Contributed by Flyer News
Anna Beyerle, News Editor

An education at the University of Dayton presents students with unique opportunities, and this rings especially true for one May 2011 graduate.

Former Flyer cross country and track standout Chris Lemon earned his bachelor's degrees from UD in Spanish and foreign language education, and is now working as a Fulbright teaching assistant in Ixtapan de la Sal, Edomex, Mexico. He said his experiences there led him to publish two language-learning books, one in English and one in Spanish.

Lemon said he began the application process for the competitive Fulbright Program in fall 2010. After submitting the paperwork, completing an interview through Skype and waiting for months, he was accepted as an English teaching assistant in Mexico.

"Most years, about 100 [people] apply for these assistantships to Mexico, with nine scholarships being awarded for the 2011-2012 school year," Lemon said.

Lemon said he wrote his honors thesis about the effectiveness of short-term studies abroad, based on three case studies of university-level Spanish students.

"[For the books,] I was originally planning to make an extension of that thesis based on my own linguistic improvement over my current nine-month stay in Mexico, but decided that it would be a lot more fun to write a short novel instead," he said.

Lemon's inspiration for the books originated from his experience student teaching at Chaminade-Julienne Catholic High School in Dayton. He and his cooperating teacher, Peg Regan, used short stories and novels with honors students at the high school.

"These were great resources, but some of them were very out-of-date or no longer published," Lemon said.

In September 2011, Lemon saw a fountain in Ixtapan de la Sal that reminded him of a chapter in one of the books used at Chaminade-Julienne.

"Then it hit me: Why don't I write a text for Spanish learners based on some of my experiences here as a project?" Lemon said.

Each book tells the same story but in a different language. The English version is titled "Long Live Ixtapan de la Sal! Long Live Mexico!" and the Spanish version is "Viva Ixtapan de la Sal! Viva Mexico!"

"They highlight the Fiestas Patrias, or Independence Day, celebrations, complete with a massive onion and avocado food fight staged on a two-story wooden castle constructed in the middle of a major intersection and gunpowder muskets shot off in the middle of the crowd," Lemon said.

He said each book has 15 chapters complete with anticipation guides, monolingual definitions in the margins, comprehension questions, note pages and post-reading activities. The books are geared toward students who studied English or Spanish for two or more years.

His twin brother Matt Lemon, a fellow 2011 graduate who edited the books, said they would be a good resource for anyone, especially college students interested in learning more Spanish.

"The book builds on different concepts as it goes through and gets more advanced," Matt Lemon said. "It's a pretty good story as well."

According to Matt Lemon, his brother's experience in Mexico has not only taught him more about Mexican culture, but also about teaching as well.

"He will be a high school Spanish teacher and his experiences have taught him a lot about how to teach and how native speakers use the language," Matt Lemon said.

While studying at UD, Chris Lemon was on the cross country and track teams for four years, where he was crowned the 2009 Atlantic 10 individual champion, was a two-time A-10 Student-Athlete of the Year and a two-time NCAA qualifier. He was also in a ska band, None of the Above, and competed in the Stander Cup.

Chris Lemon said his experience at UD gave him an appreciation for the practical experiences available through university programs, including student-teaching at Incarnation Catholic School and Chaminade-Julienne, and volunteering in the English as a second language classroom at Patterson/Kennedy Elementary School. He said he also benefited from taking a wide variety of classes, including child and adolescent development, trombone and discrete math.

"Life and work during and after college truly is a multidisciplinary affair, and most of the things you pick up along the way will come from the least expected places," he said.

Published in March, Chris Lemon's books are available for purchase for less than $10 each. To purchase the Spanish version, visit http://www.createspace.com/3802344, and for the English version, visit http://www.createspace.com/3804710.