Degree

This post is an introduction to most Spanish courses offered in undergraduate programs in the United States.  The main purpose is to help students understand the content of Spanish courses and their sequence in most Bachelor’s degree programs. Students are encouraged to read course descriptions offered by their current or prospective programs.

This post is a continuation of the previous post What’s in a Course: Understanding Spanish Courses I. It covers information about advanced courses. As suggested in the previous post, make sure to read course descriptions offered by your current or prospective program carefully. 

Graduate school allows you to pursue an advanced academic degree after you earn a Bachelor in the same or a similar field. In the Humanities, the focus of the graduate school is to prepare students to produce original research. In most programs, students are allowed to teach basic courses to undergraduate students to cover tuition expenses. 

In most programs, students must complete several courses related to three traditional tracks: Peninsular, Latin American, and Linguistics. 

These tracks help students to have a panoramic view of the Hispanic world departing from the literature produced in Spain and Latin American countries. They also provide a strong foundation to understand the mechanics of the Spanish language beyond mastering grammar rules or building more vocabulary.  

Spanish is an asset in your résumé. Whether you have a Minor or a Major, showing proficiency in the language makes you a good candidate for a job. Employers understand that you put effort and time into acquiring knowledge that allows you to communicate with people from Spanish-speaking countries.

This post focuses on external factors to consider when deciding to attend Graduate School. For more on the academic side of this question, read What is Graduate School?

Although this post is written for undergraduate students doing a Minor or a Major in Spanish, this information is useful to any student interested in pursuing a doctoral degree in the Humanities. 

This blog post is part of the Professional Stories Series, which collects stories about professionals with a degree in Spanish who did not follow the traditional path of being a school teacher or a university professor.

In discussing retention strategies for students doing a Major in Spanish, one of the most common challenges is not to attract students. More often than not, the challenge is to convince parents or legal guardians in charge of paying for their children’s education that a degree in a foreign language can be a lucrative one. 

This post is addressed to those students with parents who are not fully convinced of the value of a foreign language degree or are not willing to support a student interested in doing a Major in Spanish or any other language.

An internship is a work experience offered by an organization or company for a limited period and, usually, with no or little remuneration. They are temporary opportunities. Internships allow students to gain relevant skills in a particular field and get a sense of what is expected in that industry. 

This blog post is part of the Professional Stories Series, which collects stories about professionals with a degree in Spanish who did not follow the traditional path of being a school teacher or a university professor. Questions focus on skills, strategies for the job search, and career advice. 

In today’s post, we interviewed Spencer Cappelli, an Email Marketing Specialist with Voces Digital, a division of Teacher's Discovery. Spencer speaks English, and Spanish.