July 27, 2015
By Maria Canales, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" While many of his teammates have spent their summers relaxing while working out or conditioning for the upcoming season, men's hockey junior David Goodwin spent the first half of his summer studying in Mexico. The forward, who notched 15 goals during the 2014-15 campaign, found his niche while taking classes towards his Spanish degree.
Goodwin stayed with a host family, which he said was one of the most appealing parts about choosing this abroad experience.
"I stayed with a Mexican family who was only able to speak Spanish," said Goodwin. "It's a little bit different from other programs where you get to stay in an apartment or a dorm. I really thought that staying with a Spanish speaking family would be the best for me to immerse myself in the culture and in the language."
Although his host family hadn't heard of Penn State hockey before they met Goodwin, they quickly learned about the program. Goodwin taught the family everything they needed to know about the famed Hockey Valley.
"I don't think they knew I was on the hockey team, but they definitely figured it out since I wore a lot of Penn State hockey stuff around the house," said Goodwin. "Eventually I was showing them videos of our games and they were just in awe. They thought it was really cool and they're going to try to come up for a game in the next couple years."
Goodwin talked about his favorite cultural aspects of his time abroad. He emphasized that the slower pace of life was what he enjoyed most, especially when it came to bonding with his host family. Mealtimes in Mexico, Goodwin learned, were the cornerstone of family interaction, and the time around a meal is valued as a vital part of a family's relationship.
"After the meals, sitting at the table and just chit chatting in Spanish, in Mexico that's a big cultural thing called 'sobre la mesa' where you stay at the table afterwards for an hour, hour and a half, and just talk with each other," said Goodwin. "That was a great experience for me."
No stranger to living with host families, Goodwin spent his years in junior hockey, before playing for Penn State, staying with host families. Goodwin explained that he felt he had an advantage when it came to getting used to living with a host family, since he had done it many times before.
"I felt like I definitely had a leg up on the other students that were with me because this was probably my fifth time kind of going in to a situation where I was going to be living with a host family who I didn't know before," said Goodwin. "The first few hours and couple days are a bit awkward but I definitely felt I was more comfortable because I had done it so many times prior."
Since his time in Mexico was part of a study abroad experience, Goodwin had the opportunity to take classes and learn more about Mexican heritage and culture. Goodwin took two Spanish classes, one on Mexican literature and another on Mexican history.
"I also took an art class on Mexican art, but that was taught in Spanish so I basically took three Spanish classes," said Goodwin.
His time learning and experiencing a new culture didn't confine the All-Big Ten Honorable Mention hockey player to just a classroom. During his final weekend in Mexico, Goodwin and others in his study abroad program traveled to the state of Puebla.
While in Puebla, Goodwin and his fellow students spent a full day at a local school, immersing him further into a culture he had started to become familiar with. This experience resonated with Goodwin in a life-changing way.
"We did some tourist things, but we volunteered at a school for a little over a day," said Goodwin. "We brought them some food and worked with the kids in the classroom, talked to the kids a lot, and we played a lot of soccer at recess. It was pretty powerful, so I was really happy we did that."
The students at the school taught Goodwin some new soccer tricks, which he believes will come in handy by the time the 2015-16 Penn State men's hockey season rolls around.
"When [my teammates and I] are warming up before the games and we're playing soccer, I'll show them some of my moves I learned in Mexico," said Goodwin.
Goodwin's time in Mexico was a transformative experience, both educationally and personally. Having started out with his own preconceived ideas of the Mexican culture and peoples, Goodwin quickly learned that not everything he had in his head was a proper portrayal of such a wonderful country.
Goodwin explained that the people he met and lived with, along with the beautiful countryside, including mountains and waterfalls, have changed how he will forever look at the country he called home during his summer.
When asked what aspects of the Spanish culture he would bring back to Penn State, Goodwin highlighted that the most important things he learned were about prioritizing time and relationships.
"I think just the awareness of how other people live in the world, experiencing that there's way more to life than the material things, there's way more to life than hockey," said Goodwin. "To see the joys the families had in each other and spending time with each other was something that I felt had been lacking in my life in America, so just bringing back that joy and appreciation for the smaller things in life I think Americans take for granted."