Written by Regina Ender
Dr. Maximo Rossi finds himself happiest and most fulfilled when he is serving others. Always armed with insight into God’s word and enthusiastic to help his pupils really grasp the course content, his students leave his class with a true understanding of Spanish and a meaningful encounter with Christ’s love.
After founding the Department of Modern Languages at APU, Dr. Rossi has been deeply involved in its growth and has seen his students flourish as the program continues to grow. The department has thrived because he goes beyond textbook learning and helps those in his class have a cultural experience. After over three decades as an educator, Dr. Rossi looks back on the piles of thank you cards he has received from his students as encouragement and takes to heart the reviews he gets on his end of semester evaluations to continually better himself. With each passing semester, he earnestly listens to his students’ feedback and continues to perfect his craft. He goes well beyond the call of duty and even aids students with research papers and homework help after hours to help them succeed. Whether his students are taking his classes to earn their Spanish degree or to fulfill a general education requirement, he takes all of their journeys seriously and wants them to find Spanish to be relevant in each of their lives.
Dr. Rossi earned his Ph.D. from City University in New York, his M.A. from Syracuse University, and his B.A. from The King’s College. Beside his influential work at APU, he holds a special place in other educational institutions as well, serving as an honorary professor at Universidad Nacional Evangelica and as president emeritus at Bethany University. Using his expertise, he translated the book Reformas para las misiones en el extranjero and authored several books in his field, including Praxis, historia y filosofia en el siglo XVIII, Obras completas de Antonio Sanchez Valverde, and Master Functional Spanish Now!.
Outside of academia, Dr. Rossi has embodied Christ’s call to give his life to mission work and serves as a pastor, evangelist, speaker, author, and church planter. In addition to his work on campus, he is dedicated to spreading God’s love in every corner of the world and has planted churches in rural areas in third world countries.
This spring, Dr. Rossi will be retiring from APU after 23 years of service.
Words of Wisdom: “Do what you love to do, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.”
