Haley Bradbury (BA'09)

Just like family

Haley Bradbury says the key to a successful university education is doing what you like. If she didn’t have that attitude, she may well have ended up on a completely different path.

“Before I started at Dal I was thinking about taking science, but I realized it didn’t interest me at all,” she says. “When I read about Spanish and International Development Studies (IDS) on the Dal website, I realized that’s what I was interested in. It’s easier to learn if you’re interested in what you’re taking. And if you take courses you like, you’re going to end up somewhere you like to be.”

Haley grew up in Shubenacadie and Dartmouth, N.S., and always knew she wanted to come to Dal. She wanted to stay fairly close to her family and was drawn in by Dal’s reputation. When she arrived to start her double major in Spanish and IDS, she discovered it was better than she imagined.

“Spanish is a very tight-knit department,” she says. “You become friends with your profs and the office staff. They make it more like a family. I spent most of my time in the Spanish department because it was always so much fun in there.”

The camaraderie in the program stems from the inherent nature of learning a language, especially in small classes where you get to know your classmates. Haley says a lot of time is spent talking with each other, bouncing ideas around, and doing group work.

“It was great working so closely with a group of like-minded people, working toward the same goals,” she says. “Learning the language was so cool because you walk away with knowledge and a skill that you can use any time. I took a French course in my last year of university, and spoke it with a Spanish accent!”

She points out that it’s a challenge learning a new language—something that requires effort every year. But she adds the professors in the Spanish program genuinely care about their students and are always willing to help guide them through.

“John Kirk has always been one of my favourites,” she says. “There are rumours that he’s too hard and his courses are too difficult, but he’s hilarious and he really knows his stuff. He teaches it so well that you just soak it all in. He’s challenging—there’s no way you’ll get an A unless you work hard—but it makes you feel good in the end.”

Haley now works in the leisure travel industry, as the co-owner of a Cruise Holidays franchise in Halifax. It was an opportunity that came out of the blue, but appealed to her because it allows her to keep practicing her Spanish language skills and stay on top of the Latin American culture and history she learned at Dal.

“I can give clients a different take on some of their destinations than what they hear or see on the news, or what they may think a place is like—it’s not all about beaches,” she says. “I really am using my degree. I learned how to balance things, to organize things, and to take on challenges I didn’t think I could. Doing my degree built up my self-confidence and has allowed me to deal well with the working world.”