AN ENTERPRISING PARTNERSHIP FOR ¡VAMOS!, A SPANISH LANGUAGE FORUM FOR TRANSPORTATION WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

摘要

There is a critical need to identify ways to reach future transportation professional early andincrease minority representation in the transportation workforce.This paper discusses¡Vamos!, afree Spanish e-zine designed to increase awareness among Hispanic teens and Spanish speakingyouths about careers and educational opportunities in transportation. ¡Vamos! is published by theInstitute for Transportation (InTrans) at Iowa State University. The paper discusses themotivations and beginnings of ¡Vamos!, summarizes efforts to develop the e-zine, and theoutcomes of these efforts. These strategies have the potential to address current financialchallenges faced by US academic programs, especially in the areas of outreach and workforcedevelopment.In 2009 ¡Vamos! was initiated as the Spanish version of Go!, a successful online magazine inEnglish on educational and career opportunities in transportation. Since August 2010 it hasinvolved two unlikely partners: the Institute for Transportation and the Spanish program in theWorld Languages and Cultures Department. The partnership began as a class experiment in aSpanish translation course. This has evolved into a promising internship program involvingstudents, faculty, and community members. This unusual network of support has sustained¡Vamos!, injected it with new perspectives and energy. Further, this initiative has helped raisethe awareness among non-transportation student interns about transportation as a field of studyand for career opportunities.