Major, minors, and certificate

Our Spanish Major and Minor allow students the flexibility to take a wide variety of courses ranging from Hispanic Linguistics to Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies to Translation. The Teaching of Spanish Major also forms an integral part of the program. We also offer a Spanish for the Professions minor which focuses on advanced language skills for business, healthcare, and legal settings in addition to translation, as well as a Certificate of Academic Spanish for Heritage Speakers.

Through the major, students’ language skills—speaking, reading, and writing—are strengthened in order to reach a high intermediate to advanced level of linguistic and cultural competency. Our courses are designed to expose students to the most current and innovative critical, analytical, and theoretical approaches in Hispanic studies today, thereby providing a solid foundation for advanced and postgraduate studies.

The Spanish major provides students interested in careers such as business, law, criminal justice, industry, social, services, nursing, premed, and other health-related fields, with an edge in their professional training, supporting proficiency in areas such as language skills, analytical ability, and critical thinking. We also have close ties with the Latin American and Latino Studies Program for students interested in interdisciplinary work and the study of Hispanic communities here in the U.S.

We encourage you to think of the study of Spanish as key to your future professional success and invite you to consider becoming a Spanish major, double major, minor, or to pursue the Certificante of Academic Spanish.

Requirements Heading link

Major in Spanish

The major in Spanish requires 31 hours of courses in Spanish beyond SPAN 104.

These 31 hours are made up of:

Minor in Spanish

The minor in Spanish is open to undergraduates in any college. It focuses on language, linguistics, and cultural and literary studies.

The minor in Spanish requires 18 hours of courses in Spanish beyond SPAN 104/114.

These 18 hours are made up of:

Minor in Spanish for the Professions

The minor in Spanish for the Professions is open to undergraduates in any college. It is designed for students who are specifically interested in advancing their professional language skills beyond Spanish 104/114.

The minor in Spanish for the Professions requires 15 hours of courses in Spanish beyond SPAN 104/114.

These 15 hours are made up of:

Certificate in Academic Spanish for Heritage Speakers

The Certificate of Academic Spanish for Heritage Speakers is open to undergraduates in any college and provides students who place into the Spanish heritage basic language program the opportunity to further develop their formal linguistic proficiency in Spanish and expand future educational/professional pathways while promoting and supporting heritage speakers’ linguistic pride and cultural identity.

Students who want to pursue the Certificate of Academic Spanish for Heritage Speakers must complete a minimum of 12 semester hours beyond Spanish 114.

These 12 hours are made up of:

Interested? Learn how to declare a major or minor.