S&P Department Hosts High School Students

April 10, 2017

The Spanish and Portuguese Department hosts high school students annually to visit the department and observe Spanish and Portuguese classes. Last week, March 30th, we had the pleasure of hosting 36 advanced placement Rio Grande High School students at our department. The visit started with an introductory S&P video about why Spanish in college and bilingualism matter. The visit proceeded with an introduction to the Spanish and Portuguese Department from Professor Kathy McKnight and continued with Graduate Portuguese student André Nascimento speaking about the Portuguese programs and curricula at UNM. To conclude the welcome introduction Professor Carmen Holguin Chaparro spoke to the students about upper level Spanish courses and the benefit of acquiring more than one language.  The visit wrapped up with dividing the high school students into two groups in order to observe a Spanish class. The first group had the opportunity to play a linguistics game in Professor Eva Rodriguez’s Intro to Linguistics (351)class. The second group joined Graduate student and TA, Josefina Bittar, while she instructed Spanish Advanced Grammar (352).  These visits are coordinated in order to let high school students experience college level courses, inform them of opportunities that they can take advantage of before entering college and to encourage higher education.