About Us

COSSI - History

For a number of years, the Spanish Faculty at COCC has had its eye on the very successful Intensive Summer Spanish Institute (ISSI) at Lake Tahoe Community College in California. In 2016, Chuck Hutchings contacted Lake Tahoe and the faculty there was more than happy to help us create our own, similar program. Since then we have been collaborating by sharing ideas and materials and our result is COSSI (Central Oregon Summer Spanish Immersion).

Even though we agree that it is not as effective as staging the program in a Spanish speaking country, COSSI in Bend does have the advantage for most people of costing less to travel to while not having to bother with a passport.

We hope that all our COSSI participants finish the week feeling more comfortable with their ability to communicate in Spanish and being much more enthusiastic about finding a way to visit and enjoy the culture of a country where Spanish is the official language.

 COSSI Program Team

Chuck Hutchings, COSSI Founder/Instructor
Chuck (Carlos) has been teaching Spanish at COCC since 1992. Prior to that, he lived in Spain for two years before receiving a Masters Degree in Spanish from California State University, Fresno. During most of his time at COCC, he has chaired or co-chaired the Foreign Language Faculty and has organized and led multiple group visits to Spain and Mexico. COSSI is a natural extension of everything he has tried to do to help students improve their proficiency in the language and increase their love of the cultures that give it life.

Dave Engel, Instructional Coordinator
Dave Engel has been a Spanish Instructor at COCC in the World Languages and Cultures department since 2012. He holds a Master of Arts in Spanish Language Teaching from Southern Oregon University. He completed Spanish Studies at the International House in Barcelona and holds a Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera from Instituto Cervantes in Madrid.

Dave has taught conversational Spanish and delivered customized training for business development for COCC since 2007. He has created immersion programs in Spain for Travel with COCC where he enjoys sharing his passion for this vibrant culture with participants. He has been instrumental in the creation of the Central Oregon Spanish Immersion (COSSI) program and is responsible for recruiting instructors and contributing to the curriculum development. Prior to COCC, Dave and his family lived in Spain for four years where he taught outdoor leadership courses.

Stephanie Goetsch, Program Manager/COSSI Coordinator
Stephanie has worked for COCC since 2005. She has been in her current role as a Program Manager in the Continuing Education Department since 2015. She earned her Bachelor of Science at University of Oregon and her Masters degree in Adult Education at Oregon State University. She manages and programs a wide array of non-credit adult learning programs and has attended Lake Tahoe's summer ISSI program to prepare for her role in planning for our inaugural Central Oregon Summer Spanish Immersion.