Quality - Hispanic Studies

Overview

The Seaver College Hispanic Studies program has several distinctive components at the curricular and co-curricular levels. Our program focuses on five major areas of high-impact engagement that aligns with our university mission of service, purpose and leadership: service and community engagement, mentoring and student research, Spanish immersion abroad, Spanish Chapel, and Sigma Delta Pi Hispanic Honor Society.  Many of these programs have been publicized in Seaver College Highlights 15-16 and 16-17, a document produced by the Seaver College Dean's Office. 

Service and Community Engagement

Our students engage in service and community based learning in most of their courses. For example, in SPAN 300, students participate in a farm workers tour and host students from East LA at the Pepperdine campus through an outreach program. Students in many of our courses regularly volunteer at the Malibu Community Labor Exchange teaching basic English and building relationships with our neighbors. Our students in SPAN 252 and SPAN 341 have also taught basic Spanish lessons and hosted Spanish story time at three local elementary schools. These long-term partnerships are supported by ISL divisional funds, but were initially supported by Mini-Grants from the Pepperdine Volunteer Center. Our faculty members Dr. George Carlsen and Dr. Lila Carlsen have presented at university, local, and national conferences on their experience in engaged-learning.

As a capstone experience, the program is highly valuable. Students who attend the Madrid program agree to (1) a homestay; (2) classes in Spanish only; (3) a language pledge by which they agree to interact in Spanish only for the duration of the program. Excursions are planned in which the students must take care of their transportation, lodging and food on their own. They also do a great deal of reflective writing in Spanish while in the program. In 2009 faculty members Paul Begin and Phil Thomason conducted research that demonstrated via direct evidence that the student learning outcomes of the Madrid program were indeed superior to the student learning outcomes from the same courses as taught in Malibu. We are confident that this experience, if done well, dramatically improves our students’ ability to achieve our PLOs. Data may be furnished upon request.

Buenos Aires (year-long or summer)

The Buenos Aires program is a year-long for qualified Seaver College students. It is a home-stay program but does not have a language pledge by which students commit to speaking Spanish only. In other words, during the regular year a Hispanic Studies major may live in a homestay but take mostly general education courses and interact with whomever they please in English. Currently, qualified students may take SPAN 341, SPAN 345, and SPAN 380 (348) in Buenos Aires during the regular year. Every other summer (2014, 2016, etc.) there is an intensive upper division program in Buenos Aires, at which point students may also take a literature course. Many students start out in a higher level course because of the placement exams, which means that several students each year are eligible to take higher level courses in Hispanic Studies while in B.A. Anecdotally, the Buenos Aires program generates a great deal of enthusiasm for the Hispanic Studies program and thereby puts several students on a path to a major or minor.

While the Buenos Aires program fosters enthusiasm for Hispanic Studies and thereby feeds the major additional students, there are some negative impacts. Rigor in terms of communicating in Spanish during the program is not enforced. Students specializing in Spanish still travel and live with students who only use basic Spanish, making their daily language English (presumably). The courses may be as rigorous as those found in Malibu but the context is not. Some students return to campus with enthusiasm and confidence, but lack rigorous academic formation. The Buenos Aires program has a long tradition of offering multiple outlets for community service. These are long-term partnerships that build positive relationships between the host country Argentina and Pepperdine students.

Spanish Chapel

Sigma Delta Pi is the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, and the only Hispanic Honor Society devoted exclusively to students of Spanish in four-year colleges and universities. 

Pepperdine’s Omicron Alpha Chapter, has been awarded the designation of "Honor Chapter" for our outstanding cultural activities which promote learning and appreciation of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures. 

Many of our Spanish students have regularly applied for and received scholarships for their exemplary academic achievements and participation in Sigma Delta Pi. In addition to scholarship opportunities, membership in Sigma Delta Pi also offers undergraduate students experience in leadership at the local and national levels, cross-campus collaborations, national recognition as well as fellowship with other Spanish-speaking students and faculty members on campus. 

With an interest in building community among our current members, the Omicron Alpha chapter at Pepperdine has started to host Spanish conversation hour on Wednesdays in the Waves Cafe. Other regular campus events include visits to the Malibu labor exchange, where students are able to use their Spanish skills to help Spanish speaking immigrants with English, adapting to life in California, among other cross-cultural interactions.  Furthermore, the Spanish division sees membership in Sigma Delta Pi as an excellent way to introduce students to contemporary Hispanic culture. As a result, students have participated in and been exposed to Hispanic music and dance, cultural excursions and culinary arts. Thus, membership in Sigma Delta Pi not only provides students with national recognition and opportunities, it also fosters cultural understanding and allows students to use their Spanish to make connections outside of the classroom.