Teaching activity
Ruth has been teaching Spanish as a foreign language for over 25 years. A native of Colombia and proud of her Spanish roots and Latin American heritage, she grew up in Bucaramanga and later lived in Bogotá, the Colombian capital.
Her professional journey has combined education, journalism, communications and language teaching. She worked at the Colombian Institute for Higher Education (ICFES) and subsequently as an independent journalist for international publications, including as a contributing editor to a worldwide travel guide. After moving to the United States, she developed her career in language teaching, working with a number of language institutes and organisations, including NBC and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Following her relocation to the United Kingdom in 2001, Ruth continued her career in language education. She currently teaches Spanish as a foreign language at the University of Cambridge, within the Engineering Department's Centre for Languages and Inter-cultural Communication and through the Cambridge University Language Centre (CULP).
In 2026, Ruth retired from her secondary-school teaching role as part of the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) team at Swavesey Village College, where she supported the school for 16 years. She continues her teaching career at the University of Cambridge, which remains an important part of her professional life and future.
Alongside her teaching at Cambridge, Ruth is beginning a new academic chapter in 2026 with a degree in Theology. This new path brings together her longstanding interests in education, spirituality, human development, compassion and service.
Ruth holds an Honours degree in Education and Modern Languages from the Universidad Industrial de Santander. She also specialised in communications and broadcasting, undertook postgraduate study in Latin American literature, and in 2018 completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education at the University of Cambridge Institute for Continuing Education.
Her professional journey continues to bring together language, education, intercultural communication and lifelong learning, while her studies in Theology open a new dimension to her vocation and future work.