By Sancho Maroto Tobias
Reflection
During my time working on the project, it not only pushed me to deepen my research and ability to write but also doing it in another language made it more challenging. One of the pieces that stuck with me afterwards is the part of researching and connecting topics with personal experience. With the language difficulty aside, being able to research a topic that was connecting both the story as well as something I was passionate about or at least something I could connect with in order to get the most out of it, was something I’ve tried to use during the rest of my academic career and also when connecting with people. I have found that when you research a person, become interested in them and find pieces of their life that can connect with your own, it makes the connection flow more naturally, building upon pillars that are set by shared personal experiences, and that’s something I try using with new people I meet.
There are some aspects of publishing through Canal that allowed me to understand things about myself. The first thing that comes to mind is the action of publishing a paper, which in my head seemed very far because of my career path, as well as being from another country. Publishing that paper made me realize that maybe I was a better writer than I thought and that through research, work and the help of the people around, I was able to accomplish something great such as publishing a paper in my third language.
I had no further publications after Canal, so I highly value my experience with it. The opportunities came more from knowing Italian rather than publishing itself, but it gave me a backbone of knowing that I was fluent enough in the language to be able to publish a paper.
Being given the opportunity to publish was a fantastic experience, it made me feel more confident in my skills with the language. I have been really grateful to be given such an opportunity and I will always have that with me along the way. Even if I don’t publish any other papers because of the career path I chose, I was able to learn from the experience in such a way that it opened doors to utilize certain skills in day-to-day events, with work and with people.
Read “La scoperta del Parmigiano Reggiano negli Stati Uniti” Canal Issue VI (2022).
Biographical Statement - Sancho Maroto Tobias
My name is Sancho Maroto Tobias. I am 24 years old, was born and raised in Madrid, Spain, and moved to Boston during high school. I graduated from Brandeis University after transferring from UMass Lowell. I studied business and did an Italian minor as well. I have always been involved with sports, playing collegiate soccer and developing an interest in the sports industry, where I worked at the start of my career. I am now in the finance industry working as a fund administrator for JTC Group in Boston, hoping to continue progressing into my career.