Paula Olinger joined the faculty of Gettysburg College in 1979. She received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1981. Her book, Images of Transformation in Traditional Hispanic Poetry, interprets symbols in the oral poetry of medieval Spain. She still specializes in poetry, but in recent years has focused on the poetry of women in Latin America. She believes in the value of service learning and requires students in her language classes to tutor and mentor children in the community. She believes passionately in social justice and works on behalf of many social causes in the United States and Latin America. Her primary goal as a teacher is to educate her students, future leaders in the United States, about the injustices the United States has perpetrated in Latin America. Her greatest hope is for world peace