Prospective Students
Build valuable skills – boost your resume
You want to get a good job after college. You also want to live a full and rewarding life. With a degree from our department, you can do both.
Surveys of employers regularly find that the most valued qualities in prospective employees are strong written and oral communication skills. With majors in the fields of English, Spanish and TESOL, and a range of complementary minors, we offer a variety of options for students. Our small class sizes and dedicated faculty ensure that you get individual attention.
A degree from our department exposes students to the world's greatest thinkers and the most vital issues of our time. Apply what you learn through community engagement, study abroad opportunities, and internships. There's a lot you can do, and now is the time to get started.
Study Abroad
Whether you’re a TESOL major student-teaching in China, or an English major studying literature in France, there are a wide range of opportunities for you to travel, and explore other countries and cultures during your time at UNI. To learn more about study abroad opportunities, visit UNI’s Study Abroad website.
Get Published
Through our student-led magazine, Inner Weather, you’ll have the chance to publish your work for the world to see. Published annually, the magazine highlights fiction, nonfiction, poetry and artwork submitted by students. To submit an article or volunteer for the Inner Weather team, visit the Inner Weather webpage.
Community Engagement
Our department is actively engaged in the Cedar Falls-Waterloo community. Whether you’re translating documents for the local government or partnering on language-learning programs with the local YWCA.
Heather Jackson
Heather Jackson is a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) major who is originally from California. She came to the University of Northern Iowa after taking classes at California's Shasta Community College and Soonchunhyang University in South Korea.
Martha Ortiz Diaz
Meet Martha! Martha Ortiz Diaz is a Spanish and Social Work double major from Marshalltown, Iowa. She has grown up as a dedicated Iowan and understands the importance of family and connectedness. Her parents worked at the same plant in Marshalltown, and they took alternating shifts to be there for their family. This care led Martha to a Spanish and Social Work double major as well as to the University of Northern Iowa.
Ben Godard
Ben Godard is an English major who is participating in the 2+2 Dual Degree Program in French. His hometown is Besançon, France—close to the France/Switzerland border. At UNI, Ben has been adapting to the new culture, experiencing what Iowa has to offer, and taking guitar lessons. As part of this program, students from both UNI and Université de Franch-Comté study for two years at each university and graduate with degrees from both.
Cece Mitchell
Cecilia “Cece” Mitchell is a senior English major with minors in Art History and Professional Writing. Her hometown is in Grinnell, IA, where her parents, Rick and Martha Mitchell, operate a bed-and-breakfast just outside of Grinnell, and where they live with her pet dog Maverick, cats Saki and Storm, a few ducks and a bunch of sheep.
Explore Careers
It's hard to put all the career potential we offer into one small area, rest assured that the degrees offered across our department will help you find a rewarding and necessary career path. From positions in writing and editing or teaching in classrooms across the globe, to translating or assisting others with learning English there are endless opportunities for students in the department. Check out our majors pages to learn about specifics in each offering we have.