About Us
Mission and Vision
- Targeted language training and courses: for healthcare professionals and teachers
- Spanish Immersion Programs: for students, professionals, teachers healthcare workers, adults and families
- Translation and interpretation Services
- Be successful in their workplace
- Better serve their patients, school communities and clients
- Have a greater impact in the communities they live, work and serve in!
Learning how to interact with others of diverse backgrounds and learning how to communicate across cultures helps you make a difference in the lives of others in your community.
What we offer
Each of Common Ground International’s language solutions are specifically designed to help individuals and companies better manage their diverse workforce, and improve their service to current and potential clientele.
We specialize in Practical and Industry Specific:
Leaders in Industry-Specific Spanish & English Language Training
Experts in Spanish Immersion Programs
Professional & certified translators and interpreters
Founders & Owners
Rory and Leslie Foster founded Common Ground International in the fall of 2001 while they were teaching Spanish at a local college preparatory school in Colorado. During this year, through various personal and professional interactions they noticed a real and urgent need that was not getting met.
With backgrounds in Spanish Education from the University level to pre-school and with training in curriculum development, they realized they needed to create a solution. In that moment, it became clear that their day job was not matching up with their true desire to use language to have a greater impact and provide a solution to a communication problem they discovered. The defining moment was when their friends, in a Doctorate of Nursing program, requested customized Medical Spanish classes to help them be more successful in treating their Spanish speaking patients. It was in that request, their passion for designing a language curriculum that could potentially save lives and improve patient health outcomes was discovered.
Common Ground International emerged with a zest for teaching language to fill real life needs and impact communities through industry specific language trainings, services and immersion programs.
Our History
Since 2001, Common Ground International has developed language training programs across the nation and internationally in Central and South America. Our programs and curriculum have expanded to include other professional industries apart from medicine, such as:
- Industry specific Spanish immersion programs in Central & South America
- Educators across the nation that work with limited English speaking families and need Spanish language support
- American English training for professionals
- High school Spanish students who need to graduate with real Spanish conversational skills
- Document translation and interpretation for professional industries
Rory and Leslie now have a wonderful team of language professionals in the United States and throughout Central and South America that they enjoy working with as they carry out Common Ground’s mission- “impacting communities through language.”
Our longest standing immersion trip is our Medical Spanish Immersion program for healthcare workers and students. We began this program in 2003 as a complement and “next step” for our Medical Spanish courses. I was still teaching K-6 Spanish at one of our local schools, so Leslie led this initial trip on her own with a small group of about 8 women. We quickly added formal international rotations for healthcare students who wanted to graduate from their MD, DO, PA and PharmD programs with some medical Spanish proficiency.
A few years later, in 2006, one of our healthcare clients (who had recently traveled with us) asked if we would consider creating a trip for her high school daughter and classmates. It sounded like a great idea to us, so our High School Spanish Immersion program was born in the summer of 2006… just 2 months before our daughter Anna Sofia joined our family. (Leslie had to promise me that at 7mo pregnant she wouldn’t bungee jump or do the waterfall rappels 😬.)
Then we began to reflect on how we could have a deeper impact and improve more communities across the country through helping a different segment of the professional community. What started out as a small trip to help some Spanish teachers improve their fluency and move past their own Spanish plateaus from teaching the same level year after year, quickly blossomed into the full Spanish for Educators Immersion program.
A year or so (and another daughter) later, we hit our groove and really got the hang of traveling with our 3 kids in tow. At that point, we knew we had to share the cultural and language experiences our kids were living… so we created the Family Spanish Immersion program. We wanted parents to confidently travel with their children and help them experience life outside their comfortable bubble while mitigating all the unknowable risks of traveling to a new place, in a foreign language, with precious youngsters.
As more and more spouses and significant others wanted to participate in the programs their partners were signed up for, we realized we were lacking a program for adults who wanted to learn everyday conversational Spanish. So we created the Adult Spanish Immersion program for people wanting the experience of a lifetime while improving their conversational Spanish.
And midway through 2022, Leslie was finally able to achieve a goal of ours for over a decade. It’s not a new “program” per se, but it adds a dimension to all of our programs. We’re now proud to offer up to 5 undergraduate college credits (200-level) on our Spanish immersion trips! So if you want university credit for you or your teen, we got you covered :).
