Modern Language Award Ceremony 2018

The Department of Modern Languages held its annual Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, April 25th in Bello Grand Hall.

The Department of Modern Languages Commencement Award winner was announced. Kevin Ludemann is a Spanish and Human Resource Management double major, and President of Bryant´s chapter of the Phi Sigma Iota international foreign language honor society. Read more about Kevin´s accomplishments in this blog post.

The Department also recognized student achievement in the following categories:

• Academic Achievement
• Intellectual Entrepreneur
• Social Entrepreneur
• Language Mastery
• Cultural Ambassador

We would like to congratulate the award winners in Spanish: Kevin Ludemann, Claire Gracia, Kevyn Madrigal, Jenna Lamb, Michael Dalton, and Gabriel Barrett. You can read what Profesoras Gomez and Moon had to say about each recipient below. 

Profe Moon, Kevin, Claire, Kevyn, Gabby, Miguelito, Jenna, and Profe Gomez
Photo by James Imrie '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 and Human Resources Double Major who has taken nearly every advanced level Spanish courses that we offer, in a wide variety of subject areas including film, literature, culture, linguistics, business, conversation and more. He traveled to SIE Latin America his sophomore year with professor Gomez and was able to experience Latin American culture first hand. As we heard a few minutes ago, he is currently piloting a directed study with Professor Gomez in the area of medical Spanish in which he shadows members of the Bryant PA program in clinical settings in Providence, interpreting for Spanish-language patients. And he is the first student to complete his senior Honors Capstone in the Department of Modern Languages. His research presentation entitled the “Role of Drag Art in Modern Day Spain.” In his four years of Spanish studied he has earned a perfect 4.0, and is a member, and President, of the Phi Sigma Iota honor society and also served as BUSCO president. Kevin Ludemann has impressed us year after year during his 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.

A member of the Phi Sigma Iota honor society, this young woman has successfully combined her Global Studies major with a major in Spanish, and the two majors have often connected. For example, in the 400 level literature and film course that took with me last spring, her final research project explored the portrayal of immigrants, in particular female and child migrants, in film and how this portrayal has contributed to our national perceptions of immigration.

Another example includes the directed study she has just completed. Building upon her coursework in Global Anthropology she worked with a classmate to completed ethnographic research in Miami in January, which they used as a foundation for a semester-long research project on the various Latin American cultural influences on the city. They presented their research, which was nominated for Best Student Research Paper, at REDay last week.

This young woman studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain, where she also worked in an elementary school teaching English and U.S. culture. She said of these experiences: “I returned from my time abroad with a different idea of travel. I no longer wanted to just visit other countries; I wanted to fully interact with them.” And indeed she will be doing just that. Claire Gracia will soon be off to Peru where she will work as a Youth Development Facilitator with the Peace Corps. Please join me in congratulating in her.


The Social Entrepreneur Award recognizes learners who demonstrate personal and intellectual growth through community engagement.

This student is an International Business major with dual concentrations in Accounting and Spanish. He studied in Salamanca, Spain where he interned as an Assistant Project Coordinator and used his Spanish to help translate business proposals and investigated potential business opportunities in Latin America and Europe. Here at Bryant he has served on campus in a variety of organizations; ALPHA (Assoc. of Latino Professionals for America) as co-president last year and serves as President of ISO (International Student Organization) this current academic year. He has also also served as a member of MSU (Multicultural Student Union). He has been a great liaison in many campus wide events throughout his four years at Bryant. I have had the privilege of collaborating with him on events during September and October to highlight Hispanic Heritage month, primarily PLAFF (Providence Latin American Film Festival), Noche Latina in April and the I am an Immigrant campaign that has taken place two years in a row in the late Fall. He is a student that has involved himself in the Bryant community to highlight International and Multicultural events. It is with great pride that I congratulate Kevyn Madrigal to accept this award.

The Language Mastery Award recognizes learners who have acquired communicative and intercultural competence through formal study and application.

