2025 'Spanish Bridge Campus Visit and Workshop' at Utah Valley University
Dec. 12, 2025
Each November, for the past three years, the Spanish Program at Utah Valley University has hosted high school Bridge Program senior’ students to visit the UVU campus. We call it: The Bridge Workshop. This year, the workshop was held on Wednesday, November the 12th from 9:00 am to 1:30 pm, with the participation of more than 50 senior students from three high schools: Mountain View, Timpanogos and Springville. This unique dual immersion workshop connects the students who are participating in the Bridge Program and their teachers, with the UVU Spanish faculty to learn about opportunities for continuing their language study. We want the students to know that the Bridge classes they are taking in high school are not just language classes but actual credits they can apply when they come to UVU.
This 2025/26 school year, the UVU Concurrent Enrollment service area offers 50 language sections of the 3116 Bridge Program course across 5 languages, and this includes 26 sections of Spanish Bridge courses enrolling nearly 650 students in Spanish alone!!! These numbers show how important classes are for students!!! The high school students attending the Bridge Workshop get excited when they find out that Bridge classes, as upper division courses, allow them to begin their language minor and major while still in high school, and that they can finish their college minor in just two or three more courses once they reach any of Utah's public 4-year institutions. For example, if a bridge student is planning to come to Utah Valley University, this is the pathway:
SPANISH https://www.uvu.edu/lang/spanish/degrees.html
All three Bridge courses, SPAN 3116, 3117 and 3118 can be applied as Upper Division Spanish Electives AFTER the students take and pass SPAN 3050.
SUGGESTED for Spanish Language Minor:
| If student successfully completes: |
| • 1 Bridge course: SPAN 3050, SPAN 4050, either SPAN351g or SPAN352g, and two more 3 credit Upper Division Spanish Electives |
| • 2 Bridge courses: SPAN 3050, SPAN 3040, either SPAN351g or SPAN352g, and one more 3 credit Upper Division Spanish Electives |
| • 3 Bridge courses: SPAN 3050, SPAN 4050, and either SPAN351g or SPAN352g |
SUGGESTED for Spanish for Professional Translating and Interpreting Minor:
| If student successfully completes: |
| • 1 Bridge Program course: SPAN 3050, SPAN 4110, SPAN 4120 or 4130 & two more 3-credit Upper Division Spanish Electives |
| • 2 BP courses: SPAN 3050, SPAN 4110, SPAN 4120 or 4130 & one more 3-credit Upper Division Spanish Elective |
| • 3 BP courses: SPAN 3050, SPAN 4110, & SPAN 4120 or 4130 |
Our Bridge Workshop is also an exceptional occasion for the students to find out information about programs, scholarships and many other opportunities that UVU has for them. This year in our workshop, we recognized the ‘outstanding bridge student’ of each class of the schools that participated in our workshop. Our program this year included the following:
| Spanish Bridge Workshop for High School Seniors |
| Schedule of Activities: |
| 9:15-9:50 Welcome by Dr. Jorge Nisguritzer-Spanish Program Coordinator at UVU-and Breakfast provided by UVU. |
| 10:00-10:45 Language Lab tour with Dr. James Krause and the Spanish tutors. |
| 11:00-11:30 Mallory Thomas UVU Spanish advisor: ‘Understanding Spanish Majors, Minors, Certificates and Bridge classes’ |
| 11:30-12:10 Dr. Devin Gilbert: ‘Spanish Translation and Interpretation Programs at UVU’. |
| 12:10-12:50 Lunch provided by UVU |
| 12:50-1:30 Elizabeth Nield from the Student Success Office: ‘Resources at UVU for prospective college students’ |
| 1:30-1:45 General questions from the students. |
When we talk about how successful the Bridge program is, we cannot forget our high school teachers. They are a fundamental pillar in our program, and to make sure that the teachers in our teaching area feel our appreciation and support, we organized on Thursday, February 13th of this year, the first Bridge Seminar for high school teachers. This was an excellent opportunity to discuss important topics of our Bridge classes and get to know each other better. This Seminar has been a great opportunity to develop and strengthen the Bridge Program as it serves our students and high school teachers in UVU teaching area. Professors Mari De Dios, liaison for our Bridge program, and Jason Wilber, liaison for our Concurrent Enrollment program participated with me as presenters in the Seminar.
Professor De Dios says the following after visiting our Bridge high school classes: ‘It was a very pleasant opportunity to visit with all Spanish Bridge teachers. They are very professional, and they welcome suggestions to improve and keep their classes to the UVU required standards. I could appreciate that the level of Spanish taught in all Bridge supervised classes is superior in the ACTFL scale. Classes are well structured, student centered and 100% taught in the target language. At this point, I do not have any concerns about our Bridge adjuncts, and I am pleased to report that we have a very respectful team. I am eager to see what new subjects they will be teaching in the coming school year.’
The Bridge Program has many other benefits for our students. When high school students take a Bridge class, they learn more than just grammar and vocabulary, they also learn new cultures and perspectives. This means that by studying a foreign language in any of the Bridge classes, students will gain a better awareness of different customs and traditions, leading to a greater sense of openness and understanding. I love the fact that Bridge classes give the opportunity to our high school students to be part of our community. For example, with the increasing number of Hispanic immigrants, students can be involved in the Hispanic community by being bilingual, but more importantly by being bicultural. Bridge classes strengthen and connect our students with our Hispanic communities.
In summary, Bridge classes are a great opportunity for our high school students to have an amazing future with better job opportunities by mastering a second language, opening their minds to a new culture, and being an active part of the UVU’s local and global community.
Jorge Nisguritzer
Associate Professor of Spanish
Spanish Program Coordinator
Utah Valley University
"We want the students to know that the Bridge classes they are taking in high school are not just language classes but actual credits they can apply when they come to UVU."
"Our Bridge Workshop is also an exceptional occasion for the students to find out information about programs, scholarships and many other opportunities that UVU has for them"
"When high school students take a Bridge class, they learn more than just grammar and vocabulary, they also learn new cultures and perspectives."
"Bridge classes are a great opportunity for our high school students to have an amazing future with better job opportunities by mastering a second language, opening their minds to a new culture, and being an active part of the UVU’s local and global community."