Skip to main content
University of Nebraska Omaha logo University of Nebraska Omaha
APPLY MY UNO DIRECTORY

University of Nebraska Omaha logo
College of Arts & Sciences Foreign Languages & Literature
APPLY MY UNO DIRECTORY
  • About Us Backback to Main menu
    • About Us
    • Faculty & Staff Directory
    • Contact Us
    • FLL Events & Conferences
  • Academics Backback to Main menu
    • Foreign Languages Majors
    • Foreign Languages Minors
    • Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)
    • Graduate Programs
    • Graduate Certificate in Spanish
    • Graduate Certificate in Teaching Spanish to Heritage/Bilingual Learners
    • Graduate Certificate in French
    • FLL Course Offerings
    • Academic Advising
    • Placement Information
    • Retroactive Credit
    • Knowledge & Skills Gained
  • Student Opportunities Backback to Main menu
    • Student Organizations
    • Service Learning
    • Study Abroad
    • Foreign Languages and Literature Honors & Awards
    • Internships
    • Career Opportunities
  • Community Engagement Backback to Main menu
    • Community Engagement
    • FLL Events & Conferences
  • Research Backback to Main menu
    • European Studies Conference (held in-person and virtually in 2022)
    • Research
  • Support Us

Service Learning

  1. UNO
  2. College of Arts & Sciences
  3. Foreign Languages & Literature
  4. Student Opportunities
  5. Service Learning

FLL Experiential & Service Learning

Omaha is a diverse city where a wide variety of languages are spoken and many cultural backgrounds are present.

In response, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature sees this as an educational opportunity, and we regularly include service-learning components in our courses. This not only gives students a chance to use and apply the knowledge and language skills that they are learning, but also allows them to connect with the relevant local communities.

Many of our projects seek to expand access to information and educational resources specific to non-English speaking communities in Omaha and the state of Nebraska. Students who participate in these projects are able to achieve first-hand knowledge of field-specific practices.

These collaborations between students and community partners allow for future career opportunities that will be mutually beneficial.

Past Events

2021/2022 | 2020/2021

Evento Cultural (Cultural Event)

evento-cultural-banner.jpg

Over the course of the semester, students in SPAN 1110, 1120, 2110 and 2120 attend one event organized within the Spanish-speaking community or relating to Latino issues at our university, locally in Omaha, in the state of Nebraska, or where they reside in the US.

The purpose is for students to get acquainted with local US Latino and worldwide Spanish-speaking cultures and histories. This exposes them both to the language and those who speak it within the community and helps connect them to everyday opportunities to use the language and immerse themselves in the culture.

Student Samuel Logeman had a very memorable experience while attending a cultural event. He had an unexpected meeting across four generations:

“Turning the corner to see the first installation my mom exclaimed “That’s my grandma!” and sure enough there was a large black and white framed picture of my great grandma, Juvencia Reyes, hanging on the wall. […] Next to her picture was a transcript of an interview from her. […] There was also an audio recording of my great grandma which we listened to. It was honestly amazing to hear my great grandma’s voice for the first time […] It was also emotional for my mom because she had not seen a picture of her grandma or heard her voice in over 20 years.”


South Omaha Scavenger Hunt

Every semester, students in SPAN 2110 visit a Spanish-speaking area in the city of Omaha and complete a scavenger hunt. This allows them to see first-hand that Spanish is not just a language that we study in our little bubble in the university. This language and these cultures are alive in our country and our city!

The area that students visit in small groups is La Veinticuatro (24th Street, between L Street and Q Street). During the Scavenger Hunt, students eat at a restaurant, go to a grocery store and find specific products and publications in Spanish, etc. This assignment includes an action report with pictures, as well as an essay in which students reflect on this intercultural experience in their own hometown.


Spring 2023 Experiential & Service Learning Projects

Assessment & Curriculum Design

The service-learning project in FLNG 8040 is a continuation of the project initiated by SPAN 3010 students. In this course, we will develop reading materials for more books, in English, Spanish, French, or German, and we will make them available online for school administrators and teachers to use, at no cost, for their One School, One Book programs (or any reading initiative they might have!).

One School, One Book is a reading program where all the students in one school read the very same book and engage in the same reading tasks. You can learn more about the One School, One book program here.

Schools usually purchase the books and accompanying materials from companies that deliver: reading quizzes, chapter summaries, a letter to parents, a reading calendar, bookmarks, and other items that are useful to schools as they implement the One school, One book program.

Recently, undergraduate students in SPAN 3010: Spanish for Heritage Speakers in the Foreign Languages and Literature department created a reading package for a book called Esperanza Rising that was used in a school in OPS that includes a dual language program. UNO students completed this project as a service-learning initiative for their SPAN 3010 course, and created all reading materials in both English and Spanish so children could choose to complete the reading and other activities (e.g., reading quizzes) in the language of their choice.

