Lindenwood Magazine - Spring 2021

20 21 SPRING 2021 EDITION SPRING 2021 EDITION THE LINDENWOOD THE LINDENWOOD The Linden Gold is a student-operated organization focused on promoting the success and achievements of students, employees, and programs at Lindenwood. The Linden Gold aims to celebrate the highest standards of excellence. To go for the gold is to reach the top, and Lindenwood alumni, faculty, staff, students, and programs have proven that the drive to achieve is one that extends far beyond the walls of the classroom. SPANISH INTERNSHIP PROGRAM BRINGS COMMUNITY AND STUDENTS TOGETHER by Hazel Denother When renovating the Spanish program, the foreign language professors at Lindenwood University wanted to shape the degree in a way that would lead their students to future success. They wanted their students’ language skills to continue to serve them outside the classroom, and they hoped that students would feel capable and confident in their Spanish abilities when they moved beyond Lindenwood’s halls. The faculty crafted a program with a unique new component that they believed would be valuable to Spanish students; to earn their degrees, Spanish students engage in experiential learning in the form of either studying abroad or completing Spanish internships. Students have already been making a steady impact on the community through their internships, approaching each new opportunity with enthusiasm and determination. Students are accomplishing great things in the St. Charles and St. Louis communities while getting the opportunity to use their Spanish in professional settings. Dr. Núñez-Betelu, Spanish professor and coordinator of the internship program, is pleased with what her students have accomplished, and she points out that there are many benefits to completing a Spanish internship concurrently with one’s studies. “You’re still coming to class, you’re still learning, but at the same time, you’re getting a little bit of experience,” she explains. “And given that there are so many Spanish speakers around here now, being able to communicate with them is something that’s going to help….This gives you the experience of working in a place where you use Spanish and meeting people who speak Spanish.” In order to obtain credit for a Spanish internship, students must complete a minimum of 105 hours of work throughout the semester, and they need to speak Spanish at least 75% of the time that they are working. Núñez-Betelu says this experience “makes what [students] are studying more real.” Lindenwood senior Malachi Cecil spent the last two semesters interning at Refugio, an immigrant community in St. Louis, and he says that his work was extremely rewarding. During his internship experience, he helped people navigate the immigration system, and his responsibilities included providing interpretation services to people in healthcare and courtroom settings and connecting immigrants to local community resources. Cecil states, “My favorite part of the internship was being able to be present in the community in a way that I had not been and learning from the people I worked with. It was an eye-opening experience in many ways.” Cecil feels that his experience with Refugio has had a major influence on his language skills. “This internship definitely impacted my Spanish in ways that classroom experience alone could not have. First of all, just the amount of time that I was speaking and listening to Spanish was so much more than is possible in a classroom. There were no ways to get around using Spanish,” he explains. “It also gave me experience using Spanish under pressure (for example, in the emergency room), which made using Spanish in other circumstances much less intimidating.” Furthermore, he feels that his internship helped him to grow as a person. “This experience definitely increased my linguistic and cultural appreciation. Simply being much more present in the community inevitably leads to much more cultural appreciation, and this is true in my case for sure.” During internships, students often have to use their Spanish skills in unfamiliar situations, and facing these initial linguistic challenges forces them to become better speakers. Cecil agrees that this was true of his experience. “I was constantly being pushed to the edge of my language ability, especially when interpreting at the hospital and court. I also had a lot of trouble speaking Spanish on the phone,” he says. “I have gotten a lot more comfortable with all of these specific situations, and just in general my Spanish is much better than it was. I am just generally much more comfortable operating in Spanish than I was before the internship.” Under Núñez-Betelu’s direction, this program is creating a bridge between Lindenwood University and the local community and hopes that these relationships will only grow stronger with time. She says, “One of our goals...is that the community knows that Lindenwood is a place where they can find people who can help them and [the community also knows] that they are welcome in our community and that we are here for them,” she says, “because we know that they are here for us, too.” So far, local Hispanic and LatinX organizations have been impressed by the work that Lindenwood students are doing in their internships. Núñez- Betelu says that she has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the interns’ supervisors, and the organizations are enthusiastic about continuing their connections with the university and hosting more Lindenwood interns. The program has been a smashing triumph so far, and the Spanish faculty foresee it continuing to grow and thrive in the years to come. STUDENT FOLLOWS IN FACULTY MEMBER FOOTSTEPS by Emily Holmes Recent Lindenwood University graduate Samantha Goewert is defying the odds as she follows in the footsteps of mentor and former professor at Lindenwood, Dr. Sara Bagley. Goewert is a graduate student at Saint Louis University (SLU) and is part of their experimental psychology program with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience. This is the same program that Dr. Bagley received her masters and doctorate degree from SLU as well. Goewert took part in Dr. Bagley’s research lab for four consecutive semesters while she was at Lindenwood and feels as though it really helped her with her studies and with getting her to where she is today. “Joining her lab seemed like the best fit and was proven through the many research projects we worked on in the lab. Working in Dr. Bagley’s lab not only provided me with excellent research experience, but I was genuinely excited to utilize research to attempt to answer many questions we had about cognition.” Goewert feels that working in those labs ultimately solidified her choice of study. During Goewert’s time at Lindenwood, she won the School of Sciences Zanville Writing Award (2018), won the Endowed Lindenwood Psychology Award (2020), was a member of Alpha Chi and of Psi Chi, and was an Honor’s student with a 4.0 GPA. Goewert did all of this while raising a 5-year-old son. THE LINDEN GOLD MALACHI CECIL This experience definitely increased my linguistic and cultural appreciation. Simply being much more present in the community inevitably leads to much more cultural appreciation, and this is true in my case for sure.