What Happens When We Stop Teaching Language As Memorization and Start Teaching It As a Connection? My Guest: Donna Guzzo, Language Exploration Enrichment

Language class shouldn’t feel like a worksheet factory where conjugation is the only goal, and instead the mission is to learn a language... share a culture... change the world.

In this episode we learn from Donna Guzzo, President and CEO of Language Exploration Enrichment, about what happens when we teach language to kids through stories, art, kindness, and cultural immersion instead of fear and memorization. Donna has spent more than two decades building an after-school enrichment program that helps children speak with confidence while also learning the humanity behind the language.

We get into how thematic units and storytelling make vocabulary feel useful, why early speaking matters more than perfect pronunciation, and how culture-first teaching builds real cultural literacy. Donna shares how kids learn that Spanish-speaking countries are not “all the same,” how small details like food and greetings can teach respect, and how children often bring that openness home, nudging parents toward new experiences and better conversations.

Donna also connects language education to global citizenship through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, showing how young students can grapple with big ideas like hunger, clean water, peace, and even gender equality when the discussion is grounded in age-appropriate examples and guided dialogue. We wrap with what she’s learned from kids about perseverance, why “first you love them, then you teach them” shapes strong classrooms, and how immersive camps blend language learning with cooking, crafts, games, and music.

If you care about Spanish for kids, bilingual education, empathy, and raising globally aware students, this one’s for you. To find out more about LEE, visit:

www.leestjohns.pbworks.com

904-553-4274

Do you have some feedback, thoughts or questions?

Want to be a guest on my show or have an Honorable Mensch to nominate?

Connect on Instagram @SchmoozewithSuze
 
Subscribe to the Schmooze with Suze Podcast for your dose of #Culture, #Values and #GlobalCitizenship... with a side of #chutzpah... 

Don’t forget to leave a review if you enjoyed this episode. 
Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and SHARE.
Thank you for helping us grow! 

Transcript

Why Language Should Feel Human

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I've been thinking a lot about language lately. Not just words, but what language actually opens up inside of us. Because if I'm being honest, my experience learning Spanish in high school was not exactly inspiring. It was worksheets, vocabulary quizzes, memorizing verb conjugations the night before a test, and forgetting half of them by the next marking period. Donde está la biblioteca remains one of the great unanswered questions of my childhood. We learned the mechanics of language, but we didn't really learn people. I don't remember meaningful conversations about Latin or Spanish culture. I don't remember learning why traditions mattered, how families gathered, how music shaped identity, how food tells stories, or how language carries history, struggle, humor, resilience, and pride. The idea that learning another language could actually enrich your humanity, that wasn't really on the table. It felt more like a requirement than an invitation. And honestly, I think that's a missed opportunity. Because when children are taught language through curiosity, art, storytelling, music, food, and human connection, something entirely different happens. It stops being about passing a test and it starts becoming about understanding people. Today's guest has spent more than two decades reimagining what language education can look

Meet Donna Guzo And The Mission

SPEAKER_01 1:33

like for children through language exploration enrichment. Students are not only exposed to Spanish vocabulary and conversation, but also culture, kindness, creativity, and global citizenship? Their mission is simple and ambiguous all at once. Learn a language, share a culture, and change the world. So what happens when we stop teaching language as memorization and start teaching it as a connection? And in a world becoming more divided, isolated, and suspicious of a difference, could cultural immersion at a young age actually help raise more empathetic human beings? And that's what we're going to tackle today. Hi, I'm Suze bringing you a dose of culture, values, and global citizenship with a side of Hutzbah, just enough to ask the questions others might not be introducing. Today's guest is Donna Guzo, the president and CEO of Language Exploration Enrichment, also known as Lee Spanish. Donna is an educator, nonprofit leader, and United Nations Teach SDG's ambassador who has spent more than 20 years helping children explore world languages and cultures through immersive creative programming here in Northeast Florida. Under her leadership, Lee has grown into a nationally minded, community-rooted organization focused not only on language acquisition, but on tolerance, literacy, art, and global citizenship. The organization's mission is to encourage students to explore world language and culture while using art and literacy to promote compassion and understanding. Donna and her team have also received statewide recognition, including induction into the teacher hall of fame for the state of Florida. Hi, Donna, welcome to Schmooz with Seuss. Hi, thank you for having me. It's a privilege. So take me back to the beginning. What first

