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News Travels Spring 2016 Home 2

WSU Vancouver

The Spanish club officers at Fiesta Night.
The Spanish club officers at Fiesta Night.

A record 140 members of WSU Vancouver’s student body, as well as their families and community members, attended Spanish Club’s Fiesta Night in early April. The event featured a salsa dancing demonstration and short lesson, as well as two performances of traditional Mexican folkloric dances by the group Baile Folclórico, a group of students from Hudson’s Bay High School. Key events included a raffle and a piñata circle. Delicious food from local Mexican restaurant La Costa was served, and younger attendees enjoyed arts and crafts, as well as a hula hoop contest. ¡Se divirtieron mucho!

WSU Vancouver DFLC has awarded Oskana Chernovol the Outstanding Graduating Senior in Spanish award. Osaka is originally from Russia and is already bilingual in English and Russian. Not only has she become an excellent Spanish student, she is very active in the Spanish Club. She helped organize the “Fiesta Night” this spring. Osaka is a finance major and is looking forward to using her multiple languages to help people all over the world. Spanish students Jessica Barkely, Alina Chizh, and Jessica Judd have been awarded scholarships.

Congratulations to Cassandra Gulam for being promoted from instructor to senior instructor!

WSU Tri-Cities

This spring semester there is great excitement as the first cohort of nine students on the Tri-Cities campus will finish the Spanish minor. One of those finishing, Ana Sandoval, was also the 2015-2016 recipient of a scholarship from the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures, the first on our campus. The 2016-2017 recipient is Nikita Fisenko, for whom Spanish is his fourth language.

Spanish students at WSU Tri-Cities are using Spanish to be engaged in the campus community. Some students have chosen to complete a research project and present it during the Campus Research Symposium, others are evaluating the research projects, and others are assisting with oral exams.

Dr. Carol Wilkerson was a finalist for the WSU Tri-Cities faculty teaching award. The winner will be announced at commencement on May 7, 2016. We bid farewell to Dr. Wilkerson at the end of spring semester after six years at WSU Tri-Cities. She has served in many roles, including Interim Director of Student Affairs and Special Assistant to three chancellors at Tri-Cities. Dr. Wilkerson returned to the classroom in fall of 2014, and since that time she has expanded the Spanish offerings in order to give our campus a Spanish minor.