TAMARI JENKINS: Hi, I'm Tamari Jenkins, known by my students
as Profesora Jenkins.
And I'm super excited to talk to you about studying Spanish
at Chaffey College.
It's important to consider studying Spanish
because it's a language of opportunity
as far as opening doors of communication.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
The US is currently the fifth largest Spanish-speaking country
in the world.
But the predictions state that by the year 2050,
we will be the number one largest.
So for practical reasons alone, the choice to study Spanish
would be an excellent choice.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
We have our traditional track, which
is for your typical Spanish as a second language learner student.
But we also have a heritage speaker track,
which is for our students who come to us already
with a level of Spanish that they speak and understand.
There are opportunities for our Spanish majors
to study abroad to get that language immersion, which
is a really important step for gaining fluency and cultural
competency.
HULON PARKER: The program was amazing.
I studied abroad in Guanajuato, Mexico,
and I was there for a month.
And it's one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Now I love to travel because of that experience.
I feel more connected to the world and something
I'll always remember.
I've been teaching Spanish now for eight years.
I know how Spanish has affected my life
and how it's opened my eyes to different cultures.
And it's always good to pass that along to someone else.
TAMARI JENKINS: There are a plethora
of careers that someone with a Spanish degree can pursue.
I know the thought is just becoming
a Spanish teacher like myself, but there is that and so
much more.
You can pursue interpretation and translation,
the health care professions.
You can go into travel and tourism,
or hotel and hospitality management, business,
real estate, law.
I could really go on and on.
JOYCELIN TRUJEQUE: I received a degree here in Spanish.
And I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in health care.
And I also understood how important
it was to be able to speak Spanish in that industry.
Currently now, I am a consultant at Kaiser Permanente.
Majoring in Spanish at Chaffey College, not only
helped to improve my own personal fluency
with the language, but it allowed me to better serve
the Spanish-speaking community.
And I was able to be involved in things like community health
fairs.
And those experiences helped propel me into the career
that I have now at Kaiser Permanente.
TAMARI JENKINS: Having a Spanish degree or being bilingual
can make a student so much more marketable in their career
outlook.
JOYCELIN TRUJEQUE: You're not only increasing your fluency
and getting a new skill, you're also
opening the door to so many different possibilities
and career paths that you can have.
You are not limited by majoring in Spanish.
And having this degree can only be an asset to you.
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