We are pleased to introduce an alum, Gabriel Bierwirth, from the Department of Linguistics

Gabriel Bierwirth graduated in 2016 with a BA in Linguistics, a major in Spanish and a minor in Chinese. COI caught up with him in Mexico City, where he has lived for the last three years. While he was at UNT, he was a member of the honors college. He said that he had started out with his general education requirements and remembers that when he started his first Linguistics class, he became much more excited and passionate about school. He knew this was the right path for him. One of the highlights of his Linguistics studies was taking semantics with Dr. Haj Ross, an American poet and linguist who played a part in the development of generative semantics. Gabriel fondly remembers writing a paper for Haj in which a vulgar word in Spanish had over 24 meanings. Although Haj didn’t remember Gabriel’s name much later when he ran into him, he did remember the tile of his paper.

Gabriel has been doing freelance work with clients around the globe in translation, ESL instruction, interpretation, community management, and communications. He also lived and worked in the country of Georgia for 6 months. He says that his background in Linguistics and the flexibility of doing remote work, especially during the pandemic, have allowed him to live and work in many different places.

What struck us most about Gabriel’s time since graduating is his important and generous volunteer work and service within his community. Gabriel has always been one to give back, having taught free ESL classes at a school in Waco, Texas, where he grew up and advocating for mental health access. More recently, he has volunteered for TacToc and TOC Mexico, helping to develop and run their social media platforms to reach as many people in need as possible. Both organizations support people with mental health challenges, such as OCD. Additionally, he has manned a mental health hotline serving Latin America and has been involved in human rights work.

We wish Gabriel the best of luck in continuing his important work!