With 110 Spanish majors, another 250 Spanish minors, and about 1,000 students taking Spanish courses each semester, you might think USC's Spanish program faculty have their hands full just teaching the language.

Turns out the program also has a strong outreach component that is connecting in several ways with South Carolina's ever-growing Hispanic population.

"We're here to teach Spanish, but we're also trying to facilitate our students' interaction with the Spanish-speaking culture," said David Hill, director of the Spanish program within the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

That interaction takes several forms and is directed by several Spanish program faculty without extra compensation or reduced course loads. The outreach includes:

• a literacy program for Hispanic mothers and children is coordinated by adjunct instructor Alicia de Myrer and offered at St. Joseph's School in Columbia. Many USC student assist as volunteers, mostly working with the children while the mothers receive instruction.
• internships with Spanish-speaking clients are part of Pam Gerth's Working with Hispanic Clients course in which students complete 20-hour internships in law enforcement, medicine, education, business, and social work areas. "Some students have continued to volunteer at the agencies where they interned, and many have had special experiences with this courses," said Gerth, a Spanish instructor at USC since 2002. "It gives them an opportunity to use their Spanish in a real setting."
• students in Lizette Laughlin's Spanish for Health Professionals class learn Spanish medical terminology, then visit migrant worker health clinics to practice their language skills
• students in Lenora Hayes' Spanish 209/210 class write bilingual story books and read them to students at Arden Elementary in Columbia
• students in Patti Marinelli's honors 121 and 122 courses get involved in community exploration activities, which can involve service such as volunteering with Hispanic patients at Columbia's free medical clinic
• a handful of students work with migrant farmworkers each summer as part of "Into the Fields" internships sponsored by the Durham, N.C.-based Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF). "I've seen students changed before my eyes," Hill said. "Two former students are now immigration lawyers, one joined a migrant medicine program, and one is now co-director of SAF."

The Spanish program also offers a language course for South Carolina's law enforcement community and fields community requests for translations and interpretations. Faculty member Tania Chipman also serves as the program's volunteer coordinator, helping students find paid and volunteer positions with for-profit and not-for-profit agencies that work with Hispanics.

10/06