This International Business major began his study in Spanish in SP105, our introductory course. He is finishing his career at Bryant with dual concentrations in Spanish and Accounting he has a great control of the language as a non-native speaker. I can speak of that first hand as I have had him for a total of 6 courses from beginner to intermediate and advanced courses. I still remember the first beginner class that he took with me and I could see the desire he had to speak Spanish and he often questioned/wondered if he would actually ever get there. He traveled with me to SIE Latin America to Argentina and Chile where he become immersed fully into the culture while in both countries his sophomore year. This is where he fully engaged and I could see him wanting even more from the language as he was determined to speak with the locals. It was as if this was that first taste of Latin American culture that had him ready for his study abroad experience in Bilbao, Spain.

His junior year In Spain he completed internships with multiple companies, not by choice but rather because one of them closed part way through his semester. This year he worked with a classmate to on a directed study that researched modern music from Spain and Hispanic America including the Spanish rock group Jarabe de Palo, the origins of Reggaeton in Panama and Puerto Rico, and more, which they presented at REDay last week, this directed study was lead by Professor Moon. Along the way, this young man has shown enthusiasm for the Spanish language, and a desire to continually improve his skills. As one of his language professors that was given the pleasure of having him from his first year, second, third and fourth year, it is exciting and rewarding to see the complete growth of this student and stand back in awe of how much he has grown in the language and where he has taken those skills. It was my privilege having him as a student and there is no doubt that he will carry on using his language skills after graduation.

Professor Moon has asked me to share a excerpt of one of his weekly journals while he was abroad in Spain, because it exemplifies all that he has accomplished. It was written in Spanish so I’ll translate.

“I have traveled to Catalunya, Cantabria, Andalucia, Pais Vasco and more, have seen the different regional cultures of Spain, and I have talked with people in each of the regions. I am happy that, in general, people can understand what I say, and I have had many conversations in Spanish with people from different parts of the world. At the end of the day, this is my primary reason for learning Spanish, to be able to speak with more people and have diverse experiences.” This student will be missed immensely.

Congratulations to Miguel Dalton.

The Cultural Ambassador Award recognizes learners who apply a cosmopolitan outlook to global citizenship. We have two recipients for this award today, one whose work to promote culture on the Bryant campus and one whose time and research abroad….

Our first recipient is an International Business Major with a Concentration in Marketing and a minor in Spanish. She will be inducted into the Phi Sigma Iota honor society this afternoon. This student studied abroad in Bilbao, Spain her Sophomore year where she interned as a Marketing assistant and was able to use her Spanish skills there. I have had this student in the classroom and outside, as she has been a part of BUSCO, the Spanish Club on campus for a total of 2 1/2 years, she was abroad that other half year. In her time working as the Secretary I can honestly say she is an extremely organized person and kept the BUSCO in line and each year came up with better ideas year after year. This year for Noche Latina or Latin Night, we raised a total of $500 to donate to San Miguel School here locally in Providence, a school for boys between 5-8th grade who come from underprivileged areas of Providence. I am sure that she can attest that I am the professor at Bryant that she has received the most texts, en español, from to check locations of meetings and planning of events. She will be missed. Please join me on congratulating Jenna Lamb.

Our second recipient, also a Phi Sigma Iota honor society member, studied abroad in Barcelona her junior year. As can sometimes happen, the coursework abroad did not work well with this student’s credit needs. So, I offered to have her work with me to pilot a new directed study option on ethnography. She may have accepted this offer out of necessity, but what she did with this project was amazing. After some background work on the theory and practice of ethnography, she chose to study Catalan nationalism as viewed through FC Barcelona soccer culture during her semester abroad. Completing background research, cultural observations in multiple cities, and numerous interviews with native speakers, she produced a website with her research findings. This student’s work did not stop when she returned to Bryant’s campus. She presented her work at REDay 2017, and to a gathering of the Modern Language faculty and an invited guest speaker from Dartmouth, whose work with ethnography and language learners inspired this pilot project, which has gone on to become a regular course offering to our students while they are abroad. But were it not for the enthusiasm and dedication that Gabby Barrett showed for this project, it may have never come into existence. Please join me in expressing my gratitude and my congratulations to Gabby.