A new Spanish-language Web site allows potential students and their parents to learn about the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.
The site, which was launched on Feb. 16, is the first UGA Web site to offer complete information in Spanish about a college and its majors.
“This Web site confirms our college’s push to recruit students from diverse backgrounds,” says Dean Sharon Y. Nickols. “While the vast majority of students of Latino descent who are interested in attending the University of Georgia speak English fluently, we found during recruiting visits that their parents wanted the opportunity to read about our college in their native language.”
The Web site can be found at www.fcs.uga.edu/spanish and is directly linked to the FACS homepage. The site includes information on the college’s four departments and 11 majors. It also includes links to the UGA admissions site and to Eco Latino, the Spanish newspaper published by Athens Newspapers. There also are links to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Web site, which has information on scholarships available to Latino and Hispanic students.
“Our first effort at reaching the Spanish-speaking parents of potential students took place this past fall,” says Connie Rash, assistant director for student services in FACS. “The Georgia Mutual Assistance Association, a non-profit organization working with refugees and immigrants, sponsored a series of workshops in the North Fulton County-Atlanta community for college-bound Latino students.”
Rash provided those attending with printed information on the college’s departments and majors that had been translated into Spanish by FACS faculty members.
“It was amazing how pleased the parents were to be able to read this information for themselves, rather than relying on their children or someone else to translate it,” Rash says.
Silvia Giraudo, an assistant professor in the foods and nutrition department who helped with much of the translation, says she understands the parents’ concerns.
“I’ve lived in the United States for many years now and feel very comfortable reading, writing and speaking English,” says Giraudo, a native of Argentina. “But, particularly when you’re exploring college options for your children, you want to be certain that you understand absolutely every word.”
Recruitment materials are only the latest efforts by FACS personnel to reach Georgia’s burgeoning Spanish-speaking population. The college also has translated brochures related to foods and nutrition and housing issues into Spanish.
In addition, FACS extension programs have offered all of their materials in Spanish translation since 2003. The extension program also has several staff members who are fluent in Spanish in offices across the state, in addition to three faculty members who are native Spanish speakers.
