Beginning next fall, Northwestern College will offer a new major in Spanish translation and interpretation. The program is designed for bilingual high school graduates who desire to earn a bachelor’s degree in a liberal arts setting and work in the burgeoning fields of translation and interpretation.

The program seeks to help meet a growing demand—locally, statewide, nationally and globally—for translators and interpreters. For example, there are only 11 class A certified interpreters for Iowa’s court system, one of whom is Northwestern professor Piet Koene, who will direct the new program. In addition, the major will provide translators and interpreters for church work, an area of increasing importance as the global church shifts more and more to the south, including Latin America, and as churches in the U.S. seek to extend their ministries to the Spanish-speaking population.

The major includes six new courses, one of which is a senior-year practicum in which students will serve as professional interpreters and translators. The program consists of 35 credit hours in Spanish, translation and interpretation; an additional 14 hours of cognate requirements such as courses in public speaking, linguistics and the law; and classes in a variety of disciplines to meet Northwestern’s general education requirement.

See: Northwestern College