Spanish for Health Care and Human Services Professionals
Related Resources
Virtual Tour
Contact
Ramapo College Office of Admissions
McBride House 505 Ramapo Valley Road Mahwah, NJ 07430
p: (201) 684-7300
e: admissions@ramapo.edu
f: (201) 684-7964
About Spanish for Health Care and Human Services Professionals
The Spanish for Health Care and Human Services Certi铿乧ate aims at developing students鈥� linguistic pro铿乧iency and cultural competency in Spanish so that they can operate professionally in a medical and human services setting with native speakers of the language.聽 The courses in the certi铿乧ate are designed to familiarize students with the intricacies of the language (especially false cognates) to make them effective translators and interpreters. The projects for all their certi铿乧ate courses will be focused on a comprehensive understanding of health care and human services, including topics as diverse as the analysis of preventive campaigns, historical representations of different diseases or debates on race and ethnicity.聽 The objectives of this multi-pronged approach are to endow students with the capacity to overcome linguistic barriers and gain an understanding of cultural competency that would allow for building patient-practitioner relationship.
Program Enrollment/Application:
Current RCNJ students in Good Academic Standing are automatically eligible for the聽Spanish for Health Care and Human Services Certi铿乧ate, and should use the聽Major/Minor Declaration Form聽available through the聽Registrar鈥檚 Office聽to enroll in this program.
Non-Ramapo students are welcome to apply to this program as a聽Non-Degree Seeking Student聽through Ramapo鈥檚聽Office of Admissions.
To sign up for the Certificate Program:
Contact Associate Professor of Spanish, Natalia Santamaria Laorden, at 201.684.7426 or nsantama@ramapo.edu
- Become familiar with vocabulary applicable to medical or human services settings.
- Develop communication skills necessary to compile a medical history or do a human services assessment.
- Demonstrate oral pro铿乧iency to handle patient鈥檚 or client鈥檚 complaints or concerns
- Develop effective preventive or social awareness campaigns
- Analyze and question representations of diseases in international media (zika, AIDS鈥�), paying special attention at the social and political dimensions of these representations.
- 鈥淒emonstrate cultural competence required for negotiating a diverse global society, including intercultural understanding, dynamics of power and privilege, identifying and moving beyond the ethnocentric views we receive from our culture鈥�
- Prepare students to take the Bilingual Communicative Ability Test (BICAT) administered by the State of New Jersey Civil Service Commission.
Sample Classes
505 Ramapo Valley Road
Mahwah, NJ 07430
p: 201-684-7500
e: information@ramapo.edu
Copyright ©2026 Ramapo College Of New Jersey | Statements And Policies | Accessibility | Contact Webmaster.
Follow Ramapo College