Building An After-School Language Program

SPEAKER_01 3:25

made you believe that language education could actually change the trajectory of a child's life?

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Well, when I moved here in 2003, that's when the school district, St. Jones County, was taking away Spanish from elementary schools. And I thought, whoa, my daughter is just entering elementary school and I want her to be bilingual, if not to know even more languages. I grew up knowing six languages by the age of 10. English was my last. And so I immediately contacted the school district and the superintendent at the time, who was new, who was very supportive, and language exploration enrichment thanks to a former principal, Dr. Filaney, and Dr. Joyner, the superintendent, got started. So we started teaching in the classroom. They paired me up with a mom who was already teaching culture, only culture, world world compass. That's what it was. Wow. And she was teaching about different cultures around the world. So they paired me up with Janet Robles. She's my co-administrator for 23 years. And we both got together and said, you know what? Let's bring in the program fully for learning, you know, the targeted language. At that time, we were teaching Spanish, French, American Sign Language. Oh, wow. Eventually, people just wanted Spanish. So that's the you know, that's where the community went.

Teaching Through Stories And Thematic Units

SPEAKER_00 4:45

And doing the the Spanish program, she said, Well, let's incorporate the culture piece. And I absolutely loved it because we teach via thematic units. So that keeps a child more entertained and more um in conjunction with how they're learning during the day. It's no longer let's let me step in the front of the classroom and let's teach numbers today or let's let's teach colors today. It's more of let's choose a book that might be familiar to them in English, like for example, uh Little Red Riding Hood, Caperucita Roja, and let's talk about the book. Well, in the book, what do you have? You have the family, because you have the uh the mama, the abuela, la niña, you have frutas in the basket. Uh, what are the colors of the fruit? How many fruits are in the basket? Uh, there's a wolf out in the forest, there's a forest out there that she's gonna walk through. So there are a lot of components that we get to incorporate into the vocabulary, drawing the vocabulary from the book, and the children can actually now be entertained with the story and learn Spanish in a fun way. Um, but along with that, Janet, who writes the curriculum, I run more the business side. Um, Janet incorporates in that curriculum culture heavily. There's always a country that they're learning. Um, if we're teaching, you know, whatever book storyline is, she might say, Okay, we're gonna learn about Puerto Rico today, we're gonna learn about Mexico next semester, we're gonna talk about Argentina, so it's all over the world. The 21 Hispanic speaking countries we incorporate into the lessons throughout the years.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

That sounds fascinating, mostly because I don't think I learnt about a single Latin or Spanish-speaking country in four years of Spanish while I was an academic student. But let me ask you this question: how many languages do you currently speak? Six. Six. And you learned all of them as a young child.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yes, except one as an adult. Yes. Um, and I was Mandarin Taiwanese, which is not easy. I can imagine.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

So I also was raised by immigrants, and my family is not originally from this country. I'm the first person in my family born in the United States. So English was not a language that was spoken at home. Same. There was every other language that was spoken. How did you learn English?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Well, I learned English two ways. One is uh one, I was in school at age 10, so I was maybe fifth grade. And where did you move from? And I had moved from Spain because I was not born here either. So I'm half Cuban and half Spanish. And when we moved to Miami, I went to school, so I learned there, but I also learned on lab Sesame Street.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

