These are a series of classes, certificates and other activities recommended by the IE class of 2016 for future generations of students. The page is organized according to the following categories:

1. Recommended General Education classes
2. Other recommended classes
3. Programs and certificates
4. Five College resources
5. Campus activities
6. Restaurants

Recommended General Education classes:

ANTHROPOLOGY 104 (Culture, Society & People): Throughout this Anthropology course, which was a part of my RAP (Residential Academic Program in Thatcher Hall in Northeast; Global Opportunities) we learned about what the words “culture” and “society” meant to us specifically, and globally. We argued, discussed, and reflected on what the United States means to the world as a whole, and how our societies differ vastly from many other societies throughout the world. We discussed how sometimes it felt impossible to make any change, while in others it felt that small changes were victories no matter how small the change was. We discuss capitalism, socialism, communism, democracy, politics, people, society, language, all of the -isms, and more, and wrote papers, read articles, read huge, dense ethnographies, interviewed in places on campus, presented to the class, and reflected through papers every week. This course introduced me to the dynamics of society and people, which is something that I am still interested in and study and reflect on daily – when I have the chance in between homework assignments and drinking endless streams of espresso – and furthered my interest in the dynamics between language and society. This Anthropology course introduced me to formal terms to use for situations and ideas that I had encountered before, but was not able to verbalize, such as ethnocentrism, which is quite related to this course, considering those who were able to study abroad, or were immersed in a different culture/community. I believe that this was a great way to start becoming involved across campus and thinking critically about the situations and people I would encounter all throughout my years at UMass. This course fulfilled an SB and G Gen Ed requirement. If possible, I really recommend taking it in the RAP class if you can because it’s a smaller setting as opposed to the lecture classes with one weekly discussion.

LINGUISTICS 101 (People and Their Language): This class covers the SB & U GenEd requirements. I found this course really exciting and interesting, especially if you’ve got a knack for languages and cultures. The course looks at the general foundation of language, how grammars across all languages are similar, and how we develop language. You will also study the difference between accents and dialects and variations within languages. There isn’t a lot of work and it’s easy to manage. I recommend taking the class with Lisa Green – she’s energetic, passionate, and great at teaching.

LINGUISTICS 150 (Language Through Time): I am currently taking this class and it gives an overview of the history of language through time.  I find it very interesting and have learned a great deal about the formation of new languages.  The course covers a wide variety of languages from English to Spanish to various African languages etc.  There isn’t a great deal of homework and the tests are taken in groups as part of the team based learning portion of the class.  Definitely would recommend.

LINGUISTICS 201 (Introduction to Linguistics Theory): This class is a great one for fulfilling the Logic (math R2) General Education Requirement, especially if you are already interested in Spanish and probably other languages. It is in English and a great way to learn about an academic/research area that is not really introduced in any other level of schooling as far as I know, no high schools really offer Linguistics courses. Also, the Spanish major has an option of adding Linguistics as making it a joint major of Spanish and Linguistics, which is a really great opportunity if you are not really that intrigued by literature or something else and are interested in something different. Throughout the course you learn about the International Phonetic Alphabet as well as some language acquisition theories and so on. If possible, I highly recommend looking at the enrollment cap for each section because there are some large lecture set ups with a discussion once a week but also small classroom settings without a lecture that is a great way to have a small and more engaging course setting.

MICROBIOLOGY 160 (Biology of Cancer and AIDS): This class was an extremely interesting gen ed but did require a little bit of work. It talks about the biology of different types of cancer, while the second part of the class talks about the biology of AIDS. The class focused on: how people get different kinds of cancer, treatments, surgeries, and the overall biology of the different diseases. The same categories are covered for AIDS later in the year.  Let me be clear that you do not need to have any biology background to take the class! You are given everything you need from the lectures. I believe this is a three day a week 50 minute class and the work mostly consists of 4 exams and an individual project.

PLANT, SOIL, AND INSECT SCIENCES 140 (Plagues and the Ecology of Disease): This class was a pretty easy GenEd for the BS requirement, but it was also really interesting if you have a fascination with all of the major diseases that have shaped entire cultures over the centuries. The class isn’t terribly history-oriented, it focused more on the concepts and how diseases like the bubonic plague were able to manifest and the results that they had. Towards the end of the class you discuss more modern-day issues, like mad cow disease. There aren’t very many assignments (really only four papers that are pretty short), and when I took it, two different professors taught the two different quarters, but both were very good at explaining the concepts and definitely knew their material.

PSYCHOLOGY 100 (Introduction to Psychology): This course covers the SB (Social and Behavioral Sciences) GenEd requirement. It’s a relatively easy class (which isn’t why I liked it – though it does help!) and you really cover a lot of genuinely interesting topics. The course discusses major theories and research in the field of psychology. The class is generally in a large lecture-hall with no discussion. When I took the class, there was a manageable amount of reading, unit tests, and weekly quizzes – which might sound scary, but it actually gave you the opportunity to do well because there were a lot of grades in the course; so if you did poorly on one quiz, it wasn’t the be-all, end-all. The course was useful for me in that I’d like to be a Spanish teacher, and understanding how the mind generally works is a useful skill in understanding different behaviors in a classroom (which is why I also recommend Educational Psychology, though it does not cover a GenEd requirement).

