For Allie McCarty, the path to teaching Spanish began with a childhood curiosity instilled by her parents. “Since I was a child, my parents instilled in me a curiosity for the world beyond my understanding,” she recalls. At age 14, she was taken on a journey across South America where travel was limited to buses, trains, and bunkbeds. Upon entering college, there was no question that she wanted to study Spanish.
Beyond graduate work, Allie’s journey includes planning and leading annual international exchange trips for nearly a decade and serving as a department head of languages, where she helped house a Mandarin Chinese language program in collaboration with the College Board and its guest teacher program. Her own experiences living, working, studying, and traveling extensively throughout Latin America continue to inform her teaching.
Teaching Philosophy
While the leading objective of any language proficiency course is to acquire the skills necessary to use the target language, Allie prioritizes instilling an inherent interest beyond the language that keeps students engaged and searching for more. She enjoys curating authentic materials by weaving media, music, stories, and news articles as the driving force behind each lesson.
Language study, she explains, can serve as a mechanism for understanding our own cultural conditioning and biases. “This process often affords one the opportunity to hone their cultural curiosity and empathy in order to more effectively engage with their own communities and beyond.”
Current Work & Interests
Allie is currently teaching Sounds of Resistance: Music and Protest across Latin America, a course she developed this past year. From transnational political movements to Bad Bunny and Residente, the content feels deeply relevant as it highlights contemporary musicians who are using their platforms to challenge power, amplify marginalized voices, and shape public discourse across the Americas.
This past N/D block, she spent November and December in Peru at the Chaikuni Permaculture Institute, working to address deforestation using agroforestry and permaculture principles.
The Antioch Connection
“Antioch’s commitment to experiential and socially engaged academics makes it a prime environment for language education, naturally connecting students to intercultural understanding, community engagement, and global perspectives,” Allie says. She deeply appreciates working at an institution that combines a progressive liberal arts education with experiential learning, social engagement, and close mentorship.
Language learning, she notes, supports the goals of the ACW program by developing intercultural communication, community engagement, and career-ready skills that prepare students to work effectively in diverse local and global environments.
Outside the Classroom
When she is not teaching, Allie enjoys traveling, cooking, making art (especially pottery), and practicing yoga. She is a certified yoga teacher and an adoption coordinator for a local cat rescue, where she also helps run social media.
In 2022, she received a professional certification in Permaculture Design from Oregon State University and has been working on applying learned principles on her own land. She also works in curriculum consulting with Beyond Organic Design out of NYC, an organization aiming to integrate permaculture curriculum into the New York City public school system.
Allie also co-creates and hosts a podcast with Dalia Laurencio titled Navigate the Now. They are currently working on season two and have hosted guests including Beth Macy (Paper Girl), Robyn Moreno (former editor of Latina Magazine), and many others doing important work navigating today’s political climate.
Something students might be surprised to learn: Allie has done professional fire spinning (hula hoop) and led a hula hoop dance troupe in Florida.