Over the years we’ve been fortunate enough to establish programs in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Unfortunately we had to say adios to Nicaragua in 2018 when the political environment became untenable. So for the time being, we’re offering Spanish immersion programs in:
- Costa Rica every February & July
- Ecuador every June
Rory and Leslie have a bilingual family, and a wonderful team of language professionals in the United States and throughout Central and South America that they enjoy working with as they carry out Common Ground’s mission- “impacting communities through language.”. You can learn more about the Fosters on Facebook, LinkedIn, & Instagram Follow Common Ground on Facebook & Instagram
Meet the Common Ground Team
Rory Foster
Director
Rory began studying Spanish in middle school and always enjoyed learning the language. He took a brief pause in high school when his only upper level Spanish options were with the teacher that he didn’t enjoy. So he started back over with Spanish in undergraduate. He met Leslie in a masters program in Colorado and the Common Ground story began to unfold from there.
Today, Rory loves leading the Common Ground team of linguists and support staff and helping Common Ground’s community members achieve their Spanish goals. He enjoys encouraging learners to speak more, which in turn impacts communities across the country.
Leslie Foster
Director
When I was 16 years old, we hosted an exchange student from Spain. At the time I was annoyed because she would smoke out my bedroom window. But my perspective quickly changed when I had a chance to live with her family in Spain for the summer. This experience opened my eyes and ignited my love and passion for learning Spanish, experiencing and learning about other cultures and seeing different lifestyles. This passion continued into college where I had the opportunity to live and study abroad in Costa Rica. The day I left Costa Rica, I wrote in my journal “I have got to figure out a way to make Costa Rica a part of the rest of my life and share my passion for language and cultures with others” This experience led to the birth of our Spanish Immersion Programs.
These days, I spend a lot of time involved in the planning and coordinating of our Spanish immersion programs and creating new Spanish learning opportunities for the Common Ground Community. I’m honored to lead our team of incredible teachers and Spanish Immersion leaders as well as continue to spread the mission of Common Ground International: Impacting communities through Language whether that is in the United States or abroad.
Alexandra MacPhee
Medical Spanish Instructor
Alexandra’s passion for teaching began when she moved to Nicaragua in 2010 to undertake an internship at a non-profit Spanish school. Following several years working in the non-profit sector, she opened a Spanish language tutoring program in a coastal Nicaraguan town. In 2018, Alexandra branched out to online tutoring and currently teaches Spanish and English online, as well as works as a freelance translator, interpreter, and copywriter. Additionally, she has contributed content to Spanish language learning platforms, and written YouTube video scripts, e-books, blogs, and curriculums, all with a focus on learning Spanish.
Alexandra loves teaching because she gets to interact with people from all over the world, and in the process, help them to achieve their language goals.
My name is Andrea Giganti Dima, I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I spent most of my life, became a lawyer and practiced law for 10 years. I met my husband and married him in 2003, and came to be the mother of two of my children while we lived in Argentina. In 2011, I moved with my family to Wisconsin, where my youngest child was born short after.
When I moved, I decided it was time to leave my Law career to affect lives in a different way: I wanted to share my love for the Spanish language and cultures around the world, and help others to enjoy the language. I worked with young students in homeschool settings, and decided to get certified as a Language Educator, working in Middle and High School. I started using Comprehensible Input, knowing that the brain acquires the language through messages that are relevant. I became a curriculum creator and voice artist for Language Education and work with professionals that want to acquire or improve their use of the language.
I believe that we all have gifts to serve the world and I look forward to using mine to help you in your endeavors.
Andrea Giganti Dima
Medical Spanish Instructor
Kelly Damare
High School Immersion leader
Mrs. Kelly Damare has a lifelong passion for the Spanish language and hispanic cultures. Kelly has spent time living, studying and working in many hispanic countries; her favorite is Sevilla, Spain where she spent a year studying and playing basketball and of course Costa Rica! Most recently over the summers she spent time leading trips in Costa Rica and working in a local school. Kelly has spent the last six years teaching elementary and middle school Spanish at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Raleigh. Kelly attended Meredith College in Raleigh, NC where she earned a Bachelors of Arts in Spanish.
In addition to her love of Spanish language and culture, she enjoys coaching the JV women’s basketball team at Cardinal Gibbons.
Hi my name is Stephanie, I live in México and for the last 8 years I have worked as a language tutor, helping children, and adults learn Spanish and English, and I have been able to do so online, one on one, in a group setting and in person.