Intermediate Spanish II

SPAN 2120 students will be partnering with Omaha Public Schools Title 1 Parent Engagement Program in their Adult ESL classes. They will help to facilitate English language learning and have opportunities to engage in conversation in Spanish. The parents will group up with UNO students and participate in roundtable conversations, chalk talk, or other collaborative activities that allow for communication and support learning in both languages. The objectives of this project include engaging parents in school and community; highlighting differences between high school and university through collaboration; learning about different cultures and traditions through conversations; giving parents a better understanding of college life and students an understanding of first-generation families through learning their stories; creating connections between individuals and learning different perspectives. In April once the ESL course has concluded, adult learners will be invited to tour the UNO campus and celebrate their language achievements.


Fall 2022 Experiential & Service Learning Projects

Latin America in Context and Heritage Speakers II

FELICIDAD PARA COMPARTIR | HAPPINESS TO SHARE

In this Community Learning project, UNO students from SPAN 3050 and SPAN 3020 are teaming up with community partners Bellevue East High School, Schuyler Central High School, and Learning Community Center of South Omaha (LCCSO) to practice the “12 Practices of Happiness” in their classrooms. All students will also participate in “Happiness Support Teams”, under the leadership of UNO students. Each team, consisting of 5-6 students, will meet virtually through Padlet three times during the semester to share their experiences as practitioners of these very simple happiness enhancement techniques. An in-person celebration is scheduled for November 17 at the UNO campus. All activities will be carried out in Spanish.

The project involves around 120 students from Omaha, Bellevue and Schuyler. We are expecting over 60 individuals on November 17. LCCSO parents will be accompanied by their young children, so we are hoping our project will reach people of all ages, spreading happiness all around us.

Our goals for this project are:

  • To promote wholesome emotional and mental-health habits
  • To reduce stress and discomfort in everyday social situations
  • To rediscover our common humanity
  • To build trust in others
  • To enhance awareness and well-being inside and outside the classroom To embed language practice in the wider context of body-mind balance

Advanced Spanish Conversation

SPAN 4030/80036 students are participating in a service-learning project developed in conjunction with the Heartland Workers Center to promote voter registration and voter participation. The project requires students to conduct group canvassing in South Omaha, which is the part of the city with the greatest concentration of Spanish speakers. Students have an opportunity to converse in Spanish with a broad array of Hispanic citizens, under supervision at first and eventually on their own. During their visits, students ask people whether they can vote in the U.S. and, if so, if they are already registered to vote, if they intend to vote, or if they need additional information on the voting process. Through this project, students provide non-partisan information, such as dates, eligibility requirements, registration instructions, information on how to go about voting on Election Day, as well as information on early voting, which can be particularly important to citizens with limited mobility or with work scheduling conflicts.

Introduction to Translation

Students in Spanish 4060/8066 are completing a service-learning (SL) project in partnership with several local organizations, including Omaha Public Schools (OPS) and Lauritzen Gardens. The purpose of the SL collaboration is twofold: (a) to provide UNO students with opportunities for real practice interpreting and translating (English-Spanish), and (b) to meet a need in the community by facilitating means to overcome linguistic barriers.

For this SL project students engage in two activities, including interpreting at parent -teacher conferences in Field Club Elementary, and translating materials for the various organizations that they can then use in promoting their services or knowledge among Spanish-speaking individuals in Omaha.


Spring 2022 Experiential & Service Learning Projects

Structure of Spanish

SPAN 4220 students will develop an interactive activity (e.g., scavenger hunt, guided walking tour) that features and teaches about the rich culture, history, and traditions of Latinx peoples in Nebraska. The finished activity will be used in the future by students enrolled in freshman Spanish courses.

Through this activity, students in SPAN 4220 will put to use their Spanish skills by either reading, writing, or speaking in Spanish, and they will increase their knowledge about Latinx individuals living in Nebraska. At the same time, they will create an artifact that will help beginning Spanish students learn more about Nebraska and the presence of Latinx peoples living in the state.

Spanish for Heritage Speakers II

img_1992.jpg

ONE SCHOOL, ONE BOOK PROGRAM

SPAN 3020: Spanish for Heritage Speakers II undergraduate students will have the opportunity to engage in a Service Learning project encompassing interdisciplinary collaboration with Crestridge Elementary School students. This Service Learning project has UNO students identify limitations in book translations and design supplementary materials such as lesson plans, quizzes, letters, and bookmarks revolving around the book Esperanza Renace. Crestridge students will have the opportunity of engaging and further their learning with these materials as part of their curriculum during the Fall 2022 semester

Linguistic Justice & Latino Health

Students in Dr. Dauphinais’ SPAN 4970 class partnered with The Wellbeing Partners. Students worked with the community partner to conduct health narrative interviews among the Spanish-speaking community in Omaha about language and mental health.

