Spanish - English Translation and Interpretation, B.A.

Turn your bilingual skills into a career. This CSUCI degree prepares you to write clearly, interpret in real time, and adapt messages for different audiences - from healthcare and community services to media, games, and global business. You’ll practice on real projects and build a portfolio you can show employers. Along the way, you’ll also learn how translation software and AI tools fit into today’s workflows - how to use them well, review and improve machine-generated drafts, and follow good practices for quality and privacy. Just as important, the program focuses on the work where humans are essential: live interpreting, culturally sensitive communication, nuanced and creative translation, and high-stakes documents.

Upper-division courses in the major are offered fully online. Some are asynchronous, giving you the freedom to complete work on your own schedule, while others are live on Zoom. The live courses are condensed into two days per week between 3:00 and 7:30 p.m., a format that helps students remain connected with professors and classmates while also providing the flexibility to balance academic, professional, and family responsibilities.

Program highlights

• Groundbreaking at CSU: The first B.A. in Spanish-English Translation & Interpretation in the CSU system - and among the few nationwide.
• AI-aware by design: Hands-on training with CAT tools, machine translation post-editing (MTPE), quality control, and emerging industry tech - paired with ethics, data privacy, and professional standards.
• Where humans are essential: Focus on nuanced translation, live interpreting, culturally responsive communication, and creative/media work (localization, subtitling, transcreation).
• Fully online upper-division: Mix of live Zoom sessions (typically two afternoons/evenings per week) and asynchronous coursework for flexibility.
• Practice that feels like work: Real-life workshops and projects in legal, medical/healthcare, and literary texts; plus localization for websites, apps, video games, and streaming content.
• Capstone you can show: A professional-level translation or interpreting project that anchors your portfolio.
• Career-ready skill set: Tools, workflows, and deliverables aligned with today’s language-services market (including post-editor, localization specialist, healthcare interpreter, subtitler, project coordinator).
• Faculty who practice what they teach: Learn from experienced translators, interpreters, and researchers.
• Future-focused, student-centered: Built to evolve with the industry so you graduate ready for what’s next.