Spanish, public health and basketball shaped her journey
“Being immersed in the language helped me to develop my skills. I felt much more confident not only in my Spanish speaking, but in my self-confidence as well.”
Emily Mock was certain she wanted to go to a college near Boston, until a visit to Mount Holyoke changed her mind.
“I didn’t know about Mount Holyoke. I was against it at first, and then my mom made me come visit the fall of my senior year [in high school],” she said. “I saw the campus, met my basketball coach, and I fell in love with the College.”
Being undeclared, Mock wanted to attend a liberal arts college because she would have more time to decide on a major. With a first-year course load consisting mostly of biology and Spanish courses, she ultimately decided to double major in biology and Spanish.
“I’m interested in studying public health after I graduate. Biology obviously plays a large part,” she said. “But so does Spanish and being able to communicate with lots of different groups of people and helping in different parts of the world.”
Mock credits the support of Adriana Pitetta, her Spanish advisor, and professor Esther Castro Cuenca with helping her gain the confidence to speak up more in class. Additionally, she had the opportunity to practice her Spanish abroad when she spent the summer in Spain after her junior year.
Mock discovered a Council on International Educational Exchange program in Barcelona by scrolling through the College’s study abroad and study away webpage. CIEE helped her find housing and secure an internship with the Barcelona Foundation for Sports and Education.
“They speak Spanish very differently than I do here, so it was a challenge at first. It took a little while for me to adjust,” she said. “I worked four days a week and spoke Spanish the whole day. I also lived with a family that only spoke Spanish. Being immersed in the language helped me to develop my skills. I felt much more confident not only in my Spanish speaking but in my self-confidence as well.”
While in Barcelona, Mock enjoyed dinner with her host family each night and was able to engage in Catalonian and Spanish culture. On the third day of her internship, she worked at the information desk during a large event, where she had the opportunity to connect with local children. Nearly 2,000 kids attended.
Mock also works at the Kendall Fitness Center Information Desk, where she performs a myriad of office-related tasks.
“I love my on campus job at Kendall because I get to see all my favorite people every day,” she said.
While the Kendall Fitness Center internship was her favorite, Mock credited her internship at the Academic Public Health Corps in Worcester, Massachusetts, with helping her solidify her career goals. During the remote internship, she assisted in developing and translating outreach communication materials, collaborated on team projects to promote public health initiatives and shadowed employees during local health department visits.
“I got to work with people from all around the state. It helped me build a lot of connections, and I learned a lot about the field of public health in general,” she said.
Mock has been a student athlete since high school, and her participation in basketball was one of the highlights of her time at the College. She considers her teammates her best friends and has developed close relationships with her coaches, athletic trainers and administrators within the athletic department. As a senior, Mock was made co-captain with two other teammates, but an injury prevented her from having time on the court. She stated that in this season, she learned how to “lead from the sidelines,” bringing energy and support to her teammates.
“You don’t always have to be the star of the show to still contribute something important. Sometimes you can provide valuable information from watching,” she said. “My teammates were always very supportive and always listened to what I had to say.”
Mock was a member of the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 NEWMAC Women’s Basketball All-Academic Team. She was also part of the 2022–2023 NCAA DIII Academic All-Region Team and received the Mount Holyoke Student Leadership and Service Award in 2023.
Mock plans to take a gap year to explore Washington state with her roommate Amelia Ducey before applying to graduate school for public health.
The “built-in community” within student athletics was just a microcosm of the overall sense of community within Mount Holyoke that Mock cited as the most rewarding aspect of her experience at the College.
“I love walking through the dining hall every day. I wave and smile at half the people in there because I know them from class or through my roommates,” she said. “It’s nice that everyone kind of knows everyone, which works out well for me just because I like having all those connections.”
