COE
facilitates U.S. exchange program with Mexico, Canada
Two
UNM students will take part in 2003
By Laurie
Mellas Ramirez
TThe UNM
Office of Latin American Programs in Education (LAPE) has been
awarded a four-year, $200,000 grant from the Fund for the Improvement
of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE).
The grants
will support the North American Student Mobility Project, a
cultural exchange program for graduate students in educational
research. Students will spend a semester at a host school in
the United States, Canada or Mexico as part of their current
program of study.
LAPE, a
unit in the UNM College of Educations Multicultural Education
Center, will facilitate the exchange of 21 students from three
U.S. universities to three universities in Canada and three
in Mexico. Two UNM students have been selected to participate
in 2003. Shannon Reierson will travel to Universidad Pedagógica
Nacional in Mexico City and Deoksoon Kim will be hosted by the
University of British Columbia in Vancouver. A student from
Universidad Pedagógica Nacional and another from Simon
Fraser University in Vancouver requested to come to UNM in 2004.
Other participating
institutions are: In the United States, University of California
at Los Angeles (UCLA), and Arizona State University. In Canada,
McGill University; and in Mexico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma
de México (UNAM), and Universidad Autónoma del
Estado de Morelos.
These
projects are more important now than ever, said Guillermina
Engelbrecht, LAPE director. The world is changing very
fast, and in the case of North America, rapid economic integration
is being achieved in many areas, yet when it comes to improving
mutual understanding, our educational systems lag far behind.
Our expectation is that students and faculty participating in
these mobility projects will enrich their understanding of educational
issues through learning each others perspectives. We also
anticipate greater participation in new joint research and teaching
projects.