By Raúl Gavarrette O.
The first group of high school students from the United States brought by NSS in the same year 1998, made the team prioritize ahead preparation on setting up, organizing and opening the Palacio de Cultura Spanish School in Granada city. Sandra Espinoza Madrigal, a prominent member of the Asociación de Promotores de Cultura (APC) in Granada was chosen by NSS team as the first and long-lasting Director. The former instructors at the Palacio de Cultura Spanish language School in Granada were Margarita Karam, Silvia Madrigal, María Haydee Méndez, María Adilia Espinoza and Karla Pérez. Darling González, Nubia Calero and María Elena Rodríguez were visitor instructors who taught at the school for that first wave of students.
Sandra Espinoza, the former Director was trained by the NSS Executive team, in learning how to set up field trips organization for the students and was also trained in administrative management for the new language school. Weekly workshops about techniques for the teaching of the Spanish as a second language were organized by NSS Executive team for the new Spanish language instructors at the school in Granada. Bismarck Calero, María Elena Rodríguez and Raúl Gavarrette the Executive Coordinator and Representative of NSS were the teacher trainers in Granada and San Juan del Sur Spanish Schools to prepare the language instructors to receive the first group of students arriving in early 1998.
In early 1999, motivated by the success, NSS executive and international team opened a new Spanish school in León. That Spanish school was named Leonesa Spanish School and used the Casa de Cultura location. The following years after foundation, were very successful for all the Nicaragua Spanish Schools network. More instructors were hired; lot of students came to Nicaragua to learn Spanish. At the end of that year Raul Gavarrette the Executive Director left the NSS and started working for a Costa Rican prominent Spanish abroad program and started teaching Spanish for Universities from The United States in both countries Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