I'm not laughing. I I mentioned this to a lot of people. I learned English on General Hospital and Sesame Street. I can tell you when Luke and Laura got married, and I understand what Mr. Snaphalophagus and Brigbird have going on over there. So it was true. For a lot of people who come from other countries, they want to maintain that heritage, that culture, that tradition, and language is one of the first ways that they think, okay, we're gonna preserve this in the home. So do you find that you have first, second generation students whose parents already are familiar with Spanish, but they left that language behind and they Americanized and now they're kind of kicking themselves?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

You know, some have. Uh surprisingly, there are Hispanic parents that want their kids to enroll in the program, which the program is really 90% for Anglos. Uh, we don't have that many Hispanic kids in the program. But when we do, it's exactly that. They don't speak Spanish at home. They kind of went Americanized all the way, and now they're like, oh, now my kid is gonna enter middle school. Uh so it is usually happening later in elementary school that they think about, oh, let's do this. And you know, my advice to to anyone in learning a language is you can learn a language at any age, but if you can learn it before age 10, 11, you can learn many languages.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Right. I always see when we look at little kids from other countries, it seems so impressive that they can speak multiple languages outside of the United States.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yes, they can switch from one language to another, and it's so easy for them. Um they're not afraid of pronunciation, which you know, we we don't correct per se um pronunciation unless it's something totally off the chores. We're gonna yes, we're gonna correct the child, but we want that child to speak. We want that child to not be afraid of pronouncing a word, to just be free with their speech and and talk. And that's why we use several methods, you know, like sim talk. They can form sentences with card pictures. Um we use TPRS, which is the total physical response storytelling. Wow. Where that is that's super, super interesting because it's very psychological for them to start speaking. I mean, if you think about it in English, in in their regular schools, they're not even learning about grammar until second, third grade. So when we get the kindergartens of first graders, we just want them to speak. When you're talking to a baby, when a baby's born, you just speak to the baby and the baby responds. You're not saying, let's conjugate this, let's conjugate

Culture As The Key To Fluency

SPEAKER_00 9:55

that. It just comes naturally.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

I noticed that Lee doesn't teach just grammar and vocabulary. You intentionally incorporate kindness, tolerance, art, and cultural understanding into the curriculum. Why was that so important to you that you're not just correcting their pronunciation or their grammar and focusing first and foremost on that, like most traditional language programs?

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Right. Um, you know, getting the child to speak it's number one, because then fear is gone. So confidence is already built into the program. Right. And then knowing about kindness and tolerance and culture is super important because there are so many people out there that think that because you're Hispanic or Latina, that you're all the same, that you speak the same language, that you you eat the same food, that you dress the same way, and it's not true. So we teach our kids hey, if you're gonna go to Argentina, you better not be asking for tacos. If you go to Mexico, okay, go have your taco. But if you go to Puerto Rico, you know, you can have mofongo. You you know, you go to Spain, again, you're not gonna be asking for tacos in Spain, they might serve it, but you're gonna ask for paella, you're gonna ask for, you know, authentic things in their uh culture. And same with that. Same with greetings, and you'll be amazed, you know, with kids that, you know, being kids, they're like, they think taco is the main meal. And it's like, no, I love tacos, but that's not my main meal. Um, so it's it's funny because they go to, you know, greetings is a is another one. They go to Spain, for example, and they come back uh, you know, after their summer trip and they're like, oh yeah, there were two kisses on the cheek, you know, mwah mwah. Right. You and it's cultural in Europe. It's cultural, yeah. But then you go someplace in South America, there's gonna be only one kiss. Right. You know, so they need to know what's you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

By the way, Belgium is three kisses.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

I learned that in Belgium, yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

So Taiwan, you don't guess, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

And you don't know how low to bow or what to bow. So you're introducing to these students a few components. One is the language, which is very rudimentary when you think about what your goal is, but more importantly, you're teaching them curiosity, that the understanding that Latin America, Central America, South America are very different from each other individually and independently, as opposed to European Spanish countries, which have their own flavor, no pun intended, now that we've talked about food. So your slogan is learn a language, share a culture, change the world. That is a very big vision for children's programming. Can you please expand a little bit about what propelled you to shape this as your vision?

