Hispanic Studies, Post-Baccalaureate Certificate

Graduate Coordinator: Dr. Sergi Rivero-Navarro

The Department of World Languages and Cultures offers an 18-credit-hour post-baccalaureate program in Hispanic Studies. Specific goals of the certificate program are: 1) to prepare qualified candidates for cross-cultural professions; 2) to enable students to function at a high level of linguistic proficiency in Spanish; and 3) to prepare community college, four-year college or university instructors, who, according to SACS guidelines, must have at least 18 credit hours of graduate credit in Spanish in order to teach Spanish. Courses are taught by faculty with specializations in Hispanic linguistics, film, literature, culture, business, translation, and foreign language pedagogy. We also offer a Distance Education/online option. Students in the main campus and DE programs enroll in the same courses and are able to work collaboratively.

Students who have completed the Certificate in Hispanic Studies apply their acquired skills and knowledge in diverse fields and careers including Spanish Instructors in Universities and Community Colleges, K-12 Education, Graduate Studies in Related Fields, University Administration, and Community and Social Organizations.

Admission Requirements

Applicants seeking admission to the graduate certificate program must hold a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from a regionally accredited college or university with an overall 3.00 GPA or its equivalent (determined by a personal interview with the faculty or an officially recognized test procedure, such as an “intermediate high” rating on the ACTFL proficiency scale). Applicants are required to submit the following to the Graduate School:

An application for graduate admission.
Official transcripts of all college work (undergraduate and graduate).
Three letters of recommendation.
A 500-word essay in Spanish in which applicant describes her/his reasons for wanting to pursue graduate work in Spanish.
An audio recording in which the applicant introduces her/himself, describes a person she/he admires, or describes a trip she/he took in Spanish, sent directly to the Program Coordinator. (The speaking samples should be sent as data files and not music CD files.)
Application and supplemental documents must be submitted by the published deadline.

Note

* These admissions requirements apply only to the graduate certificate program in Hispanic Studies. Students interested in combining the certificate program with a master‘s degree will have to meet all admission criteria for that degree.

Certificate Requirements (18 total credit hours)

I. 9 credit hour core (choose one from each category)

SPN 507 - Spanish Phonetics and Phonology Credit Hours: 3 or
SPN 508 - Hispanic Linguistics Credit Hours: 3
SPN 511 - Topics in Spanish Civilization Credit Hours: 3 or
SPN 512 - Topics in Spanish American Civilization Credit Hours: 3 *
SPN 521 - Studies in Spanish Literature Credit Hours: 3 or
SPN 522 - Studies in Spanish American Literature Credit Hours: 3 *

Note

* Students must choose at least one Spanish and one Spanish-American related course from these two categories.

II. 9 credit hours of electives

Choose from any of the remaining graduate SPN courses: SPN 508 , SPN 511 , SPN 512 , SPN 521 , SPN 522 , SPN 585 . SPN 595 may be repeated with different subtitles. SPN 550 , SPN 591 (offered on a limited basis) and SPN 598 may only be taken once for credit.