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Bosque School
Bosque School

Spanish

Students show off chile ristras they made in Spanish class

Bosque School's Spanish department is driven by two goals: to empower our students to speak, read, and write Spanish naturally and to broaden their understanding of and engagement with Spanish-speaking communities at home and around the world. Our department is world-class — our teachers hail from across New Mexico and the globe, and our curriculum reflects many diverse perspectives.

Spanish is a core academic subject for all Bosque School students, making our campus an educational community where knowledge of Spanish is the norm, not the exception. All students take three years of Spanish in middle school. In the upper school, two additional years of Spanish are required for graduation, but many students take Spanish all four years. Our Spanish for Heritage Learners program allows students who speak Spanish at home, have lived in a Spanish-speaking country, or have participated in a dual-language program in elementary school to enrich their skills at an appropriate pace.

Middle School Spanish class trip to the New Mexico Hispanic Cultural Center

Bosque School’s Spanish department is known throughout Albuquerque for its contributions to the annual Spanish United Nations conference, at which our advanced students demonstrate both Spanish fluency and global knowledge. Our Spanish students are also well known internationally for our decades-long intercultural exchange, during which our upper school students participate in a two-week immersive experience with our partner school in Mexico. As our students progress from sixth to twelfth grade, they grow from learning simple vocabulary to becoming confident speakers, readers, and writers who use their Spanish language skills to engage the world outside the language classroom and to contribute meaningfully to the broader Spanish-speaking community. In recent years our students have worked as translators to support migrant populations and volunteered with the immigrant law center. 

Three-week-long immersive courses (offered each May) provide additional opportunities for students to apply their Spanish skills and knowledge through interdisciplinary coursework. Some recent Spanish-related immersives include Pura Vida (upper school) and the intercultural exchange to Monterrey, Mexico (upper school). The Amazing Race, New Mexico (middle school) immersive also incorporates the Spanish language as students travel the city and state learning about history, culture, geography, and cuisine.

Seniors have the opportunity to deepen their commitment, knowledge, and expertise of the Spanish language and culture by grounding their yearlong senior capstone research in the Spanish department. Some recent capstone topics include:  

  • The Central American Diaspora: Causes, Consequences, and Cures of Guatemalan Migration
  • Mi Casa Es Su Casa; Mi Historia Es Su Historia: My Story of Our New Mexican Chicano Heritage
  • El Turismo Excesivo: The Tourism Drain on Spain.

In addition to the Spanish United Nations, Bosque School offers Spanish extracurricular enrichment through the Sociedad Honorario Hispánica.