Davenport University to implement bilingual Casa Latina program in Fall 2024
Davenport University is planning to meet the needs of the growing Hispanic and Latinx communities by creating a fully bilingual program called Casa Latina, set to begin in the Fall semester of 2024.
Demographics in America are always shifting, and currently, according to the Pew Research Center, people of Hispanic descent make up around 29% of the total population of the country. The numbers of Hispanic people in America are expected to reach 128 million by 2050. However, despite being the fastest growing population in the country, the Latinx population is the least represented in higher education, with only 23% of the U.S. Hispanic population having earned a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2021.
Michigan is seeing trends in line with what is being seen nationally. In the 2020-21 school year, it was reported by MI School Data that Hispanic and Latinx students made up only 3.5% of total university enrollees in the state.
Davenport University leadership has decided to act on these trends by creating a program that is designed to advance the educational prospects of the country’s growing bilingual population. Davenport University has announced that starting in the Fall semester of 2024, it will introduce its Casa Latina program. The program is a large suite of fully bilingual academic degree programs which will support students as they navigate through the entire higher education process in English and Spanish. The program will also allow students access to bilingual services integrated throughout their university experience such as advising, student life, financial aid, and admissions.
The Casa Latina program will pave the way for more Latinx students to earn higher education degrees in general, while also addressing the growing demand for bilingual talent in various industries around the world.
In an article posted on Davenport University’s website, Davenport’s president Dr. Richard J. Pappas talked about the reasoning for the new program, saying, “Davenport University is committed to being at the forefront of innovation in higher education. We are committed to creating and implementing new ideas to continue supporting our students’ needs while increasing accessibility across all of our colleges and degree programs.”
There are currently no other universities in Michigan, and only a handful around the country, that are creating university-wide degree programs and supports that are entirely bilingual.
Dr. Pappas went on to talk about why Spanish was chosen, saying, “Recognizing that Spanish is the second largest language spoken in the U.S. and that the U.S. has the second largest population of Spanish speakers in the world, Davenport’s Casa Latina program will help to ensure that we strengthen Michigan’s English-Spanish-speaking workforce in business, health, urban education, technology and the sciences. We will graduate students who are equally fluent and professionally proficient in English and Spanish for their chosen degree program. Bilingualism, fully developed, provides cognitive, socioeconomic and professional advantages that become an asset to the community and the employers for whom Casa Latina graduates will serve.”
The executive director of Casa Latina, Carlos Sanchez, talked about the program, as well, saying, “These courses will be reflective of those currently offered regarding content, objectives and academic rigor. This program is not about learning Spanish or learning English; it is about graduating with the professional proficiency of a degree in both languages, preparing students for highly sought-after professions across several global industries.”
Sanchez started at Davenport University in the fall of 2022 with the job of leading the school’s work with the Latinx community, and will be a large part of the launch of the Casa Latina program.
“When it comes to advancing language skills, comprehension precedes production; people can usually understand a language before they can speak it or write it. This is an important piece of formulating the existing curriculum into the bilingual format that fits each degree program and the classes within it,” he said.
The curriculum of the program will be developed by Davenport systematically so that the needs of students in both English and Spanish can be adequately met. The lessons will largely be taught alternatingly between the two languages, but will ultimately be determined by the needs of each program’s subject and curriculum.
One example of how this will work can be seen in the accounting program, which uses terms like dividends, accruals, equity, and so on. This terminology and its usages within the accounting profession will be covered in both Spanish and English as part of the curriculum. Just like with any single language curriculum, it is important to construct communication skills both orally and written that are appropriate and culturally responsive to the clientele that will be served by the eventual graduate.
The program will work to create confidence in each language while also building the student’s professional proficiency in both Spanish and English. Students who graduate from the Casa Latina program will ultimately become fluent in both languages in their professional discourses.
Sanchez spoke on the importance of creating an environment of community at Davenport, saying, “Community is important and, thus, is integral to the success of Casa Latina. Davenport will utilize a community engagement approach to build upon a family- oriented culture and develop support through strategic partnerships to mobilize resources and sustain this initiative long term.”
So far it looks as though the community has been supportive of the Casa Latina program, with many gifts being provided to the school’s ELEVATE campaign. Donors include Steve and Tana Wessell in memory of Tyrus R. Wessell, the Steelcase Foundation, the M.E. Davenport Foundation, and the Daniel & Pamella DeVos Foundation.
Davenport is working to establish an advisory board which will include community stakeholders to make sure that the Casa Latina program will work in tandem with the local Latinx community to create a pipeline for Latinx enrollment, provide bilingual internships and post graduation employment, and provide Latinx college students with resources and support from social networks.
Students who are interested in taking part in the Casa Latina program are eligible if they are a high school student who has participated in a Spanish immersion program, a bilingual student who is comfortable using Spanish support services, a professional interested in continuing their education in both languages, or a first-generation bilingual student who would be the first in their family to attend college.
More information about Casa Latina can be found at Davenport University’s website.