PUENTES
Bilingual Courses Taught in Both English and Spanish (Fall 2027)
Pathways toward University Education that Navigate Transitions Essential for Spanish Speakers (PUENTES)
Proyecto PUENTES
PUENTES stands for: Pathways toward University Education that Navigate Transitions Essential for Spanish Speakers. Puentes also serves as an apt metaphor for the work that we are doing to connect Spanish with English and set our students up for success in their chosen field of study.
Project PUENTES has two major phases which are funded in part by a partnership with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Office of Student Counseling and Post-Secondary Advising. With the Promising Practices Innovation Fund (PPIF) with the CPS we have begun two exciting phases:
Phase I: building the infrastructure that provides academic support such as tutors and mentors to provide our Spanish-speaking students additional scaffolding to transition to a fully English curriculum.
Phase II: developing bilingual credit-bearing General Education and freshman courses to facilitate the transition from Spanish to English while promoting the simultaneous bilingual support in both languages.
Bilingual Classes for FALL 2027:
CMTC 101 - Public Speaking (Humanities, 3 credits)
ENG 102 - Writing 2 (3 credits)
PSYC 100 - Survey of Psychology (Social and Behavioral Science, 3 credits)
CHEM 103- Chemistry and Society (Natural Science, 3 credits)
PUENTES Contacts:
- Denise Cloonan Cortez, Interim Director of Special Projects, CGSR, d-cloonan@neiu.edu
- Danny Cortez, Associate Director, Latinx/a/o Student Engagement, d-cortez1@neiu.edu
- Tim Libretti, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, t-libretti@neiu.edu
- Cristina Netzel, Interim Director of Advising and Outreach, CBT, cr-netzel@neiu.edu
- Irma Ortiz, Interim Associate Vice President, Student Success and Retention, i-ortiz4@neiu.edu
PUENTES Faculty
- Alejandro Trejo, Psychology, A-Trejo9@neiu.edu
- Ana Nieves, Art History, a-nieves2@neiu.edu
- Danny Cortez, Associate Director, Latinx/a/o Student Engagement, d-cortez1@neiu.edu
- Emily Masó, Spanish, e-maso@neiu.edu
- Jorge Cantú, Biology, j-cantu@neiu.edu
- Oscar Herrera, Chemistry O-Herrera@neiu.edu
- Ruth Llana, English, r-llana@neiu.edu
Ready to learn more about PUENTES? Complete the PUENTES Interest Form to connect with our team and begin the admissions process: