Spanish Student Award Winners at the 2017 Modern Language Award Ceremony

Congratulations to Michelle Meneades, Amelia Eppard, Vivian Tejada, Kayla Nikosey and Kevin Ludemann.

Heather Moon and Patricia Gomez (Lecturers), Amelia Eppard, Vivian Tejada, Kevin Ludemann, Kayla Nikosey, and Tony Houston (Associate Professor)  Photo by James Imrie (Class of ´18)

The Academic Achievement Award recognizes learners who can communicate effectively in the target language on academic subjects such as business, culture, film, history, linguistics, and literature.
Our award winner is a Spanish major who has taken advanced level Spanish courses in a wide variety of subject areas including film, literature, business, conversation and more. She has researched the films of Isabel Coixet, la movida madrilena cultural post-Franco cultural movement in Spain, and in Spanish for Business her group’s business plan researched Bolivian soccer leagues and invented "Sol Futbol Academy", a not-for-profit raising money to set up leagues for children in Bolivia. She also studied in Bilbao, Spain her junior year where she interned, for credits in Spanish, at CIMAS Innovación y Medio Ambiente. In her four years of Spanish studied she has earned a very nearly perfect 3.9, and is a member of the Phi Sigma Iota honor society. Michelle Meneades has impressed us year after year during her time at Bryant. Congratulations.


The Intellectual Entrepreneur Award recognizes a student who has the curiosity and imagination to make connections across disciplines and who who actively seeks out opportunities to learn.
This student successfully completed her minor in Spanish by the end of her junior year, and then spent the summer in Salamanca, Spain where two things happened: she completed coursework to earn a concentration in Spanish and, more significantly, her view of the world shifted. Her time abroad gave her confidence in her language abilities, and a taste of Spanish culture that has already had significant influence on her goals and plans. Upon her return to Bryant for her senior year she sought out an opportunity to continue to use her language skills in the community, volunteering in an after school program in an elementary school in Central Falls all year. The special bonds she has formed with her students, many of whom are Spanish language dominant, inspired a short essay in Spanish for publication in Phi Sigma Iota literary magazine, which is also published on our departmental blog. The next phase of her learning will take Amelia Eppard back to Spain to teach English in Madrid during the upcoming academic year. Please join me in congratulating in her.


The Social Entrepreneur Award recognizes learners who demonstrate personal and intellectual growth through community engagement.
This student, minoring in Spanish has taken courses in film, heritage learning and Spanish and Conversation. She also took SIE Latin America course with me in our first trip to Argentina and Chile in 2015….and additionally was our first Bryant to study abroad in Cuba. She is currently completing a directed study on Mental Health in the LatinX community, which she presented at REDay one week ago. She has also very recently been accepted to the Coro Fellowship in Public Policy in Los Angeles for the upcoming year which I was honored to write a letter of recommendation for her. One of her biggest leadership roles was seen here on campus this past November when I saw her fully take charge of the I am an immigrant campaign. I was happy to support her and have been privileged to watch her grow immensely in her four years here at Bryant. She will be missed. Congratulations to Vivian Tejada.


The Language Mastery Award recognizes learners who have acquired communicative and intercultural competence through formal study and application.
This Spanish major placed into the intermediate level as a freshman, and has worked her way through our program course by course, honing her language skills and expanding her intercultural competence in each successive course - often taking multiple Spanish courses in the same semester. She first was exposed to Argentina/Chile SIE in 2015 and she then studied abroad in Costa Rica in the summer between sophomore and junior years, an experience that she then expanded upon in a semester-long research project that she completed as part of her Cultures course as a junior. Her application of her skills have been wide and varied: in her literature course, she played multiple parts, including a lion tamer, in her group's theatrical production of the short story Juan Darien, and she is currently analyzing the film Te doy mis ojos by Iciar Bollain, as well as completing a Directed Study in ethnography based on her experiences at Progreso Latino in Providence. Her interest in language and culture even influenced her Honors Capstone in Finance, as she studied the stock markets in Spain, Mexico, and Chile. Finally, she has served as the Secretary/Treasurer of Bryant’s chapter of Phi Sigma Iota honor society this year. Congratulations to Kayla Nikosey.


The Cultural Ambassador Award recognizes learners who apply a cosmopolitan outlook to global citizenship.This Spanish major is the student representative and public face of the Spanish program in a number of organizations on campus, including (but certainly not limited to) the My Path program, the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Council, and as President of BUSCO (Stop by Latin Night tonight in the Roto!). His enthusiasm for Bryant’s Spanish program is seemingly boundless, and he represents our program exceptionally well in all of his interactions on campus. His perspective on the importance of learning language and culture, as he so eloquently expressed a few minutes ago, demonstrate his understanding of how cultural understanding helps all of us respond and adapt to the communicative and social needs of culturally different others. As he is only a junior, We look forward to Kevin Ludemann’s continued advocacy and accomplishments next year. Congratulations.