Out-of-Class Activities
The Spanish program requires our students to meaningfully engage with the Spanish language and its cultures outside of the classroom.
As a Spanish student, you are required to attend or participate in a variety of out-of-class cultural activities per semester:
- At least five activities if you are in an introductory course.
- At least ten activities if you are participating in the rest of the program.
These out-of-class cultural activities will give you credit for up to 10 percent of your final grade.
We designed this requirement to encourage you to interact with Spanish-speaking communities and cultures around Merrimack College and to gain cultural knowledge of the Spanish-speaking world. While we propose a series of activities in our facebook calendar, we also recommend discussing with your professor if other cultural activities may also count.
Policies
- Please read your course syllabus. Each course will specify how many out-of-class activities you are expected to fulfill by the end of each month. Contact your instructor with any questions.
- You are required to provide a 100-word paragraph description for an activity to count as a credit towards the requirement, answering all questions in the General Activity Questionnaire.
- You are required to provide a 150-word paragraph description for a movie to count as a credit towards the requirement, answering all questions in the Movie Questionnaire.
- Please let your instructors know if you are taking more than one Spanish class per semester. The total number of activities will be reduced to 15 and you will submit info to one of your instructors.
- If you are a commuter student having difficulties attending evening activities on campus, please connect with your instructor so you may plan an appropriate calendar and set of activities to fulfill the requirement.
Calendar of Events
The program’s Facebook page provides you with a calendar of activities that you can attend to fulfill this requirement. We also encourage you to talk with your instructors regarding additional events you may discover. Please email us with local events related to Spanish, Latin-American or Latino cultures you have found so we may add them to the calendar.
Suggested Events
- Spanish Table: This takes place Tuesdays, 5 – 6 p.m, and Wednesdays, noon – 1 p.m. at Sparky’s (outside area). Everyone who wants to practice Spanish is invited to join in the conversation. The Spanish Table counts as one of your class activities under the following conditions:
- You hand in a 100-word paragraph within 10 days of attending the Spanish Table.
- You do not use more than one session of the Spanish Table per week to satisfy this requirement.
- You can only use it to satisfy 50% of the requirement. You cannot use it more than five times for your out-of-class activity requirement, although you are encouraged to attend as many as you would like.
- Volunteer activities involving Spanish: Your instructor may allow you to use your volunteer work as one of the activities, provided it fulfills certain requirements.
- World Culture Events: If there is a World Culture event that does not focus on the Spanish-speaking world, it is possible – with your instructor’s permission – to count it as one of the credits towards this requirement. Examples include international film festivals, multiethnic or multicultural festivals and more.
- Cultural Enrichment Events: Music concerts, art exhibitions, lectures or theatre plays featured in the out-of-class cultural activity calendar may count. We will consider events that serve to expand your cultural competences.
