With more than 150 students attending the University of Utah who are majoring in Bridge Program for Advanced Language Learning — an advanced language program for Utah high school students to earn college credit before graduation — Provides a variety of opportunities for students to advance and apply their language skills in academic and career settings.
To learn more about the options available to them, the Second Language Teaching and Research Center – which administers the nationwide Bridge Program – will hold an event on Thursday, September 29 from noon to 1:30 pm in LNCO 2110 for inform students about the variety of degrees, interdisciplinary courses, scholarships and internship opportunities available using advanced language and cultural skills. Students will also be able to meet with advisors and representatives from World Languages and Cultures, the Asia Program, International Studies, Latin American Studies, Culture and Languages Across the Curriculum, Study Abroad, and the Hinckley Institute.
“It serves as the administrative hub for the state Bridge program and its team,” said Jill Landes-Lee, state director for the Bridge Program. “We facilitate statewide faculty teams to develop course curriculum, host professional workshops and training on research-based teaching practices for language acquisition, promote teacher leadership for excellence in language education, and facilitate partnerships among Utah’s six public universities and their local secondary schools. Maintaining this expectation for Bridge Program graduates is why we are here—to celebrate and continue to promote academic and career opportunities for multilingual students through these unique partnerships between higher education and high schools.”
With their unique skills, Bridge students have many options available to them at the U, especially when it comes to majors. Many students arrive at the U having already earned nine college credits, and some choose to major or minor in their respective language, Chinese, French or Spanish. In addition, students can choose to pursue degrees in Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, and International Studies. Other valuable career options are adding a language major or minor to a science, engineering, business or humanities degree and engaging in a local, national or international internship applying their skills.
The language skills and advanced cultural knowledge of Bridge graduates align strongly with the university’s core values of fostering student success (many Bridge students are heritage language speakers and/or first generation to attend college), generating knowledge, engaging communities and ensuring university vitality.
“Ideally, this large group of students advanced in language and culture will further encourage the university to increase the number of internships that have a language component, both at home and abroad, to create dual degrees with languages and disciplines of others and increase the number of course offerings that focus on languages for specific purposes, for example, Chinese for business, Spanish for health-related professions, etc.,” said Fernando Rubio, director of the Center for Language Teaching and Research Second.
The current cohort of Bridge Program graduates attending the U are proficient in Chinese, French and Spanish. However, in the coming years, the groups will also include Portuguese, Russian and German speakers.
About the Bridge program
The Bridge Program offers an advanced language pathway for high school students who have passed the advanced language and culture exam, bridging the gap between exam completion and higher education. Students begin upper-division college language coursework in high school, with each three-credit college course spanning one full academic year of high school. This rigorous and supportive environment creates a bilingual university and career path and seeks to promote access to bilingual, biliterate and bicultural citizenship in Utah.
