During her undergraduate studies, Benicia focused on Spanish culture and literature while living in Salamanca and Castellón de la Plana, Spain. After graduating from Western Illinois University, Benicia traveled in the north of Spain to the iconic Santiago de Compostela. Throughout her graduate studies, she provided early literacy interventions and bilingual tutoring services to Spanish-speaking students. Since graduating from Illinois State University, Benicia has returned to the Iberian Peninsula numerous times to backpack extensively through Spain and Portugal. In 2017, Benicia traveled to Ecuador to volunteer in the Quito public school system and explore the biodiversity of the Galápagos Islands. After being named as a finalist for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship at the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá, Colombia, Benicia lived in and near Barranquilla, Colombia, from 2018 to 2021. In August 2024, she will begin her 12th year as a bilingual school psychologist and currently works at a dual language school in the Chicago suburbs. One of her professional initiatives includes addressing the overrepresentation of Latino students within special education. She has served as an adjunct professor at National Louis University for seven years and teaches in the School Psychology graduate program within the National College of Education. Benicia is fluent in Spanish and has led Putney’s Middle School Spain program twice and Middle School Ecuador & the Galápagos.