09/01/2026
Meet a couple of our mentors of the Hispanic Studies Mentorship Program!
👋 Hallie Ritzu
Hallie Ritzu earned her B.A. in Spanish and Political Science from the College of Charleston. While at the College, she studied abroad in Trujillo, Spain, and Santiago de Chile, participated in the Model Organization of American States in Buenos Aires, and served as a peer facilitator for Spanish conversation classes. After graduating in 2008, she earned an M.A. in Spanish through Middlebury College’s graduate program in Madrid and a J.D. from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in Chicago.
Today, Hallie is an estate planning attorney and adjunct professor of law in Chicago. Over the years, she has found many ways to put her language skills and cross-cultural perspective to use — teaching English as a Second Language to Spanish speakers, teaching in the College of Charleston’s Department of Hispanic Studies, representing asylum seekers through a pro bono immigration practice, and traveling whenever she gets the chance.
Meet our mentors!
👋 Danny Jones
Danny graduated from the College of Charleston in 2008 with a B.A. in Spanish and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He studied abroad during his junior year in Trujillo, Spain as part of the College of Charleston’s study abroad program and represented the College at a model Organization of American States (OAS) conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2007. Danny later completed an M.A. in Spanish linguistics from Middlebury College in Madrid in 2009 and then remained in Madrid until 2012 teaching English. After leaving Spain in 2012, Danny returned to Charleston and taught Spanish at the College of Charleston until 2017.
Currently, Danny is a foreign service officer with the Department of State, where he works as a consular officer at the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece. Danny’s previous diplomatic assignments include Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Merida, Mexico; and Nairobi, Kenya. In his two Mexico assignments, and occasionally now in Greece, Danny uses his Spanish skills to conduct visa interviews for intending visitors and immigrants to the United States and help U.S. citizens overseas who speak Spanish. Dan
