Catie Prechtel - Spanish Instructor

Catie Prechtel grew up in Talent, Oregon, and has spent the last decade of her life traveling the world and studying languages and cultures. Though Catie has always been an avid language learner, her passion for learning Spanish began in high school, and she continued to study Spanish throughout college and her graduate degrees. After graduating from Pacific University with a BA in Spanish and Anthropology, Catie moved to León, Guanajuato, México to work as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. In addition to finally getting to explore México and learn about the rich artistic, culinary, and musical traditions of the region, Catie also discovered her passion for teaching. Following her time in México, Catie completed her MA in Spanish & Latin American Studies at American University, and then completed her PhD in Latin American Studies at Tulane University. Her PhD dissertation Unpinning Gender: Exótico Interventions in Gender Performativity in Mexican Lucha Libre is an interdisciplinary investigation of the gender performances of Mexican exótico wrestlers and their experiences creating and performing queer characters. During her research, she participated in the Visiting Investigator Program at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios de Género at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).

Catie has been with Tierra since 2022. She loves teaching at Tierra because of the small class sizes and the opportunity to get to know each of her students and guide them on their language learning journeys. She strives to create engaging and dynamic classes that allow students to learn through conversation and games. Making mistakes is part of the process, and Catie's classes focus on using prior knowledge and context clues to navigate the language and communicate effectively. Her goal as a teacher is to create classes that are a fun, informative, and exciting part of each student's week, and to ensure that her students feel empowered to go out into the Spanish-speaking world. 

When she's not teaching, Catie is creating art, trying new restaurants, going to comedy shows, and traveling.