“I saw a painting by Goya and I was moved to tears. I stood there in that chapel in Toledo and I was bawling. But the most impressive moment I’ve ever had was in Madrid when I saw Picasso’s ‘Guernica,’” said Sheridan Wigginton when I asked her what piece of Spanish art she valued most. I have had a good many Spanish teachers in my time. None, however, have held the Spanish language with as much indifference as Sheridan Wigginton seems to. But I mean this in a good way. Like she said, “it’s not really about the languages; it’s about the experiences that come from them.”

It’s about opportunities like seeing “Guernica,” face to canvas, for the first time.

As Guilford’s latest addition to the Foreign Languages Department, Wigginton is eager for change and expansion. She chose Guilford because there are opportunities to bring about such things. The “brick walls” that a person normally runs into trying to reform big universities aren’t here. To Wigginton, this is important.

“I am not patient by nature,” she said.

Manipulating Guilford’s flexible system is the challenging part. Wigginton is used to the bullheadedness of larger universities. From 1995 until last May she worked as a teaching assistant at the University of Missouri while she completed her graduate studies.

While Guilford is more receptive to change than larger schools are, what frustrates Wigginton is that the language programs here aren’t as expansive.

“Language majors are just language majors. There is so much other depth and breadth you can get with a bigger program. We need to be more relevant,” Wigginton said.

Relevancy is exactly what Wigginton is striving towards. The idea is to mix things up, to find a working balance between teaching grammar structures and culture studies. While she might not be completely used to Guilford’s administration, Wigginton is ambitiously working on bringing two guest speakers to Guilford next semester, Dorothy Mosby, from Ohio State University and Debbie Lee of South East Missouri State University. The two women will speak about the current goings on in Latin American culture. Debbie Lee will lead a symposium on Asian and African immigration into Latin America.

Though Wigginton is bound to Guilford by contract for only a year, she is already busy etching her name on the great desk that is Guilford College, spicing up the paella we call life, and with any luck, multiplying the sombreros of the language department.