To hear Jermiah Lancaster ‘26 tell it, something was pulling at his subconscious.
He arrived at Wabash College in the fall of 2022 and bounced through a few majors. First mathematics, then economics, but nothing stuck.
Hoping to fill a cultural gap he couldn’t quite describe, he turned to Spanish. His father, a man he never knew, was Mexican, so Lancaster sought a connection. What he discovered was a major that opened an entire world to him.
“I was drawn to Spanish because of my Hispanic heritage,” he said. “I felt the need to learn and quickly I learned about more of the cultures that Spanish has to offer. Although I’m Mexican, I was drawn to Dominican culture and the Caribbean because of my African ancestry as well. I dug more culturally into Dominican, the dances, the use of drums, and songs.”
He dove in completely, switching his phone to Spanish-only, swapped his grunge and old-school rap playlist for Dominican folk music, and began having conversations with himself in Spanish, something says was surprisingly natural.
“Talking to yourself is a way to externalize thoughts,” Lancaster said. “I also find myself thinking in Spanish a lot. I’ll be in class, the lesson will be English, and my brain just go to Spanish.”
The self-immersion worked. Spanish spilled into his daily life. He often finds himself translating phrases mid-thought, defaulting to Spanish when stressed, and thinking through problems in his second language before his first. He’s become bilingual.
"I have a different personality in Spanish," he said. "I feel different in that language."
That difference became most vivid on the Camino de Santiago. Lancaster went to Spain on two immersion trips, and on the Camino he struck up a 25-minute conversation while walking with an Argentinian woman, talking about hobbies, experiences, and life. Later, he encountered an Italian man and connected through Spanish, and then English, cementing the memory for Lancaster.
“There was something about the language that really clicked with J.J.,” said Jane Hardy, senior associate dean and associate professor of Spanish. “He has a particular talent for recognizing patterns, specifically verb conjugations, which are very complicated in Spanish. Having a talent for language acquisition helps, but J.J. really works at it. He is a high-input generator who makes opportunities to talk often with people in Spanish.”
Lancaster says Professor Hardy’s linguistic background sharpened a focus in him on the mechanics and history of how people speak. He now sees dialects as living records of history and migration. The Dominican accent he describes as a precise, descriptive product of centuries of Indigenous, African, and Spanish influence that is descriptively correct.
He also spent a semester abroad in the Dominican Republic on a Gilman International Scholarship, an experience that was made easier for the native of Gary, Indiana, because he was already familiar.
“I got to study abroad and do immersion trips with the help of Wabash,” Lancaster said. “Professor Hardy really pushed me and helped me become more fascinated with the language. Doing the Santiago helped me prepare for studying abroad by seeing different sides of the world. By the time I arrived in the Dominican Republic, I was prepared for culture shock. I was prepared for life to be different than in the United States because I had already been abroad.”
Aside from the educational and cultural, there was also a personal transformation. Lancaster describes himself
before Wabash as someone who kept everything inside, wasn’t particularly expressive, and not easy to open up. His major changed that.
“When you speak Spanish, you have to be descriptive,” explained Lancaster. “You have to be expressive. It was that gateway to really express myself openly with people and communicate. I became friendlier.”
Now a Wabash graduate, Lancaster has accepted a position with the Memphis Teacher Residency, where he will earn a master’s degree and spend four years teaching English as a Second Language to students in under-resourced communities.
Hardy believes his example can spark learning in others.
“His passion for Spanish will no doubt inspire his students,” said Hardy. “He is also a great model for students as a non-native speaker who has become fluent in the language. If he can do it, starting at age 18, they can to!”
Lancaster sees a direct line between where he came from and where he’s going.
“I’m motivated to use what I was taught here at Wabash and help the next generation of kids who come from the same background as me,” he said. “I love to see when students are engaged and show progress.”