Year-long Spanish course innovates MAP structure

By Oliver Wolfe wolfeoli@grinnell.edu

The Spanish department is offering a new, one-of-a-kind, year-long course taking place in the fall and spring of the 2023-2024 academic year. The course, titled Learning from the Latinx Community, will include the SPN-397 class — a two credit Independent Study — in the fall, and SPN-499 — a four credit Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) — in the spring, totaling six credits. If a student fully completed the course, then all of these six credits will count towards their Spanish major requirements.

According to the course description and learning goals, the MAP emphasizes the importance of community engagement and social justice through service. Students in the course will be matched with one community partner in the Latinx/Spanish-speaking community in Iowa, specifically in Des Moines, Iowa City or Marshalltown.

The students will work closely with these organizations and complete a community service project with them in order to apply and improve their Spanish-speaking skills. Simultaneously, students will develop and acquire important understandings of cultural diversity, self-awareness, power dynamics and more. According to Maria Carmen Valentin, associate professor of Spanish, “One of the goals of the course is to expose our students to the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Hispanic world.”

Valentin said that she has taught similar social justice-focused Spanish courses before, but this is the first time that the course has been approved as a year-long course, which she said is important for making meaningful contributions to the community.

“We are expecting a year-long commitment because students are not making that commitment with me, students are making that commitment with a community partner,” said Valentin. “We are trying to establish long-term relationships with community partners, relationships that are

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