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Well, this particular what we call lemma, the the theme, uh, is really for teachers to focus on how a kid learns a language. Not every child learns the same way. So we're no longer just standing in front of the classroom teaching, giving a lecture. Now we're looking for is this child more of a nature child? Is this child uh you know more of a technology uh person? Is this child more mathematic? So we look at all the nine methods of teaching and learning, and we incorporate that. Then share a culture is super important to go along with a targeted language so that they can understand. We believe that you cannot learn a language without understanding the culture. And in a world that's so divided today, and it's been divided for a while, but specifically today, they need to learn about tolerance, they need to learn about how to interact with each other. They need not to be afraid because somebody speaks more languages than you, that they're better than you per se. You know, they may have better opportunities. I'm gonna agree with that, but you don't have to be afraid of the unknown, and I think that's what's happening nowadays. People are so afraid of the unknown, they're so afraid of who they are and who the people coming into this country are. So it's important for the kids to understand that tolerance and acceptance and understand each other and have dialogue. If you have questions about a certain culture or a certain family, you know, a friend of your friend's family uh gathers every Sunday and has music and food, and they need to understand that's part of our culture. That's what we do. That's not there's nothing wrong with that, but there's nothing wrong with them not doing it either at home if they're not used to it. So they, you know, in speaking, it when children when children get invited to each other's home, they notice the differences. And we're trying to teach them it's okay if they have music on that is not in your language. It's okay if they have

How Kids Pull Parents Toward Openness

SPEAKER_00 14:50

food that you're not used to. Try it. You may like it.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

So I love how you brought that up. We're living in a moment where many adults seem more polarized and disconnected than ever. And in your experience, have you noticed that learning languages can counteract some of that division for the parents by way of those children? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yes. Tell me a little more about that. The parents see it in 23 years. We've had parents come up to us and be like, My child has made our pet, our mascota bilingual. They speak to the dog, you know, bang, siéntate. It's so interesting. And now, and and the parents are like, so now we're doing it. Or they'll say, um, the Puerto Rico Mofongo is an interesting story because we really grounded on that during years that everybody thought we all spoke the same Spanish, dressed the same way, and ate the same food. And so we we you know really ingrind in them in Puerto Rico Mofongo, try it. If you go to Miami, there will be Puerto Rican restaurants, you can try mofongo. And it's plantains and beef or or shrimp, but anyways, it's a good mixture. And um the kids wanted to try it. So we did partner with some one inventor that brought little pieces. And the kids loved it. So the mom called and she says, What is this thing my kid is talking about? He can't pronounce the word, but it's something with mo, mo. And we're like, Mo. Mofo, mofo. Yeah, I would get in trouble. I would have gotten in trouble right away if you would have said that to me. And so they started, you know, they they'll be like, We're gonna try it. We're gonna go to a Puerto Rican restaurant and order this and and try something different. So, and we've heard parents say, and now we're curious to go travel, you know, to Central America or South America. And so, you know, those kind of stories are always um very encouraging to us because it tells us we're doing something right. We're opening eyes, we're opening minds, and we're having people talk, dialogue, dialect, you know, talk to each other, whether, you know, the Spanish are so many dialects, we don't all speak the same way either. So they they need to understand that maybe the way they're learning this word here has, you know, another meaning over here or another way of saying it over there. And it's okay, it's not wrong.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

So I I love how you've become so

What Changed In Schools Over 20 Years

SPEAKER_01 17:10

open about sharing what the parents and the students have brought to your attention and to your experience. You've been doing this since 2003. What changes have you seen in children, parents, and education over the last two decades?

