Spanish & Portuguese Studies Newsletter

Greetings from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies!

At the end of the school year, I had the great pleasure of celebrating the myriad accomplishments of the 34 majors and 137 minors who graduated this year with degrees in Spanish and Spanish & Portuguese studies.

Two of those minors were our first students to cross the stage with a degree in medical Spanish, a program we just launched in fall 2025 that will strengthen our efforts to prepare our students with the practical skills necessary to excel in health care fields and the cultural and linguistic competency to make impactful contributions to their communities.

As we watch the students embark on the next stage of their lives, there is little doubt that they will leverage their capacious and prodigious abilities to critically analyze the world from diverse viewpoints and positions and communicate effectively across multiple linguistic and professional registers.

We know this through first-hand observation of the students over the last four years, but especially because our alumni have already paved the way and become models for the wide range of possibilities and impacts one can make with a degree in Spanish & Portuguese studies from the University of Minnesota. A degree from our department tends to make the world seem smaller, as one studies in locales such as Toledo, Spain, and Quito, Ecuador, while at the same time making the issues and quandaries besetting our society appear larger and more complex.

It is a great pleasure, as head of the department, to witness all of the exciting and impressive ways the members of our community, past and present, bring their expertise to bear on so many of the pivotal issues facing our world today.  

Warm regards,
William Viestenz

Department and Alumni Stories