TECHNICIAN
thursday january
9
2014
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
NCSU profs help health-care pros speak Spanish PROFESSORS CREATE PROGRAM TO CATER TO GROWING HISPANIC POPULATION
Emma Cathell Assistant Features Editor
N.C. State Spanish professors Ana Gray and Cheryl Block, along with author Patricia Willoughby, created a program called ProSalud in the spring of 2013, as a means of helping health-care professionals effectively communicate with Spanish-speaking patients. The program consists of translation services, an online Spanish course and an online certificate. According to the creators of ProSalud, the growth of the Hispanic population in this state, and in this country, is not slowing down. “It’s the number one minority,” Gray said. “Spanish is the secondmost spoken language in the United States.” According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the estimated population indicates, as of 2011, there were “roughly 52 million Hispanics living in the United States, representing approximately 16.7 percent of the U.S. total population, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority.” Spanish for Health Professions, FLS 201-603, is a 3-credit online course offered through DELTA. Because ProSalud is an online program, it is not only available for students at N.C. State, but it is accessible to students in the UNCSystem and even to students around the world. “We can reach a broader audience in North Carolina, in the United States, and in the world,” Gray said. “ProSalud has a certificate online
Percentage of the total population of North Carolina that is Latino
1.2% 1990
4.7% 8.4% 2000
8.7%
2010 2012
SOURCE: U.S. CENSUS
The percentage of Hispanic people living in North Carolina has been steadily increasing during the past two decades. As a result, health professionals and other non-Hispanic residents are learning Spanish to communicate better with their clients.
that students can take right after they finish FLS 201 or people in general who already have a background but need to strengthen their resume and interview without waiting until they complete the minor or the major in Spanish, which could take several semesters.” The grammatical structures are the same in FLS 201-603 as they are in every other 201 class, according to Block. However, this course is geared toward students following the medical path. The textbook for the class, written by Gray, Block and Willoughby, has chapters, topics and vocabulary catered to the
medical field. “The chapters were chosen by things that come up in the Latino community: diabetes is a large health issue, heart conditions of different kinds could be a large health issue, and then of course everything else like infectious illnesses and injuries,” Block said. “The vocabulary is chosen along those lines too. So for example, there’s an entire vocabulary section on just legal terminology; there’s another vocabulary section for different injuries and also terminology for rescue equipment.” According to Gray and Block, the FLS 201 medical course presents a
service-learning opportunities. “In this class, there is an element of service learning, because we agree that’s a very important aspect,” Block said. “We require in this 201 class that students either do 3 hours of interpretation at a health care clinic hospital or that they interview someone in Spanish who works very closely with the Latino community in the health sector. “One reason [Spanish] is so crucial for medical personnel is that if a child goes along as a translator, would you want your child to learn you had cancer before you learned? That’s a huge problem because
sometimes they make take a very young child.” The component of the online FLS 201 medical course is not the only helpful tool of ProSalud. The online certificate can help students greatly in the professional field. If the student passes the two-hour online exam about reading, writing, medical terminology and grammar skills in Spanish for healthcare, they will receive the Certificate in Spanish for Health Professions from N.C. State. This certificate can be used as proof of applicants’ knowledge of Spanish in the medical field, which helps strengthen their interview and resume, and at times, can even be a way to receive a pay raise too, according to Gray and Block. “Once they take this certificate, the turn around time is quite insignificant compared to the time needed to complete a minor or major in Spanish,” Gray said. “But, in the meantime, the beauty of the certificate is that it gives a lot of confidence. That is an amazing tool once they have it.” Gray said that she and her cofounders have advocated and developed ProSalud since 2007 because of the spirit of service. That is what helped the program begin and could become the reason for its growth. “I think, with the spirit of service, we are all one,” Gray said. “And we can all work in order to make this place a better world. Principally, to let the students know that there is such a thing that we can all be together.”
DACA students to take protest Campus Enterprises gives to Cooper’s office on Saturday $1.2 million to University Staff Report
Members of the NC DREAM TEAM are organizing a march to Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office Saturday in an attempt to win in-state tuition rates for students who qualify under the Deferred Action Childhood Arrival policy. The March of Broken Dreams will start on UNC Chapel Hill’s campus and end outside Cooper’s office in Raleigh where protestors will sup-
port DACA students who emigrated to the U.S. illegally as children. The march is part of a series of protests by DACA students and their supporters. On New Year’s Day, students gathered outside Cooper’s office to demand that he end his silence and issue a formal opinion. Juan Prezas, a DACA student living in North Carolina, was featured on the NC DREAM TEAM website where he asked other students and activists to join the protest.
insidetechnician SPORTS Q&A Thursday: freshamn forward Travis Wannemuehler See page 7.
“Every day [Cooper] refuses to support students like me, he is killing our futures,” Prezas said on the website. “I hope you can be there. But if you can’t, sign and share the petition calling on Attorney General Cooper, the UNC Board of Governors and the NC Community College System to give DACA students in-state tuition now.” The petition can be found at http://action.dreamactivist.org/ northcarolina/instate.
Gregg Museum gets a new start, home See page 5.
SPORTS Temperfect coffee
See page 6.
Campus Enterprises at N.C. State gave a $1,191,394 check back to the University on the Brickyard during the Bookstore’s Finals Madness sale event last month. According to Jennifer Gilmore, director of marketing and communications for Campus Enterprises, The University will use the check for the 2013-2014 academic year as a part of Campus Enterprises’ annual scholarship and student sup-
port programs contribution. “We understand the financial challenges to obtaining a college degree, and we are proud to allocate a significant portion of our proceeds to help our students in their pursuit of a degree from N.C. State University,” said Dan Adams, associate vice chancellor of Campus Enterprises. Campus Enterprises has given a portion of its proceeds to the University for scholarships and finan-
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Student Government to add, eliminate legislative seats during spring semester Jacqueline Lee Staff Writer
FEATURES
Staff Report
This semester, Student Government is planning new ways to represent students, while deciding which legislative seats to keep or eliminate. Next Wednesday, Student Government is starting this semester with a retreat where the executive and senate branches will meet to determine its priorities for the semester, according to the Student Body President Alex Parker. Among these priorities will be some of the Student Government members’ proposal to add or eliminate some seats in its executive and legislative branches. According to Parker, members are looking to add more seats other than ones that represent each col-
lege, which is how the system is now. Seats could include representatives from Greek life or an on-campus University Housing representative. Student Government will also eliminate or add seats to the executive branch to better represent students. “We will be strategically planning ways to have more students represented by student government,” said Parker. “We want to make student government more accessible to students.” The installment of the new Vice President position coming in Student Government’s March elections will be another change, according to Parker. The Vice President’s duty will mainly be to lead the legislative branch. Working with the Board
of Trustees and other University leadership will remain a responsibility of the Student Body President. Parker said his top priority will be helping students prepare for next semester’s change in the class drop date. Under the new policy, the eight week add/drop period will be shortened to 10 days. The UNC Board of Governors passed the new policy in April of last year, which implemented a uniform policy throughout the UNC-System. N.C. State along with UNC-Chapel Hill will no longer be the only two schools in the UNC-System to have the eight-week course drop date. “This is going to be a huge culture shift for students,” Parker said.
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