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Oh gosh. Wow, in yeah, in two decades, a lot has changed for sure. A lot has been taken out of the classroom. Um, you know, as you probably know, being an arts person, usually when there are funding cuts, one of the first things to go is art, the second thing is language. Um so in a lot of schools in Florida, um, except probably for Miami Date and maybe, you know, a few here or there, um there's just no Spanish in elementary school during the regular curriculum. So we're very blessed to be an after-school uh enrichment program for Spanish with a uh you know successful track record. All our teachers down and 90% of our teachers have some have been awarded by the Florida Foreign Language Association as either a teacher of promise or most valued teacher. And then Jonathan and I were inducted in the Teacher Hall of Fame. So we're very blessed to have had this career and and this achievement in 23 years, because it's important for the kids to know that to compete globally. I mean, just go to Europe and just go on one trip and and and hear with kids your age, you know, the children of these parents, what how many languages are they speaking? How confident are they? And that's what we want the kids here to be in our program. We just want them to be confident and and to be willing to learn and and have fun while they're doing it. That's the main thing. You you know, you don't want a a strict classroom of just let's learn verbs today and you know conjugate tomorrow. No, it's it's life, you know, live life. And that's with our learner language, share culture, change the world, that's how we're changing the world. Now that we've been around for 23 years, we see kids that have graduated. First, we saw kids going to high school that were able to skip the first year or two, in some cases the Spanish one and two, and went straight to Spanish three. What did they test out in the world? They test, yep. They test them, and because they took it from kindergarten through fifth grade, and then some through middle school, they are able to do that. Uh, we've had kids graduate college that we follow now, we know where they're working, they have successful careers. A lot of them have gone international. So it's really exciting to see that. I just had a uh former student, I taught this student from kindergarten to third grade at RB Hunt Elementary in St. John's. He just visited from Marcel, France. I just saw him last week. He's 18 years old. I'm like, wow, this is a little kid. And he speaks six languages.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Wow. Was he a native English speaker who then learned other languages? Or his parents other languages?

SPEAKER_00 20:11

He was French, so English was his second, Spanish was his third, and he just got German, you know, when you're talking about. He was picking up in European languages as he probably travels.

Using UN Goals With Young Kids

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Right. Speaking of international, you yourself are United Nations teach SDG's ambassador. Yes. I would love for you to tell me a little bit more about that, and also how and why you've aligned parts of your programming with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. How do you explain concepts like global responsibility, poverty, environmental stewardship to young children in ways they can actually absorb? Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Um, yes, I've been with them since 2015. In fact, I'm flying out to New York next week to do a training. And um, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are just great eye-openers for anybody. But you'll be amazed how much children really uh can relate. When we have taught them uh several goals, some that come to mind right now is Stop Hunger, where the kids were able to prepare meals for the poor. Yeah. Uh we partner with someone from Orlando and we tied that in into Stop Hunger. We've done it with peace when I spoke at the Vatican and back in 2018. Um I took a painting of the kids from Leh and from the Cultural Center, where they had uh drawn um uh a pineapple because that's what the Pope liked to eat, but also a dove as part of the piece. Yeah, so we spoke about peace and what does that mean for children? You know, what are they seeing? And you'll be amazed the stories that we hear just between their friends or neighbors or things they're seeing. Um, and by incorporating these goals, it becomes a reality that okay, this is happening in the world, not just here. Clean water, you know, we teach them about animals. Why are animals dying in the ocean? Um, climate, you name it, you know, any of those goals um the kids really want to talk about. And one that surprised me the most was uh a fifth grader, because I we always have the chart of the 17 goals that have to be met by year 2030. And one of one child in fifth grade said, Well, what about equality gender? You know, and that's about gender equality. Yes. And so, and I was like, wow, I was not planning on teaching this because we're focusing on the easier stuff, right? Right. And she wanted to know why don't women get paid the same as men and where's the discrepancy there? And so it was an interesting conversation for fifth graders to have, that young, to understand about you know gender equality.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

I think that's a very fascinating topic, especially in today's geopolitical landscape. Not that I talk politics often, but understanding that women here have a lot more opportunity, but we still have a lot more to go to be equal in certain areas. But that conversation, that respectful dialogue, that curiosity is broached early enough where asking those questions, like you said, are inspiring not just for the students, but for you as a teacher. Right. So, what have children taught you over the years about culture, curiosity, and human connection?

