One OU college is offering future educators the opportunity to learn and become more fluent in Spanish.

For the second year, the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education is offering a six-week summer Spanish-immersion program for education students at the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado Puebla in Puebla, Mexico. This year’s program takes place May 18 through June 26.

The education-oriented study abroad program caters to education students and is coming at a time when Oklahoma needs more Spanish-speaking teachers.

Between October 2007 and October 2008, the number of Hispanic students enrolled in Oklahoma schools increased by 3,461 students, according to Oklahoma State Department of Education Data Services.

Teresa DeBacker, educational psychology professor, accompanied the five education students who participated in last summer’s Spanish-immersion program. She said the program not only helped students get closer to achieving Spanish fluency, but also included components that educated students about the value of education to immigrant families.

“Students entering a market are typically sensitive to market needs,” DeBacker said. “I think our students are already familiar with the benefit of ... being able to function in some minimal way in Spanish.”

DeBacker said Spanish-immersion classes, Spanish-speaking tour guides, visits to Mexican schools and the opportunity to live with a Mexican family enhance the study experience for many students.

“If we want to help English-language-learning students be successful in school, when we can try to reach out to them in their home language, even if we don’t do that very well, it really helps a lot for them to feel at home in the classroom and build relationships with the teacher,” she said.

Chris Brewster, founder and principal of Santa Fe South Charter Schools in Oklahoma City, said 80 percent of his approximately 900 middle and high school students are Hispanic.

He said the schools greatly need Spanish-speaking teachers to communicate with students and parents. Plans to open a Santa Fe South elementary school are in the works, and the need for bilingual teachers will increase even more with younger students who have less experience with English, Brewster said.

“It is extremely difficult for me as an administrator to find folks who are capable of being not only equipped teachers, but [who] also can communicate in two languages,” he said. “So we would be very happy to have folks who could do that, and I think OU’s College of Education could really serve a growing market in many of our cities who are encountering this as one of their challenges right now.”

Jamie Simpson, special education junior, attended the Spanish-immersion program last summer in Puebla.

“I’ve always been interested in learning more Spanish,” Simpson said. “I wanted to get a full cultural perspective.”

She said her Spanish improved and she was able to apply for a Spanish-speaking pay raise at her bank job when she returned. But reaping the economic benefits of speaking Spanish wasn’t all Simpson gained from her time in Puebla.

She was able to gain a new perspective on the importance of education to immigrant families and children, she said.

“Because I was in Mexico, I could see the poverty and the way the schools were there,” she said.

She said the confidence she’s gained speaking Spanish is invaluable and will help her to become a better educator.

The application deadline for this summer’s program is March 1.

Related Links:

Enrollment Summary [PDF]

Spanish Immersion Program

Apply to the Spanish Immersion Program