Value-added language | Daily

Creating opportunity

In addition to vocabulary and grammar, students in the Spanish for healthcare minor learn about Spanish-speaking cultures and have mock patient interactions.

After this classroom experience, Salsini-Tobias began volunteering as a telemedicine Spanish interpreter through Saint Francis Hospital in Wilmington, which is part of the Trinity Health system. Trinity also manages a program called Global Health Volunteers, and Salsini-Tobias spent two summers with Global Health working at a clinic in Peru. 

He said that learning about cultural norms in class, like the concept of machismo, helped him relate to patients who may be reluctant to seek medical care.

Salsini-Tobias graduated in 2023 with an honors bachelor of arts degree in biological sciences and minors in history and Spanish for healthcare, a partnership with the College of Health Sciences. He starts medical school in the fall of 2024 at the University of Rochester, where he plans to continue volunteering with local clinics serving native Spanish speakers.

That experience is exactly what Gasta envisioned. Since coming to UD in 2022, he has worked to enhance and expand the LLC’s applied language, or language for special purposes programs, giving students even more options for integrating language into their studies. 

Programs include specialized vocabulary and specific writing skills like drafting technical reports, but as Gasta explained, “We don’t teach engineering or business principles. We teach the culture of engineering or business in another country, the social and political factors that are relevant to being successful abroad.” 

The specialized approach applies to study abroad programs as well. Students in German for Engineering are required to participate in UD’s winter session program in Leipzig. The program is open to all German language students, but engineering students have additional activities like visits to factories and meetings with industry professionals. They also take language classes taught by a German engineer and with engineering students from around the world.

Redirected focus

Gasta explained that advanced language programs traditionally concentrated on studying literature, but students today have greater opportunities. 

“It’s redirecting our focus,” he said. “We’re still trying to improve language proficiency and introduce students to world literatures.” But now students see how they can apply that proficiency to other interests.

Peyton Rautzhan, a senior international business major with minors in economics and French, integrated her language skill into her major course of study. She spent the summer in Belgium as a teaching assistant for a study abroad program for students studying international business operations and management. 

Even though it was not a language-centered program, Rautzhan relied on her French skills to schedule itineraries, plan site visits and coordinate internship placements.  

Starting at UD, Rautzhan knew she wanted to continue her language studies. “I chose international business because that major has a language requirement,” she said. 

She says the French faculty at UD have helped prepare her to succeed by ensuring that coursework matched students’ interests, especially an advanced translation and stylistics course she took last semester with Deborah Steinberger, associate professor of French and comparative literature.