MLO 5:
Cultural Praxis
The student demonstrates that he or she has been actively immersed in and has internalized Hispanic culture.
There are three pathways by which this outcome can be fulfilled:
There are three pathways by which this outcome can be fulfilled:
- Pathway 1: By participating in a study-abroad program in a Spanish-speaking country for at least one semester. WLC's Spanish program has exchange agreements with the University of Aguas Calientes and the University of Queretero in Mexico, and the University of Córdoba in Spain. In addition, through CSU International Programs, you can study at universities in Madrid or Granada, Spain or in Santiago, Chile.
- Pathway 2: By living and working in a local heritage community over an extended period of time without interruption for at least two years.
- Pathway 3: By participating in and/or completing 10 of the following cultural learning scenarios with accompanying documentation, in the target language:
- Participate in service learning within a local heritage community for a minimum of eight weeks beyond the actual service learning requirement.
- Make a minimum of three home-visits in the local heritage community to interact and communicate with members of the Hispanic culture regarding topics of personal interest, the community, culture and language.
- Attend or view via media a minimum of 10 cultural events and /or social activities of Hispanic culture.
- Actively participate and/or perform in a school or heritage community event or celebration.
- Participate in a heritage-community project (of some duration) that requires proficiency in Spanish and knowledge of Hispanic cultures.
- Conducting a one hour in-depth interview with a speaker of Spanish, eliciting, in a conversational manner, comments of a biographical nature, cultural and social observations and anecdotal reflections.
- View and comment on 10 movie-length films produced within and about Hispanic culture.
- Participate at least five times in organized sports or recreation activities of Hispanic culture.
- Demonstrate cultural skills by making hotel reservations, ordering meals and shopping in stores or markets in heritage settings where Spanish is spoken. This objective is assessed by faculty.
Reflective Narrative
MLO 5: Cultural Praxis, was developed for students to show how he or she was immersed in a Hispanic Culture. There are essentially three pathways in which this Major Learning Outcome can be met. In my case, I chose to meet this requirement through the documentation of Pathway 2. Pathway 2 asks for students to live and work in a local heritage community over an extended period of at least two years without interruption. I qualify for these requirements since I have always been part of a Hispanic heritage community. I have been [art of the Hispanic communities since the moment I was born; I have been surrounded by the cultures and the Spanish language until now. I was born and raised in Mexico for my entire childhood, therefore I am a native speaker of Spanish and I am part of the Hispanic cultures due to my Mexican heritage. Even now that I have lived in this country for over 12 years, I have always remained much attached to my culture and my language and I have expanded to interact with other Hispanic cultures as well. Spanish can still be considered my primary language; it is the language that I speak at home with my family and that I often use to communicate with others in different scenarios, including in my academics. In addition, my work experiences have also kept me attached to the Hispanic cultures. I have worked in a couple of communities within Monterey County as a tutor for migrant students. This was a particular job that brought me close to the Latino community and Hispanic heritage of the area and from which I have personally grown much. I have developed a personal narrative which conveys my experiences with the Hispanic community, their heritage and their language. The narrative demonstrates how I specifically meet the major learning outcome for cultural internalization and language immersion. This evidence of my accomplishment will be placed at the bottom of this section.