Hola!
Spanish is widely spoken here in California and throughout the United States. The Spanish academic program is dedicated to promoting culturally and linguistically competent citizens in our multicultural and multilingual society. It is the largest program in the languages department instructing more than 700 students each academic semester. About 100 students choose Spanish as their major or minor for their undergraduate degree. The professors in the Spanish academic program are dedicated to the communicative approach to language teaching and emphasize student participation in a class size that is limited from 19-23 students for a more personalized education.
Pictured above (left to right): Professors Hodge, Valenzuela, and Loustau
Degrees Offered:
- B.A. in Spanish: 33 total credits, 30 of which must be upper-division.
- Minor in Spanish: 21 credits, 18 of which must be upper-division.
Pictured: Students in front of the Frida Kahlo Theater in
Los Angeles waiting to see a play in Spanish.
We recognize that each student has a unique background with their experiences in Spanish. Some were born in different countries or have lived abroad for years; some have studied many years in High School and scored high on Spanish AP Exams; others use Spanish on a daily basis at home or at work. Given the special circumstances that revolve around each individual, the Spanish Major and Minor may show flexibility when taking upper-division courses simultaneously, especially Spanish 343 and 326. For a personal consultation regarding the Spanish Major/Minor please contact the department.
On Friday, November 14, 1919 at the University of California, Berkeley, a junior undergraduate student named Ruth Helen Barnes invited six other students of Spanish to her residence at 2545 Dwight Way to start what would eventually become the largest collegiate foreign language honor society in the U.S.: Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society/La Sociedad Nacional Honoraria Hispánica. After that initial meeting and less than six months later on Saturday, May 1, 1920, the Society’s first formal induction ceremony took place at founding member Miriam Burt’s home on 1629 Walnut Street in Berkeley, CA. Today, November is celebrated annually as National Charter Month, and May 1 is commemorated as “Día de Sigma Delta Pi”/Sigma Delta Pi Day. 
