Suffolk Launches New Spanish for the Professions Minor

To meet the strong demand for employees in the legal, healthcare, and business fields with advanced language skills, this fall Suffolk’s College of Arts & Sciences will launch a new minor called Spanish for the Professions. Professor Iani Moreno, director of Suffolk’s Spanish program, explains how this program will set Suffolk students up for success. 

Why is Suffolk launching this new minor in Spanish for the Professions? 

Spanish is the second-most common native language in the world. Suffolk students and alumni work in diverse communities across this country and in countries around the world, so it’s important for them to be linguistically and culturally competent. 

Almost a decade ago I started teaching a course on Spanish for business in CAS at the request of the late Jim Nebus and Carlos Rufin from the Sawyer Business School. Later, I developed a course for our undergraduate law majors. We have so many students preparing for health careers in our STEM programs, so it made sense to address their needs, too. In order to do this well, it was clear we had to formalize and invest in the program.  

Which professions will be included? 

Students can focus on the business, healthcare, or legal fields. Each one has its own nuances and vocabulary while maintaining a strong cultural background in the US Latine community and Hispanic world.

To prepare the curriculum for this minor, I spent much of last summer in Mexico in an immersive program working with lawyers and medical professionals. My undergraduate degree is in economics, so the world of business and finance is more familiar to me.  

How will you ensure students are prepared to work with Spanish-speaking colleagues and clients within those distinct fields? 

Students will enter this minor well-prepared with knowledge of their fields at an intermediate and advanced level of Spanish. The greatest challenge will be learning the specialized vocabulary and how to integrate it. We will do that through courses focused on Spanish for their field, and put that into practice through internships or service-learning. This year some of my students participated  as translators and interpreters helping clients with law students in Suffolk Law’s Immigrant Justice Clinic. We also have travel options for students to do service learning, such as Suffolk Serves Puerto Rico, a program in Costa Rica, and more.  

How does the minor in Spanish for the Professions differ from the existing Spanish minor?  

The Spanish minor offers a solid background and expansive view of the Latinx world. Students focus on grammar, literature, history, culture, and the arts.  

In Spanish for the Professions, students will receive more specialized and practical preparation to use Spanish in their field. They’ll each take a translation class, a professional course, and finish with the internship or service-learning component to make sure they’re prepared to use their skills.  

How will the minor in Spanish for the Professions help students in their careers? 

If a student wants to pursue a career in translation, this minor will help them apply their language skills in specialized settings, making them more marketable.  

Many of our students want to become lawyers or doctors, or work in government or global businesses. Right now I have two biology majors in class who are hoping to enter the medical field. They want to be able to talk to patients and understand where they’re coming from so they can deliver the best care. 

Learning how to communicate effectively with Spanish-speaking communities—to be both bilingual and bicultural—will help them succeed.