I love helping others develop new skills and I believe a positive caring attitude and dedication can be an upbuilding force in achieving success when learning new things. I enjoy seeing the learning process in myself and others when we try something new and we are able to practice it! It is amazing to observe the progress of how a student goes from speaking very little to having conversations that slowly build up to longer sentences and fuller expressions of their ideas.
In my spare time I spend time with my family and friends, I love languages, writing, swimming, meditating, and learning new things, I enjoy reading with a cup of coffee non fiction books, thrillers, fantasy and crime novels.
I consider it a privilege to be given the opportunity of helping others learn Spanish by being approachable, encouraging, engaging and patient.
Stephanie Beltrán
Medical Spanish Instructor
Johanna Dima
Medical Spanish Instructor
Hi! My name is Johanna Mercedes Dima Negri and I’m from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’m married to Mariano and have two wonderful boys, Francisco and Santiago.
Teaching is a passion I enjoy since I was a child. I can still recall when my godmother gave me as a present like a little briefcase full of chalks and a tiny blackboard to play with my teddy bears where I spent hours pretending I was a teacher. That little blackboard was not enough, and now, as an adult, I can find new ways to teach and have lots of fun, making learning a new language a pleasant moment for others.
Patience and perseverance are really important for me, because many times in life, I could accomplish things when I chose “the longest and the hardest way”, but I always look back and feel proud about it because, even though it was so difficult, I could make it. So, that is my commitment with my students, with patience and perseverance, we, as a team, are going to enjoy learning a new language.
Hi, my name is Samanta and I’m from Managua, Nicaragua. Since 2012 I’ve been working with different websites in the educational niche as a translator and in support roles. I’ve been part of the Common Ground team since 2021 assisting with the organization of the Immersion programs and helping carry CGI’s mission of transforming communities through language.
In my free time I like to discover new music, do yoga and read. I love nature and hope to live semi off-grid in the middle of the forest or in an ecovillage someday.
Samanta Urbina
Immersion Support
Vanessa Hernandez
Social media & translation project manager
Hi my name is Vanessa, I’m from Mexico and I currently live in Guadalajara, Jalisco. I’m a communications graduate and since 2016 I’ve been working in social media marketing and graphic design to serve online communities and promote products and services I believe in.
I love traveling and enjoy learning about different cultures and learning new languages. I also studied some photography and in my spare time I like listening to music, watching movies and reading all types of books.
In addition to social media, I also manage our translation projects here at Common Ground.
Hi! I’m David. I was born in Mexico City and I’ve been living for more than 15 years in a beautiful small traditional town an hour and a half away, in the state of Morelos, called Tepoztlan. It’s a magical place surrounded by mountains, with wonderful weather, great hiking tracks, waterfalls and a nice cosmopolitan community that blends with the native deep mexican culture. I live with my wonderful wife and our two daughters. We enjoy arts (music, ceramics, painting…) being in touch with nature and in the company of good friends. Recently we opened a countryside restaurant and I’m the chef and manager 😉
I love learning languages and expanding horizons through them, by allowing us to meet in between cultures and different experiences and visions. In a way, I see web development as translating and communicating with machines as well. I like to work with our wonderful team and support behind the scenes in our mission.
David Riveroll Fuster
Webmaster
I see you have immersion programs for different healthcare professionals. I’m a chiropractor in Colorado and many of us have a significant number of Spanish speaking patients. Some of us belong to integrated practices that often include a medical provider, physical therapist and others. Have you considered including chiropractors in your travel programs–with a focus on orthopedic/rehab facilities? BTW–I’m enjoying your YouTube videos.
Hi Mike, thanks for the note! Yes the medical Spanish immersion program is open to all who work in or are studying healthcare. We’ve worked with many PTs, some Chiropractors as yourself and a student or two headed toward PM&R. Immersion is the absolute best way to learn! While on program, the community outreach work we do is typically community health education – so we don’t set up or assist clinics and see patients. We do the language-rich work of educating vulnerable populations on health. In the daily classes, you would certainly have the time, opportunity and support to work on specifics around your work with patients. Thanks for checking in – we’re hoping our first post-covid trip will be July ’21. Hope you can join us!
Hi this is Gene Mandell. I am a retired teacher, still very active that lives in Central Point, Oregon. Years ago, I use to order some of these wonderful booklets(I still have a few left), and I would use them for my adult Spanish classes when I was teaching medical professionals. I am very interested in some of your programs. I will leave you my email address so you may contact me. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Gene Mandell
Hello Gene, thanks for the note! I’ll reach out over email.