SIDE NOTE ON R1: If you don’t want to have to take a basic mathematics course (the R1 requirement) there are usually three dates for taking the exemption test each semester. You can take  the test as many times as you need to. You can get more information here.

Other recommended classes:

EDUCATION 305 (Educational Psychology): This is a great class to take to get a taste of education. Many Spanish majors consider careers in education. This class covers topics from developmental psychology to the psychology of language learning. There is also a portion of the course dedicated to multicultural and bilingual education. It is a team-based learning course with a lot of information and teaching strategies that can be directly applied to a classroom upon graduation.

EDUCATION 461 (Principles and Methods of Teaching Reading and Language Arts): This is a class through the Education Department that is a prerequisite in order to apply to the Masters of Elementary Education Program here at UMass. It is a class centered around teaching literacy to children and in addition it has a field placement, where you spend 40 hours a semester in a classroom. My field placement was in a Spanish dual language first grade class and it was really incredible. I got to learn about the dynamics of a classroom in addition to how a Spanish classroom functions. All the while getting to use my own Spanish language skills. This class really opened my eyes to the fact that teaching in a dual language program is something that would really interest me! However it is important to note that you may be in a classroom that is only English speaking, but either way the class is really incredible if you are interested in teaching.

LATIN-AM 398A (Practicum-Holyoke Tutorial): The set up is very different from your average class because you only meet with the professor I believe 3 or 4 times the entire semester. The really cool thing about this course was that you get to be involved and volunteer in Holyoke with their Boys&Girls Club and work with the kids and staff to experience the Holyoke community. For every week you have to write a small reflection of anything interesting that happened, something you learned, or even just a description of what you were doing that week and those have to be turned in whenever you meet with the professor. It was a great experience that gives you the opportunity to do more hands-on learning instead of just sitting in a classroom and hearing about the Holyoke community/culture.

SPANISH 390OW (Trips to the Other World): This class is basically a topics class that Albert Lloret thought would be interesting to have a discussion-based class for. Sometimes the readings can be long, but there isn’t much work required for the class outside of that (four papers, in English or Spanish) and the readings that the discussions are based off are varied, which is nice because you can look at the history of several different countries and how their cultures and beliefs play into their ideas of the afterlife. Albert uses articles, short stories, diary entries, poems, videos, and other texts in the class so the type of material is varied as well.

SPANISH 471 (Linguistic Variety and Pluralism): This course is taught in Spanish and is a really great one! It is currently being taught by Patricia Gubitosi and she is a great professor and human being. The course is really interesting and covers ideas of “standard Spanish” and the idea of “standard” anything, dialects and varieties of Spanish, creoles and pidgins that are related to Spanish, and it gives a lot of historical context to some of the morphological/phonological rules of Spanish and so on. It covers one of the courses required for the Spanish and Linguistics major, as well as an upper level (400+) course for the good old Spanish major.

SPANISH 471(Linguistic Variety and Pluralism): Although this is already up here I wanted to add my perspective and second the recommendation of this course. I took this class a couple of years ago and it has definitely been one of my favorite classes in the Spanish department so far. It was very challenging, in the sense that there was a lot of higher level readings, but the topics and class itself were very interesting. It covered phonology in different Spanish dialects, but also the many factors that go into varieties of languages, dialects, pidgins, etc. There were readings, papers/reactions about the readings and exams but the way the class was set up you could get a lot of clarification on anything you had trouble with from either just being in class or asking the professor directly.

SPANISH 497SX (Spanish Syntax): This class was extremely interesting, especially for those who are interested in linguistics and syntax. In the class, students are taught to basically take apart sentences and understand how they are formed and why. I really enjoyed being able to learn about the structure of sentences in Spanish. At the beginning you are given simple sentences to learn the basics, and throughout the semester the sentences become more challenging and there are new factors included. The class is interesting and requires you to keep up with the material, but it is still fun and very rewarding when you actually have an understanding of how sentences work and how they are made up.

Programs and certificates:

Catalan Minor: If you’re at all interested in learning about Catalunya and their language then start with Cat 120. The class is a really great way to get started in Catalan and it is by far one of the best intro to language classes I have ever taken. If from this first class you find that you like the language then DO THE MINOR! It is not hard or time consuming to complete and you won’t regret getting such a unique minor. The classes are Cat 120, Cat 246, Cat 321, Cat 311 and if you’ve taken Span 415 that also counts towards the minor. Also I should mention that the teachers are amazing! Guillem Molla in particular is really dedicated teacher and is invested in each of his students. Currently I have taken two of his classes and I have one more planned for next semester and he has been great in helping me with everything, not to mention he is Catalan from Barcelona!