SPEAKER_00 23:27

We always learn from them. We we think we're teaching them, we are learning from them. And I think back, especially once they make it uh, you know, past college, and you're like, yeah, that person was my student. That person is doing, you know, this or that now. It's an engineer, it's a working for NASA, or you know, whatever. And what those kids have taught me is perseverance. You don't give up. That's really what they have taught me. Um, and I I have gone to many, many conferences and trainings where I purposely walk into a non-Hispanic, non-English, non-Hispanic training. Um might be Russian, might be Arabic, might be Chinese, because I want to feel what they're feeling in the classroom. And I think until a teacher does that, you really don't know what is going on in their minds. They they might be, hey, yeah, let's learn today. Um, or they might be like, this is not for me, my mom put me here. Or, you know, I mean you get all kinds of scenarios, right? But when you do that, when you put yourself in their shoes, you learn so much from them because now you know they're not giving up. Now you know they're giving it their all. Now you know that they they are really trying to speak to you in the targeted language. And it's not easy when you are Anglo and when you have never heard, you know, a word in Spanish or in the targeted language. So to me, that's been the biggest um one of the biggest things I've learned from children is don't give up, keep going. You know, I remember a story. This is so true. This child is now in college. Um, the superintendent was coming to my classroom to read a story to the kids. He doesn't speak Spanish. I you know, we practiced before. And there was a word that he couldn't pronounce, and he knew he was gonna get stuck because he was so worried about it. Sure enough, he gets stuck on the award, and I I think the it was with an ña, I can't remember correctly. Maybe it was campaign, camp, and you couldn't say the ña. And I taught the kids always to do the nya sound. You you hold your word, you know the ñ, so here's a first grader. He wasn't, yeah, he was a first grader. And one of my active boys in the classroom, and he sees a superintendent get stuck, and he says, I can't pronounce this word, so I'm gonna skip over it. And this kid said to him, No, no, no, that's why we're here to help you. A first grader.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Oh, modeling the behavior of that teacher.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

And I froze, and I thought, oh my god, you're speaking to the superintendent. And he says, You hold your nose. What's the word? And then campana, and he's like, No, campa, yeah. It was so cute, but you know that he's paying attention. Yeah, they're always little ears or big lessons. He's not afraid to help somebody, so I loved, I love seeing that.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Um, so it's resilience, tenacity, confidence, confidence, and communication. They're learning how to communicate on a whole different level, not just uh semantics, the language itself, but being okay with saying this is a partnership. You help me sometimes, and I help you sometimes. That's unbelievable. You've received remarkable recognition statewide, including teacher Hall of Fame honors and student achievement awards. What moments make you feel the most proud when you look back at this two-decade plus history of something that wasn't here but you created?

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Wow, it's it's just been a wild uh two decades of meeting all kinds of parents and kids and principals and teachers. Um, you know, we Jonathan and I started this program and we're the co-founders, but it's really our instructors that are the in the front, you know, they're on the front line. And it's our instructors that pass on that passion to the kids. So we are just blown away by

Love Them First Then Teach Them

SPEAKER_00 27:40

all the instructors that have come through us in 23 years, and and some that are still with us, that they just they love to teach children and they love to pass that passion of their culture to them. And Janet and I I had a mentor, um, Dr. Garriki in elementary school, that always said, Donna, remember, first you love them, meaning the children, then you teach them. And I told Janet that at that time, and I said, This really touched my heart because we're we're so focused on we gotta teach, teach, teach. And yeah, we care for the kids, but first we love them and then we teach them. And that just stuck with me for all these years. And Janet said, we're gonna make that part of our curriculum. So now every teacher is trained. They know what we expect at the interview when we interview them is first you're gonna love them, then you're gonna teach them and share your passion. And they're doing that. So um, you know, it's a successful program, yes, but a lot of it is owed to our instructors and their dedication and really to the parents that support their children learning a world language.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

