For the first time in the school’s history, University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduate students will be able to register for a certificate in French.
The certificate will consist of 15 credits and five courses, two of which will be required core classes. Students will also be required to take one advanced level course and two electives.
French Department Adviser Andrew Irving said the UW-Madison French Department had many goals when creating the certificate, with the most prominent being giving students formal credentials for their work in the field.
The certificate can stand on its own, but is also a natural segue into the French major for students who decide they want to continue studying the language, which can have many applications in future careers, Irving said.
“I could tell you countless stories of students that I know that have studied whatever discipline they wanted and French and actually got great jobs because of it,” Irving said. “[French] becomes just one way through which they have filtered information and developed a lot of different skills that make them very successful in the long run.”
UW-Madison senior Alexis Clausen, who recently enrolled in the certificate, echoed Irving’s sentiments.
“I think it’s important for people with majors like mine, International Studies, to have a language added on top of what they’re already studying,” Clausen said.
A similar certificate program was previously available only to students enrolled in the Wisconsin School of Business. This program has now been retired and students previously registered can transition into the new, all-encompassing certificate, according to the program website.
