Spanish teacher at Providence Catholic H.S. in New Lenox teaches love for cultures through language.

Lara DeVries: ‘You never know where life will take you’

Lara DeVries, a Spanish teacher at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, also oversees the school’s international club. DeVries founded the nonprofit, Light and Leadership Initiative in  2008 to support free educational programs for the people in Huaycan, located in the outskirts of Lima, Peru. DeVries also lived in Peru for 10 years and hopes she cultivates a love for cultures in her students.

Lara DeVries is a Spanish teacher at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox. DeVries also oversees the school’s international club.

But those facts don’t quite communicate DeVries’ passion for other cultures and the similiar passion she hopes to cultivate in her students.

DeVries spent 10 years living in Peru after graduating college in 2008. She formed a nonprofit, Light and Leadership Initiative – also in 2008 – to support free educational programs for the people of Huaycan, located on the outskirts of Lima, Peru.

And DeVries brings these experiences back into the classroom.

“The hope is that we create that spark, that something sticks with the students, that they want to learn more,” DeVries said.

Lara DeVries, a Spanish teacher at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, also oversees the school’s international club. DeVries founded the nonprofit, Light and Leadership Initiative in  2008 to support free educational programs for the people in Huaycan, located in the outskirts of Lima, Peru. DeVries also lived in Peru for 10 years and hopes she cultivates a love for cultures in her students.

She said students are often surprised to learn that DeVries never studied a language until high school. They just assume she “started learning language as a kid when I was in elementary school,” DeVries said.

DeVries said she attended Andrew High School in Tinley Park. Then she earned a Bachelor of Arts in history and Spanish from Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights. She participated in study abroad programs in Spain and then Peru.

Although DeVries said she mostly volunteered and did “some independent study” for Trinity Christian College, the experience in Peru changed her life.

“My eyes were opened to the realities and difficulties that a country like Peru faces,” DeVries said. “I’d never been exposed to that … Spain is a more developed nation. Peru was, in many ways, a stark contrast.”

DeVries said she made good connections with people in Huaycan, so Devries knew she’d return. And she did, in 2009, after she started the Light and Leadership Initiative.

“A lot of people are unaware that the Peruvian educational system is consistently ranked as one of the worst in the world,” Devries said, later adding, “The problem often is access to resources and access to upward mobility.”

DeVries said the nonprofit’s mission was to increase access to resources and opportunities. While in Peru, DeVries also worked part time as an English as a Second Language instructor for a couple of years. She met her husband in Peru, and they now have a 3-year-old son.

But the main lesson DeVries said she learned in Peru is that “people are the same everywhere.” DeVries learned that “home” can be anywhere, even if it looks different from her childhood home.

“Huaycan will always be home to me,” said DeVries, who now has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Peru.

However, over time, DeVries also missed her family at home. She wanted to seek out new personal and professional challenges. Her husband wanted to see the U.S. So DeVries returned to the Tinley Park area in 2019, where an opportunity to teach Spanish at a local middle school “fell into her lap,” she said.

DeVries started teaching Spanish at Providence in August 2020. Light and Leadership Initiative now has a Peru-based executive director, she said.

She tells her students that understanding a language is more than mastering grammar and fluent speech. Language opens up opportunities beyond job opportunities.

“I cannot imagine my life without speaking Spanish,” DeVries said. “If I did not speak Spanish, I would not have met half my friends or even been able to sing my favorite songs. … I wish I had the time to learn more languages.”

DeVries is happy when students tell her they’ve added Spanish songs to their playlists. She hopes students learn from her experiences as a student in the southwest suburbs who lived for 10 years in a foreign country. And that, ultimately, is why students should learn language and culture.

“You never know where life will take you,” DeVries said.