It's incredible to hear about this holistic wraparound program that you've created. It's not just

Camps That Blend Food Games And Language

SPEAKER_01 29:05

an after-school program, you also have camps. So let's talk a little bit about the camps because they blend language with cooking, games, crafts, water days, and experiential learning. Why is immersive play such an important part of language retention and learning in general?

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Well, again, because learning a language and the culture of the language brings in the food, brings in the fun games that they may not know about. There are a lot of games that we played growing up that the kids here don't know. So we want to incorporate that. And we want to incorporate things that they're familiar with, like water days. Um, but for example, the first week of June and the last week of June are our cooking camps. So the first week, we're gonna focus on the Caribbean. I'm part Cuban, so we're gonna be cooking Cuban food, we're gonna be uh cooking from the Dominican Republic, from Puerto Rico, we're gonna incorporate all that. The last week of June, we're gonna incorporate more South America. So we're gonna start with Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Paraguay. We're gonna incorporate everything. And so it's gonna be great because the first week the main teacher is gonna be me, which I'm half Cuban, and the last week of June, the teacher is from Colombia. So they're gonna learn from authentic people that know how to cook this food and play the music and incorporate, you know, when you're cooking, you're incorporating writing, reading recipes, you're writing out your recipes, you're incorporating science for your measurements, you're incorporating math. So it's gonna be a lot of fun. Are you gonna be using the metric system? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

So there's a whole decades we have to. That is such a layer that you're adding to all of this. And so when you do these individual countries and cultures, are if you're cooking Cuban food, are you also playing Cuban music? Are you learning a Cuban dance? Or an instrument. Or an instrument or a game. It can be an example.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

For the Cuban game, we're gonna do dominoes. So, you know, we're gonna have a table with a domino, and we're gonna teach them how the Cubans play dominoes with nine nine features. So, so yeah, Colombia, you know, they're gonna learn from her the Colombian heritage and the music from Colombia. Um, and you know, the arepas or whatever she's planning to cook, but yeah, incorporating always those other cultural components. And for middle of June, I think it's the week of June 22nd, um, we're gonna have one camp at Redeemer Church in Panavedra with Patricia. Patricia's from Paraguay, and she's doing Spanish is fun. So she's gonna focus on a lot of crafts. So it's not necessarily cooking for that one, but it's gonna be crafting, it's gonna be drawing, it's gonna be a lot of art and incorporating the language and the culture of her country, which is Paraguay. So, which is very different. How many people know about Paraguay? Not many.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

So after the Super Bowl halftime show, you would think more people knew about Paraguay. Or at least now they're familiar with there being more than Puerto Rico in the Dominican Republic. I'm from New York City, and so we had a parade for every one of them. Yes, and I attended all of them, which is very unusual because that wouldn't take place in most of the country. Right. So you're bringing to a whole group of community members something that has never been here before. Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

And you And they're having fun with it. They they're going to have fun with it. So the first and last week of June, the camps for cooking, uh, those are gonna be at the First Coast Cultural Center in Punamiga, because we have a partnership with them.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Beautiful. So for parents listening who may think my child is too young to learn

When Is A Child Too Young

SPEAKER_01 32:40

a language, or why does this even matter? What would you want them to understand about introducing language and culture early?

