Faculty FrontDoor

Mrs Mariagrazia Novelli Spina

My name is Grazia Spina and I was born in Genova, Italy, where I spent the early part of my life. I completed my Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Modern Languages and Literatures in my hometown. By that time I was fluent in Italian, English, French and German. I had also studied Latin for 8 years and I had acquired a conversational knowledge of Spanish.
Genova, my hometown, lies on the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and has been the departing point for many explorers in the past, like Christopher Columbus who was born there.
I started my own explorations around the world working in the travel industry for more than 13 years. The travel bug was my companion and I just could not stop traveling!
I went around the world twice and I visited more countries than I can even recall.
During one of my trips I met the man who “imported” me to Central Florida in 1998 on a “love” visa: my present husband.

When I relocated to Central Florida I started to work at the Kennedy Space Center as an Interpreter for Nasa and Boeing before starting my teaching career at UCF in 2002.
Since then, I have taught Italian, French and German and I have directed summer studies abroad to Italy in 2003, to Paris in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and to Vienna in 2009, 2010 and 2011. I directed the 2012, 2015,2017 2018 and 2019 summer study abroad in Florence for 6 weeks. I directed the study abroad to France ( Nice and Paris) in summer 2013 and 2014. I directed a study abroad in Munich ( Germany) in Summer 2016.
I was awarded the T.I.P. (teaching incentive prize) in May 2007 ,May 2012 and May 2017 at UCF and I was nominated in the Who’s who among America’s Teachers published in September 2005. I authored the Italian grammar tutorials and the test bank for “My Italian Lab” by the publisher Pearson and the test bank for the French textbook “Voilà “ by the publisher Cengage. I reviewed several textbooks in Italian and French for the publishers McGraw Hill and Pearson. I have presented at several workshops outside and at UCF.
I started to teach at Valencia in October 2012.