With NWU Modern Languages, you can prepare for career success by diving into the language you love and exploring more of your world. Choose a major in modern language studies with concentrations in French, German, Japanese and Spanish.
Here, you’ll study language and culture in small classes with personal attention from expert professors. Our challenging courses are purpose-driven and goal-oriented. We position you to conduct research funded by Nebraska Wesleyan’s Collaborative Research Grants, land internships through the Capitol Hill Internship Program (CHIP), and study abroad. That’s how NWU puts your language skills into action.
You’ll find valuable opportunities close to home with NWU immersion activities like dinners at cultural restaurants, gatherings in professors’ homes and even weekend retreats in your language of concentration. Sit in on weekly conversation tables for some casual practice. It all prepares you for more in-depth immersion, like faculty-led trips to Spain, Mexico, Germany, Austria or Japan.
Your competence in another language and culture adds tremendous value as you launch your career in any field, including business, law, medicine and the sciences. NWU Modern Languages is a popular choice for students pursuing multiple majors, both for its flexibility and its relevance in other fields.
Choosing NWU Modern Languages also results in valuable international experience. NWU does more than encourage modern language students to study abroad; we do it. All our majors study abroad for at least one semester. Your global experience will heighten your language ability. It will also transform your life by broadening your mind and promoting a deeper cultural understanding.
Our experience-based approach helps many modern language majors win prestige awards. NWU students regularly win Fulbright, Gilman, and other nationally recognized scholarships that fund teaching, research and international study.
NWU Modern Language alumni are thriving in a wide variety of fields, including health sciences, business, political science, social work, linguistics, language education and law.
Our professors’ areas of expertise are as distinct and varied as the languages they teach, ranging from French film and Quebec literature to Berlin’s reconstruction, literary translation and Spanish popular culture. What they share is a commitment to each student’s success and to building an engaged community of language learners.
The Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) is the only initiative of its kind managed by the Japanese government. The competitive award program funds American scholars who represent the U.S. as language teachers and cultural ambassadors in Japanese schools.
McKenna Weber (’25) of Lincoln, Neb., has received a study abroad grant from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society across all academic disciplines.
Assistant Professor of Spanish Manuela Borzone has received Nebraska Wesleyan University’s Faculty Scholar Award for the 2023-2024 academic year.
“Now in her second year at NWU, Manuela’s scholarship has been formidable and has received many accolades,” her nominator says.
Sa'javeane Wright was selected as a recipient of a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study abroad.
Wright, a business and modern languages-Japanese major, will study Japanese at Nazan University in Nagoya, Japan for the next nine months. She is among nearly 3,000 undergraduate students from across the U.S. selected for the 2022 scholarship.
Foreign Service Officer Kyle Rohrich credits his NWU education with helping him get study abroad opportunities and internships that led to a career with the U.S. State Department.