Once Southwestern University introduces healthcare professional certificates, pirates pursuing a career in healthcare will have another opportunity to strengthen their resumes soon. Starting this fall, students will be able to enroll in new courses and complete their certificates along with existing majors and minors.
Designed to immerse participants in a specific field, the certificate program offers useful courses that meet the prerequisites, prepares undergraduate students for further research, and special skills that help students in the Southwest. , helping you gain knowledge and abilities. Developed primarily by Associate Professor Abby Dings in Spain and Staff Instructors at Noelia Cigaloa Coupe in Spain, Spanish, Spanish, the first certificate offered to current Southwest students. is.
“The program is designed to help students refine Spanish skills within a professional yet wide range of healthcare,” Dings said. “We are better prepared for a professional environment in which Spanish skills are increasingly valued, to increase our ability to connect with diverse groups and navigate the job market more effectively. We want to improve their proficiency and cultural capabilities.”
Unlike Spanish minors, which cover a wide range of topics, the Spanish Health Care Professional Certificate allows students to study the language in detail in the medical context. To earn a certificate, students must complete two necessary courses in Spanish for culture and health with healthcare professionals in the Hispanic community. A field that includes biology, classical, feminist research, history, kinesiology, psychology, and sociology. A minimum of 3 credit Spanish is also required for an internship for a healthcare professional.
“What I find unique about our program is that we accept Paideia in many ways,” Dings said. “It's very discipline-focused in Spanish, and I'm thinking about medical professionals within Spanish, but it also brings a broader perspective from other fields. This is just finished Spanish 3. It is useful for all students, from students who are primarily focused on building proficiency to native Spanish speakers who have not had the opportunity to talk in detail about medical-related topics on topics related to Spanish. ”
As the number of ready-made students pursuing Spanish majors and minors has steadily increased a year ago, the Spanish division in the southwestern has been debating the introduction of the certificate for more than a decade. This semester, Dings took the first step to bringing that goal to life by teaching healthcare professionals Spanish. The course attracted the attention of faculty dean Sergio Coscola, a faculty member who helped expand the course to certificates. The program was originally developed by Dings and Cageroa-Cooke, refined by the Curriculum Committee, and ultimately approved by the faculty-wide to begin offering in the fall of 2025.
“The Spanish for Healthcare Professionals certificate reflects the Southwest's commitment to interdisciplinary learning and community engagement,” Costola said. “By providing students with professional language skills and cultural capabilities, the program will enhance their ability to serve diverse communities in healthcare. We look forward to the initiative coming back to life. Academic excellence. We look forward to expanding more certificate programs that combine sex with real-world impacts.”
In preparation for launching the certificate, dings and cigaloque applied and received funds from Melon Grants for the publicly engaged humanities. In part, the funding allowed the duo to attend joint meetings between the Latinx Promotional Medical Institutions (MOLA) in Chicago and the National Association of Medical Spain (NAMS).
“We probably knew this intuitively, but one of the things that both of us were hit with at the meeting is that if the research is more likely to have a language match between the provider and the patient, then it's more likely for the patient. It shows that it promotes good healthcare outcomes,” Dings said. “It creates better trust overall and improves provider-patient relationships.”
The Mola-Nams Conference combines language education professionals with practitioners and providers. This is an important factor that helps Dings and Cigarroa-Cooke strengthen the design of certificate programs and strengthen the guidance that healthcare is often inherently personal.
“We felt that this (certificate) encouraged students to think about the direct application of Spanish skills,” Dings said. “But it also gives us a great opportunity to do thoughtful cultural exploration, especially in terms of empathy. One concept discussed at this conference was cultural humility. Curiosity. And while approaching people from other cultures with openness and motivation to learn, you will also encourage many self-dissemination and self-reflection about your own beliefs and how they may be others' judgments Repaint it. I think this is one of many really important elements of this curriculum.”
Another important component of the program is the internship component. Many universities across Texas and across the country offer similarly central certificate programs, but few are as intentional as the Southwest about including communities as part of the educational process.
“I think what sets Southwestern apart is the community involvement,” Sigarocuk said. “While many programs are very academically centric, I think the strength of our particular certificate is that (students) practice practically through the classes they take and internship opportunities. It elevates us.”
Through additional funding from the Mellon publicly released Humanities Community Partner Awards program, Ceaverroa-Cooke is working with local community partners to develop opportunities for Southwest university students to pursue certificates. These community partners are formally compensated for their work, creating mutual exchanges of ideas and expertise.
“Each of my classes has a component of community engagement so that (students) can explore during the class,” Shigarocuk said. “I'm trying to establish relationships and strengthen them through community engagement in the class. When that happens, there's hopefully an internship (opportunity).”
A Mexican-born doctor's daughter, Cigalo Cukuk uses her experience and culture to make the certificate program as impactful as possible.
“I'm very excited because this is an opportunity for me to experience my culture in a different way,” she said. “I'm not a doctor, but I'm a patient and I know how language has affected me. I can help facilitate my interactions from Hispanic and non-Hispanic doctors. I'm looking at things that have made it even more difficult.”
The Spanish for Healthcare Professionals certificate will officially be added to Southwestern's 2025-2027 academic catalogue, but students currently completing the prerequisite courses will be able to switch catalogues to pursue certificates. can.
Amidst the ever-changing landscape of higher education, Southwestern University leadership is optimistic that Spanish for healthcare professions will be the first of many certificate options available to future students. .
“The certificate is a truly amazing complement and extension of our academic program,” said Jess Hower, vice president of Academic Affairs. “As we understood and adopted, these programs reveal the value we place in an interdisciplinary approach to liberal arts and transformative experiences outside the classroom. In other words, they are Very specific and intentionally “southwest”. The certificate gives students another way to distinguish themselves and show off the amazing work they are doing, and the highly relevant applicable skills that others get to see . Above all, this is just the beginning. There are many other certificates in development, all aimed at the same thing, providing even more students with an additional opportunity to take their undergraduate experience to the next level. ”
