Contact: Leah Barbour
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Five Mexican postsecondary students and two Mexican higher education faculty have immersed themselves in American culture during a visit to Mississippi State University coordinated by MSU's English as a Second Language Center.
The United States-Mexico Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research began in 2013 as an effort to enhance North American economic development through Latin American-U.S. exchange programs.
Soon after, MSU joined Proyecta 100,000, the Mexican government's proposal to send 100,000 Mexican students and faculty to the U.S. by 2018.
Because of its role as the Magnolia State's flagship research institution committed to innovation and education of all students, MSU hosted seven exchange students in November and December, said Jon Rezek, interim associate vice president and executive director of MSU's International Institute.
Along with studying English for more than six hours each day at MSU, the students have continued their studies, long distance, from their four respective Mexican higher learning institutions. Mexico provided $7,000 to fund the participants' visit.
The students and faculty met with Rezek and Jerry Gilbert, provost and executive vice president, during a Friday [Dec. 5] luncheon to discuss their MSU experiences.
"It's a great opportunity for us to share our culture with you, and it's also a great chance for us to learn a little about your culture and share your culture with our students and staff," Rezek said.
Likewise, Gilbert thanked the students for meeting with him, and he shared stories about a few of his visits to Mexico.
"When I was growing up, my family drove to Mexico City in the car, and we had a marvelous time," he said. "Mexico has such an exciting and vibrant culture. It was a great experience for us."
Aaron Soto Vega, an information technologies and communications engineering student at Instituto Tecnologico Morelia, said he really appreciated his experiences at MSU, and the transition has been fun.
"We're so close to the U.S. that learning the language wasn't so hard," he said. "We have a lot of U.S. companies, so we were really exposed to it before we ever came. Thank you for having us."
Soto Vega asked about international students' opportunities to pursue graduate programs at MSU, and Gilbert offered to arrange appointments with departmental heads.
"Because you were accepted into this program, you're probably well positioned to be competitive to go into one of our graduate programs," Gilbert said.
To participate in Proyecta 100,000, students were selected based on their GPAs, proficiency in English and application letters.
In addition to Soto Vega, Mexican visitors to MSU included:
--Guillermo Garcia Alcantara, an English faculty member at Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Puruandiro.
--Hector Garcia Perez, a philosophy student at Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua.
--Elias Gutierrez Acosta, a computer science student at Universidad Autonoma de Sinaloa.
--Marco Ortiz Villicana, a physics, math and computer science faculty member at Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Puruandiro.
--Rafael Rodriguez Liera, an electronic engineering student at Instituto Tecnologico Morelia.
--Maria Torres Ramos, a food engineering/food science student at Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Puruandiro.
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