
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu
May 11, 2007
The University of New Mexico has received a two-year $79,000 matching grant from the US Department of Education. The grant is from the Title VI A Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) program and funds Languages and Internationalization Across the Curriculum: Health and Cultural Integrity, a program offered through UNM’s Latin American and Iberian Institute.
UNM departments and colleges provide one half of the total project costs in matching funds. The grant is renewable after the second year. The first year funding cycle is July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2008.
The UNM project builds an international studies program with language, social sciences and cultural content, and pre-professional prep for careers in public health, medical care, museum studies and heritage preservation. A project goal is to develop a Center for Indigenous Languages with special relevance for the U.S. Southwest and UNM’s longstanding linkages to Latin America.
The project brings together faculty from UNM, with a connection to Diné College, to expand international content and language instruction in the undergraduate curriculum, including experience abroad. Expert faculty in Latin American studies and indigenous and professional foreign languages partner with faculty specializing in other disciplines needed for post-graduate success in the international environments of the 21st century, focusing on areas relevant to New Mexicans: health, cultural integrity, and political enfranchisement.
“The project meets the central purpose of the USDE Title VI.A UISFL Program to create innovative international studies programs for undergraduate students that emphasize language proficiency and significant thematic content. It is especially appropriate for UNM, where the majority of the undergraduate students are Hispanic and Native American, and UNM is dedicated to minority student recruitment and graduation,” said Rebecca Bannister, senior program manager, LAII.
Goals at UNM are to increase the number of undergraduate courses developed and integrated into regular departmental offerings with international content; expand the number of academic units participating in internationalization of curriculum; raise the number of undergraduate majors and minors in Latin American Studies and other area studies programs; and increase undergraduate enrollments in indigenous language courses and in Medical Spanish.
The first phase of the project targets the Native American languages of K’iche’ Maya (Guatemala and Honduras) and Quichua (Ecuadorian highlands), which together are spoken by over 3 million people, and Medical Spanish, a professional skill that is in high demand in the U.S. and Latin America and is directly related to the UNM undergraduate BA/MD degree program in Health, Medicine, and Human Values, as well as the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy. The project joins emphases on health sciences and cultural preservation with pre-professional education and viable career options for UNM undergraduate students.
###
www.unm.edu