About Us

COSSI - History

In 2017 Central Oregon Community College (COCC) hosted the first Central Oregon Summer Spanish Immersion (COSSI) program. The vision of COSSI is to provide an immersion experience in beautiful Central Oregon for those who want to improve their Spanish without traveling abroad.

Through the combination of intensive Spanish instruction, conversation groups, and cultural breakout sessions known as “Electivos”, COSSI has immerged as the most dynamic and practical way to propel Spanish acquisition and development without leaving the country.

The COSSI Program Team works tirelessly each year to recruit outstanding Spanish instructors and put together a comprehensive week of language input and participation to facilitate the maximum amount of learning and improvement for those involved. All languge levels are taught at 80% comprehensible Spanish level, with the goal of reaching 100% by the end of the week.

COSSI participants will complete their immersion experience with greater confidence, skills, and enthusiasm to excel in their use of the Spanish. All the while they will be enriched by cultural knowledge and motivated by interactions with other language learners as they advance in their perfection of using this beautiful language spoken by nearly 600 million people globally.

 COSSI Program Team

Stephanie Goetsch, Director Community Education/COSSI

Stephanie has worked for COCC since 2005. Her current role is Community Education Director, overseeing all adult and youth enrichment programming for COCC. She began in Community Education in 2015, as a program manager. Prior to that she spent 10 years in COCC’s Information & Technology Department. She earned her Bachelor of Science at University of Oregon and her Master’s degree in Adult Education at Oregon State University.  She has attended Lake Tahoe's summer ISSI program to prepare for her role in planning the Central Oregon Summer Spanish Immersion. She has designed all COSSI events, speakers and programs, since its inception.

 

David Engel, Instructional Coordinator

David Engel is a Senior Instructor of Spanish at OSU-Cascades in Bend. He also co-directs the Faculty Support Center at OSU-Cascades in partnership with the Center for Teaching and Learning in Corvallis. He earned a Master of Arts in Spanish Language Teaching from Southern Oregon University and Universidad de Guanajuato (Mexico) as well as the Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera from Instituto Cervantes in Madrid. David is a Co-Founder of Ventanas, LLC, which develops and leads cultural immersion programs in Spain and Portugal. He has provided Spanish instruction and training in Oregon since 2006 with such organizations as COCC, Bend-LaPine Schools, Redmond and Jefferson County School Districts, Deschutes County, St. Charles Medical Center, and Bend and Redmond Fire Departments. He does official document translation for public institutions. He was instrumental in the creation of COSSI and contributes to instructor recruitment and development as well as programming and curriculum development.