Students analyzed transcribed, translated, and analyzed these narratives to look at ways health communication from healthcare providers can reduce language barriers and incorporate greater cultural humility. These interviews and narratives were then used by The Wellbeing Partners to create a social media campaign within the Omaha Latino community to increase mental health awareness and access to mental health resources.


Fall 2021 Service Learning Projects

Research Methods

In Fall 2021, the graduate students enrolled in Dr. Cecilia Tocaimaza-Hatch's FLNG 8020 partnered with ADL (Anti Defamation League). ADL hosts a walk every November where people are able to visit sights in Omaha that are significant to the civil rights movement. With the COVID pandemic, starting in 2020, ADL looked to provide participants with a virtual alternative for the in-person walk where people could learn about historical places in Omaha online.

Students in FLNG 8020 contributed to this project by researching sites in Omaha that have historical significance to the civil rights movement and designing lesson plans and materials that high school teachers can incorporate into their curriculum. All the materials produced by FLNG 8020 students will be featured in ADL’s site supporting the November walk.

Advanced Spanish Conversation & Spanish Conversation and Pronunciation

2021-11-10-bre-meeting-in-south-omaha.jpg

Since the state of Nebraska has funds to help small and medium-sized businesses, as well as self-employed workers affected by the pandemic, it is urgent to produce a quantitative and qualitative study that records the adverse effects of the pandemic on those businesses whose owners are Latino, in order to justify that a portion of available state funds can also reach this segment of the population.

Thus, Dr. Steven Torres and Dr. Jose Sequeros-Valle's SPAN 4030 & 3030 students participate in a community engagement and research project in South Omaha that will primarily benefit the Latino population. Students work in pairs to complete interviews and surveys to collect data.


Fall 2020 Service Learning Projects

Latin America in Context

garcia-south-0.jpeg

Dr. Garcia’s Fall 2020 SPAN 3050: Latin America in Context class included a weekly exploration of simple mindfulness practices which have a positive impact in our levels of happiness, especially during the COVID pandemic before vaccines became available.

As part of this Community Outreach Project, students created a YouTube playlist, sharing in Spanish their favorite Practices of Happiness, encouraging Spanish-speaking community members to take simple but effective steps to improve emotional and physical wellbeing.

Prácticas de Felicidad |Practices of Happiness Community Outreach Project

Announcements

  • Study Abroad
  • M.A. in Language Teaching
  • Graduate Certificate in Spanish
  • Graduate Certificate in Teaching Spanish to Heritage/Bilingual Learners
  • Graduate Certificate in French
  • FLL Events & Conferences

Contact Us

  • Main Office
  • 6001 Dodge Street, 301 ASH
  • Omaha, NE 68182-0192
  • Phone: 402.554.4841
  • Fax: 402.554.3445
  • Email: mglee@unomaha.edu
  • Office Hours
  • Mon-Fri, 8:30 A.M. - 5 P.M.

College of Arts and Sciences

  • Contact Us
  • 220 Arts & Sciences Hall
  • College Advising Office
  • College Resources
  • For Faculty and Staff
  • Math-Science Learning Center
  • The Writing Center
  • Next Steps
  • Visit UNO
  • Request Information
  • Apply for Admission
  • The UNO Advantage
  • Our City (Omaha)
  • Just For You
  • Future Students
  • Current Students
  • Work at UNO
  • Faculty and Staff
  • A-Z List
  • Popular Services and Resources
  • my.unomaha.edu
  • Academic Calendar
  • Campus Buildings & Maps
  • Library
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Course Catalogs
  • Internships & Career Development
  • Bookstore
  • MavCARD Services
  • Military-Connected Resource Center
  • Speech Center
  • Writing Center
  • Human Resources
  • Center for Faculty Excellence
  • Affiliates
  • University of Nebraska System
  • NU Foundation
  • Buffett Early Childhood Institute
  • Daugherty Water for Food Institute
  • National Strategic Research Institute
  • Peter Kiewit Institute
  • Rural Prosperity Nebraska
  1. University Policies
  2. Privacy Statement
  3. Accessibility
  1. 402.554.2800

University of Nebraska Omaha
University of Nebraska Omaha, 6001 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE, 68182
  • © 2023  
  • Emergency Information Alert
  • Report an Incident or Concern

Omaha Skyline

Our Campus. Otherwise Known as Omaha.

The University of Nebraska does not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and/or political affiliation in its education programs or activities, including admissions and employment. The University prohibits any form of retaliation taken against anyone for reporting discrimination, harassment, or retaliation for otherwise engaging in protected activity. Read the full statement.

scroll to top of page