Department of Language and Literature
News: New program to prepare students to work in Spanish-speaking media

6/6/2007 | Beginning this fall, the Department of Language and Literature will contribute its expertise to a new Bachelor of Arts degree in Bilingual Journalism. The program will prepare graduates for careers in advertising, electronic and print media, journalism, public relations, publishing, writing or other careers requiring sophisticated communication skills in the Spanish-language market.

An interdisciplinary program, the Bilingual Journalism major will incorporate courses in news writing and reporting, television production and the literature of journalism with elements of Spanish and Latin American culture, advanced written and oral communication in Spanish and an internship.

“The program will train students to work in Spanish-language as well as English-language media,” said Joaquin Montero, Ph.D., assistant professor in Language and Literature at Benedictine University.

“The courses in communication arts will help students develop an understanding of the media and develop professional skills,” he added. “The Spanish courses will focus on the practice of language skills. Finally, the interdisciplinary courses will offer a bilingual approach to the integration of the theory and practice.”

Benedictine University has been serving the needs of minority students since its founding. University officials believe the Bilingual Journalism program will continue that tradition by reaching out to students of Hispanic descent who wish to pursue media as a career as well as non-Hispanic students interested in learning Spanish and working in Spanish-speaking media.

“The mission statement of Benedictine University says that the school is dedicated to the education of undergraduate and graduate students from diverse ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds,” Montero said. “The University was originally founded to serve the sons of immigrants from Eastern Europe who settled in the Chicago area.

“Our program is aimed at serving the Hispanic population in the greater Chicago area, a group that is often misrepresented and traditionally underrepresented in the media,” he added.

excerpted and adapted from Benedictine press release