Len Sekelick: From Bloomfield to Brazil, Embracing the Experience of Experience
As the second-grade class walks back from their field trip to the Lawrenceville branch of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie library, the boy proudly shifts his bulky acquisitions to get a better grip on the four records, phrase book, and dictionary. Len Sekelick is now the proud (if temporary) owner of a “Living Language” Spanish course—the first thing he checked out with his freshly minted library card. (His enthusiasm for the language has been largely inspired by Sesame Street’s oft-repeated skit about a salida, or exit, and the catchy counting song in Spanish.) By the end of the week, Sekelick can ask where the hotel, post office, and restaurant are in Spanish, along with a hodgepodge of other vocabulary words.
Over the next few years, he uses his paperboy money and writes the company that produces the “Living Language” courses. Sekelick ends up purchasing a course packet for every single language they offer.
Not surprisingly, the self-taught elementary-school language student goes on to excel in formally taught high-school Spanish, and is selected as one of 500 high-school juniors from Western Pennsylvania to attend the University of Pittsburgh’s language arts open house in 1985.
“Part of the day’s activities included taking a comprehensive foreign language battery exam and writing a timed essay in English,” recalls Sekelick. “I don’t remember the topic, but I do remember thinking I had to write to win.”
Sekelick was hoping to be one of the top 50 students, each of whom would be given a tuition waiver to take a course of their choice at Pitt their senior year of high school. But, when the thick envelope came in the mail a few weeks later saying he had won the top prize—a coveted four-year Provost’s Scholarship to attend the University—he was ecstatic.
He went on to earn a BA in Spanish and Undergraduate Certificate in Latin American Studies, an MA in Hispanic Languages and Literatures and Graduate Certificate in Latin American Studies, and a PhD in Hispanic Languages and Literatures, with a concentration in Applied Linguistics and Methodology—all from the University of Pittsburgh.
Sekelick believes his upbringing in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood (within “eyeshot” of Pitt’s iconic Cathedral of Learning) and his education at the University of Pittsburgh both helped form the firm foundation he has built a challenging and successful career upon.
“Pitt was a comfortable fit for me from day one, and I would make the decision to stay at Pitt for all three degrees again,” says Sekelick. “The serendipity of having grown up so close to a world-class university worked out very well for me, and my decade at Pitt is one that I remember with great fondness and appreciation.”
An avid world traveler (he has spent time in more than 50 different countries on every continent except Antartica), Sekelick has put both his international savvy and his considerable language expertise to good use. He currently holds not one, but three, different jobs—a veritable triangle of teaching and linguistics. He teaches International Affairs at George Washington University and Spanish at Prince George’s Community College (both in the Washington, DC, area), while working at the FBI as a linguist/analyst.
“While it might seem cliché to say, it is true that working at the FBI is a privilege and a very rewarding one at that,” says Sekelick. “The FBI is a family, and teamwork is essential.”
Sekelick explains that his FBI job includes translating written and audio materials from Spanish and Portuguese into English, and occasionally from English into Portuguese or Spanish. He also provides cultural analysis and insight, and sometimes serves as an interpreter during meetings between FBI and Justice Department officials and foreign counterparts.
He particularly enjoys teaching at George Washington and Prince George’s. At GW, Sekelick teaches graduate courses in Spanish at the Elliott School of International Affairs. His students have concentrations ranging from Latin American studies to global communications, from international affairs to law.
“Each semester, we have a mock summit on topics of interest in the Spanish-speaking world,” says Sekelick. The most recent semester’s summit focused on four areas: violence (drug-trafficking, terrorism), and post-conflict resolution; immigration; Cuba-U.S. relations; and indigenous rights in Latin America.
“My teaching is directly linked to my training at Pitt, and I really cannot envision a better fit,” Sekelick says.
Prior to his current teaching appointments, Sekelick taught Spanish at both George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, and the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. In addition, he worked as a consultant for the Educational Testing Service for Advanced Placement in Spanish Language.
But it is his current mix of three jobs that Sekelick particularly savors: “It’s been almost 15 years since I started juggling these three jobs. Some days can be very busy and long, but I am used to it all,” he muses.
Sekelick honed his ability to handle multiple responsibilities and roles seamlessly during his Pitt days. He spent five years as a TA/TF while also keeping up his graduate studies, including four years serving as the TA coordinator’s assistant. It is the experience he credits with preparing him most for his career in college teaching: “Simply put, nothing can beat the experience of experience,” Sekelick says.
He ranks his three years in a row of Pitt study-abroad trips (Ecuador as a sophomore, an around-the-world Semester at Sea voyage as a junior, and Brazil as a senior) as invaluable journeys of self-discovery and engagement with the wider world.
In particular, Sekelick’s summer in historic Cuenca, Ecuador—a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage site nestled in the sierra of the Andes—stands out. He lived there with the Durazno-Silvas, a warm and welcoming family with five sons ranging in age from 19 to seven.
“Being with them left an indelible mark on my life and on theirs,” he says. “We shared so much during that time—stories of each other’s lives, walks around town and to the movies, family meals, parties, dances, road trips, and even a chuchaqui or two (the Kichwa word Ecuadorians often use to refer to a hangover),” recalls Sekelick, who says they still stay in touch, some 27 years later, and even see each other periodically.
“It was an incredible time of discovery and transformation for me, and who I am now in 2015 in many ways can be traced to that summer.”