For Amalia Cannon, Spanish was the glue that held together one of her first and closest bonds.<\/p>\n
Her Spanish-speaking godmother, Amalia Alejo, who she affectionately calls \u201cMami Mello,\u201d babysat Cannon until she was 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe taught me how to spell my family members\u2019 names in my sopa de letras (word search) and sang \u2018El sauce y la palma\u2019 as she rocked me to sleep,\u201d Cannon, 18, said.<\/p>\n
Eventually, she could only see her godmother occasionally, and Cannon\u2019s ability to speak Spanish began to fade with irregular use.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt broke my heart to see language become a barrier, rather than something we shared in common, so I swore to myself that I would study Spanish and regain what I had lost,\u201d Cannon said.<\/p>\n
Since then, Cannon, Reading Eagles\u2019 Berks\u2019 Best 2026 winner in world languages, has amassed a wide berth of experiences and goals in her pursuit of Spanish mastery.<\/p>\n
A senior at Wilson High School, Cannon started studying Spanish in eighth grade.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s become involved with the World Language Honor Society and is president of the Model UN at Wilson, in addition to serving in a variety of student outreach roles with the Wilson student government, Mini THON and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth the faculty at Wilson High School and her peers hold Amalia in great esteem,\u201d Donna Orchowski, honors Spanish teacher at Wilson, said in a recommendation letter to Berks\u2019 Best.<\/p>\n
Her Spanish studies culminated last summer, when she had the chance to study at the University of Salamanca in Spain during a weekslong immersion program.<\/p>\n
That experience helped cement Cannon\u2019s goal of opening a bilingual practice as a child psychologist.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s been accepted to multiple universities and aims to pursue a bachelor\u2019s degree and eventually a PhD in psychology, with a minor in Spanish.<\/p>\n
While in college, Cannon also hopes to volunteer in the Spanish-speaking community through outreach and mentorship programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout this time, I will further my Spanish fluency so I can take on Spanish-speaking clients,\u201d Cannon said. \u201cOpening my own practice will enable me to help parents foster healthy environments in which children can thrive, whether that involves guiding parents through co-parenting despite divorce or teaching strategies to cope with their children\u2019s struggles.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hadn\u2019t decided on a school as of late April but said her top two choices out of those she\u2019s been accepted to are Cornell University and Georgetown University.<\/p>\n
For now, Cannon is happy to speak Spanish fluently again with her godmother.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I visit my godmother, the lyrics of \u2018El sauce y la palma\u2019 come flooding back, and an enormous smile covers her face as we sing together,\u201d Cannon said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Amalia Cannon, Spanish was the glue that held together one of her first and closest bonds. Her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,85079,227,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-193470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-berks-best-2026","tag-education","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}