Linfield’s Spanish teaching assistant wants to start a radio show on the campus station.

Patricia Luis Hernandez, who made the move to McMinnville from the Canary Islands in Spain at the beginning of fall semester, already has audio production experience. She received her bachelor’s in journalism and master’s in Spanish while working at a radio station in Spain.

Luis Hernandez saw the KSLC sign on her way back one day to her on-campus apartment. She contacted her supervisor, Professor Sonia Ticas, with a new idea: to start a student-led radio program in Spanish.

“She told me that a few years ago there was a Spanish program, so then I just sent an email to the people who are working there in the radio and they told me that… it’s a great idea. I’m trying now to involve students in at least one program. I think we can do it,” Luis Hernandez said.

Since Linfield has placed an emphasis on the importance of Spanglish for its students, Luis Hernandez thinks it will be valuable for people to speak a mix of both Spanish and English on the air.

“It’s a really huge thing here, this Spanglish. So even if we can do some Spanglish integrated radio I think it would be really nice,” said Luis Hernandez.

She also wants students who are interested in being a part of the radio show to choose topics they want to speak about and write a script to read live on the air. Luis Hernandez said topics can range from national politics and culture to food and music.

“I know here, you know a lot about Mexico because it’s pretty close, but I think that there are other Spanish-speaking countries that you don’t know too much here in the U.S. so it will be nice to speak about other countries,” Luis Hernandez said.

She emphasized that she wants the radio show to be open to all students, regardless of if they speak and study Spanish or not.

“I would be really really happy if we can do at least just one program in Spanish. I think for them it will be a really good experience,” she said.