hester since 2003.
“In my 20s, I spent an unforgettable day picking tomatoes in the fields with a friend,” Nelson recalls. “It was back-breaking work and we were sore for days. It is the children of families who work like this every day whom we serve in the Migrant Education Program.”
Nelson’s sympathy for migrant families and their children stemmed from her upbringing, she said. “From kindergarten through seventh grade, we lived in a 32-by-8-foot trailer, eventually with four children and moved at least twice a year.”
It was the experiences from constant moving and travel that led to Nelson’s way of thinking. “Moving made me very aware on a number of different levels,” she said.
Those levels, she said, include the importance of family and friendships, sensitivity to people’s attitudes and the difficulty of adjustment in new environments.
Searching out new environments is a passion for Nelson. She has been to 18 countries, covering much of Europe and Latin America. “Generally speaking, people in other countries know how to enjoy life much more than people in the U.S.A,” Nelson said. “Ironically, the more poverty-stricken a country, the greater the sense of humor its people have.”
It was not the third-world countries, however, that first brought Nelson to her love for Spanish culture and language. It was France.
“I majored in French at Oberlin College,” Nelson said, “but after several years of study I still couldn’t speak the language, so I spent six months in France.”
While becoming fluent in French, Nelson developed an interest in Spanish literature and history. “My first two Spanish teachers made a lasting impression on me,” she said,”that would eventually lead me to switch from French to Spanish for my career.”
Upon graduation from college, Nelson taught both French and Spanish in public schools. After a few years, however, she went to graduate school to study Spanish literature and obtained her doctorate.
She then taught for 13 years at Florida State University in Tallahassee. “The Hispanic Cinema course that I developed was a major event at the university,” Nelson said. “It was offered as a film festival and was presented both on campus and at a local movie theater.”
Even from the beginning of her teaching career, Nelson was establishing new ways, like her cinema course, to expose others to Hispanic culture. “She is extremely driven,” Holly Melendez, one of Nelson’s former students and a practicing graduate of Nelson’s community based curriculum said. “I have never met anyone who works so hard.”
Nelson, besides all of the university projects, can also consider herself an accomplished writer. “My research in literature has been a highlight in my career,” Nelson said.
She has published two books on the Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante, written extensively on the Costa Rican writer Carmen Naranjo and is co-editing a book on the Nicaraguan writer Juan Felipe Toru_o.
“She is always seeking new opportunities,” Melendez said. “I don’t know how she keeps up with all of her projects!”
Her projects and programs keep her career full and busy, but it all comes back to her love of teaching. “[I have had] the opportunity to go beyond the traditional boundaries of an academic career,” Nelson said.
“It is the students who are going into the community and making a huge difference to everyone with whom they come in contact that give me a great deal of satisfaction.”
Passing the credit on to her students is part of Nelson’s character. “She is a humble person, not showy or phony,” Melendez said. “She is working so hard for the community, for the students, and it is not for personal gain.”
The hard work and dedication is for her two passions in life: “Spanish and teaching,” Nelson said.
“I have always loved turning students on to a new way of seeing the world,” Nelson said. “First through language, later through literature and film, and more recently by working directly with the Spanish speaking community here in East Tennessee.

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