Latín American, Caribbean and Latino Studies Certificate (or Minor): I am currently working towards this certificate, which is pretty accessible especially if you are more interested in taking courses that focus on Latin American or Caribbean topics more than those in Spain. There are two different routes for the certificate, Language Emphasis and Area Studies. The language focused one requires that you take Spanish and Portuguese classes, so it’s definitely not for everyone, but the area studies only requires a few extra courses and lots of them can also be used for the upper-level electives for the Spanish major. I don’t know much about the minor but you could definitely check out the website for more information or schedule an appointment with the Director, Gloria Bernabe-Ramos!

Five College resources:

Art Classes at Hampshire College: When I learned that I really wasn’t able to take any art classes at UMass because I wasn’t an art major, I started hunting down other opportunities outside of UMass and learned that you can take an art course at Hampshire college, but if there isn’t a class that fits into your schedule, you can propose an independent study to work on with a professor at Hampshire and still get access to all of their facilities. You only have to take a quick (2 hour) safety course about the shops because you’ll mostly be left to your own devices if it’s an independent study. But having the class as an independent study means that figuring out a timeframe to get to Hampshire (or wherever else you’d like to go) is much easier and you can just hop on a bus whenever you have free time instead of trying to finagle a bus ride there and back on top of the class there and classes at UMass.

Spanish at Amherst College: When choosing courses for my sophomore year, I learned from my new advisor that I should have taken Spanish 230 and 240 during my freshman year and that I was now behind. (My previous advisor had told me that I didn’t need to take any Spanish courses in my freshman year.) Because of this, I ended up taking a course at Amherst College that made up for those two courses at UMass, because it covered the content of both and then a little more. The credits transferred and everything was fine, and I was caught up very quickly. I also learned that the Amherst College library is a fantastic place to do homework.

Campus activities:

Get Involved: The biggest recommendation that I have for incoming students is to GET INVOLVED! Don’t overextend yourself across campus, but actively participate in being a part of the campus community! The things you want to see on campus that aren’t there won’t ever be unless you get involved and start making change!

Utilize all of the resources that you have! Lots of the money that you are charged in order to attend this university go towards anticipated and necessary resources for you and your fellow students as Undergraduate Students undergoing transitions and changes in your life and your view of the world!

Since a huge aspect of UMass is that it is a residential campus, students really can participate to see what they want to see more of on campus. This means different things for everyone! Whether that be by joining specific Registered Student Organization (RSOs) such as Coalition to End Rape Culture, Divest UMass, a part of the campus Government Association, a group/identity-based club (Latinos Unidos (LU), the Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success (CMASS), VOX: Students for Reproductive Justice; the list is endless!) If you don’t think that you can take on academics on top of other things you might be a part of, it’s important to at least participate in events across campus, as well as always voting for elections of your campus leaders!! You can also incorporate your need for a job with a job that you’d like to have! You can apply to be a part of seven student-run businesses on campus: the Bicycle Co-op, Campus Design and Copy, Earthfoods, Greeno Sub Shop, People’s Market, Sweets N’ More, and the Sylvan Snack Bar! These are great ways to gain experience with working as a manager as well as meeting friends and getting paid while doing so!

Intramural Sports: Definitely sign up for intramural anything if you are able to and you’re looking to play a sport in your free time but want it to be just for fun. No experience is required for the just-for-fun teams, so everyone that joins is really just looking to diffuse after class and move around and have a great time with each other. I’ve played on a couple teams over the years, and honestly I’m regretting not trying more sports that I hadn’t had previous experience in, now that I’m a senior and feel more adventurous but don’t have the most time to be able to get all of these extracurriculars in. I didn’t know anyone on the teams that I joined, and it was still way too much fun.

Marching Band: Join the marching band!! You don’t have to know how to play an instrument, you get to meet a ton of people across all majors and grades, and you get to play some really great music! I joined the band my freshman year and have no idea how I would’ve made it through the past four years without it. For people who aren’t used to being at a giant school like UMass, the marching band definitely helps to make the university feel a little smaller and little more welcoming. My best friends are all in band and are all some of the best people I’ve met. The same applies to most other clubs, I’m sure, but being in band has allowed me to be a part of a community – something that really has helped me through some of the tougher times during my college career. Being in the band is not only about playing at football games, but it’s also about inspiring high school musicians, making friends, and creating memories. If you’re having a hard time adjusting to college, I would certainly recommend looking into the band – or even just concert band! You don’t have to know how to play an instrument (aside from percussion); they will teach you. Band is for everyone so you should join!

Restaurants:

La Veracruzana: If you love Latin food as much as most Spanish majors, ve a La Veracruzana! There are two locations; one in Amherst and one in Northampton, both are in the downtown center areas. Their fish tacos are literally the best and are only like $7 I think.

Lumber Yard: If you just got a raise, or some rich relative gifted you some money, or you really, really want to impress a date, go to the Lumber Yard on Main Street in Amherst. The food is amazing, and the atmosphere is a little more high-end, which means you don’t have the rowdiness of college students if you’re looking to escape the high-energy atmosphere of campus. Not going to lie, it was a lot of money, but I’d rather have one date there and skip date night elsewhere for the next week or two. Everything was delicious and very worth it!

Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant: Real Mexican Food, not too pricey. It’s right on Route 9 and has Taco Tuesdays (buy one get two free).