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Oh, absolutely. Um, the younger the better. Uh, you know, we teach starting kindergarten through fifth grade, that's our core, K through fifth. And our camps are for kindergarten through fifth grade. But if you have a kindergarten, don't be afraid to sign them up because they're the ones that have the most fun. They are like sponges. They absorb everything, they're so into hands-on, and they have a lot of fun. Um, so no, I I say age should not should not uh matter when it comes to learning a language.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Well, I have been so impressed with the work that you do and the children that you've pulled out of what their normal everyday routine is and expose them to things that are new, curious, interesting, and different. And your staff that love the children first teach them second. Yes. Because the more you love them, the better it is to learn from and to teach. So I want to do

Lightning Round Favorites And Nonprofit Reality

SPEAKER_01 33:45

a quick lightning round where I'll ask you some questions and you tell me the first thing that comes to mind. Your favorite Latin or Spanish word.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

The one that has five the five vowels in it. Murcia lago. That means a bat. It's so long in Spanish, such a short. Oh, is that funny?

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Your favorite Spanish or Latin food. Mmm, paella. Oh. One food every child should try at least once. Mofongo. Just so they can tell their parents that they want that mofo food. Yes. Hardest thing about running a nonprofit. Mmm. Funding. One country or culture you still dream of exploring more deeply. Peru. Finish the sentence. The world would be kinder if more children learned many languages. Beautiful. Thank you so much for speaking with me today, Donna. It's been a privilege to know you, and I look forward to partnering with you in the future on something in Espanol or in English. You have to come visit one of our classes. I'm really excited to do that. There's something beautiful

Closing Reflection On Learning To Listen

SPEAKER_01 34:55

about people who quietly dedicate their lives to building bridges before the rest of the world realizes they're needed. Donna Guzo could have built a tutoring business, a franchise, a transactional after school program. Instead, she built a mission around curiosity, kindness, and cultural literacy. And maybe that matters now more than ever. Because children are not born fearing differences. They learn it, which means they can also learn openness. They can learn wonder and curiosity. They can learn that another language is not a threat to identity, but an invitation into someone else's humanity. I keep thinking about that phrase: learn a language, share a culture, change the world. It sounds idealistic until you realize every conflict in history might have looked different if more people had actually learned how to listen to one another. So maybe changing the world starts smaller than we think. Maybe it starts with a child learning how to say hello in another language. Hola, shalom. Maybe it starts with cooking a meal from another culture. Maybe it starts with realizing that different does not mean dangerous or weird. And maybe that's the kind of education we should all be investing in.

Honorable Mention Reese The Poet

SPEAKER_01 36:07

And now it's time for our honorable mention. A mensch is someone who shows up with integrity, responsibility, and heart. Today's honorable mensch is Fenton Reese, also known to many as Reese the Poet. He'll kill me if I ever use the F-word again. Now, technically, Reese is my sound engineer at the Performers Academy, but that title barely scratches the surface because some people work with sound equipment. Reese speaks the language of sound. He understands rhythm, pacing, silence, emotion, vulnerability, and storytelling. He knows when to let a moment breathe and when to lean into it. And honestly, that's an art form all its own. Marine Corps veteran, slam poet, inspirational speaker, music producer, and mentor, Reese has dedicated his work to helping people find strength, truth, and connection through storytelling and music. What I admire most is that he doesn't just create art to entertain people, he creates art to move people. And in a world where everyone is shouting, there's something profoundly powerful about someone who still understands how to make people actually listen and control what they hear. You can feel it in the room when he's working. There's intention, there's care, there's heart. And maybe that's why today's episode felt so aligned. Because language, music, poetry, storytelling, they're all trying to accomplish the same thing human connection. So today I honor Reese, the poet, a creator, a collaborator, mentor, and translator of emotion into sound. That, my friends, is an honorable mention. And that

Share And Follow For More

SPEAKER_01 37:45

will do it for us today. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Shmoose with Suze. If this conversation made you think, feel, or see something a little differently, share it because these conversations, they matter. Follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for your daily dose of Hudzba. I'm Suze, your well informed smartass, reminding you what's an envelope if not for pushing. Stay inspired and inspiring.