A richly historic language that spans the entire globe, contemporary Spanish is the culmination of centuries of literature, art, music and culture.
In your Spanish degree from Portland State University, you’ll study a language with over 50 million native speakers in the U.S. and another 400 million abroad, making it the second most popular native-spoken language in the United States and the world.
Whether you want to study the Spanish language and culture to get in touch with your family's history, immerse yourself in Hispanic culture, or prepare for an international career, a bachelor's degree in Spanish from Portland State will help you expand your knowledge and build your fluency.
The Spanish major is a degree focusing on language, culture, and history. You'll take courses in language, linguistics, literature, film, and life in Spanish-speaking countries and communities. You will join a diverse community of students, some learning Spanish as a new language and others who are native or heritage speakers broadening their skills, all bringing unique perspectives and a wide range of skills to the classroom.
In the Spanish program at PSU, students explore the relationships between language, history, and art using an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates perspectives from across the humanities, sciences, and professions.
Our close ties with the broader Portland community gives you a unique chance to apply your skills. The Capstone in Dual Immersion places senior Spanish undergraduates in bilingual classroom settings around Portland. As tutors and classroom aides at the Spanish-English dual immersion program at Barnes Elementary School in Beaverton and Cesar Chavez School in Portland, you'll have the opportunity to create interactive class activities in Spanish.
Many of our students also study abroad, embarking on an immersive experience that complements your work in the classroom. We offer a faculty-led immersion experience in Barcelona, Spain, providing you with the opportunity to strengthen your Spanish-speaking language skills while learning about the literary, artistic, and historical currents of Catalonia.
Spanish majors work in a wide variety of fields, including health and medicine, publishing, engineering, education, law, business, art, social work, hospitality and tourism, the trades, consulting, government, and nonprofit work. You can also pair your Spanish major with academic work in pre-medicine, pre-law, and pre-teacher education or use it as preparation for graduate studies in social work, public affairs, history, or Hispanic studies.
Majoring in Spanish will give you a competitive advantage in your career, more than 90% of U.S. companies seek employees who can work with clients from different countries and cultures, most seek employees with multicultural experience, half seek employees with overseas experience and one-third give preference to multilingual applicants.