Twenty-four students who were part of Mexico’s Proyecta 100,000 study abroad and exchange program said goodbye during a ceremony at Cal State San Bernardino.
Anneli E. Adams, associate dean of the CSUSB College of Extended Learning, thanked the students, their instructors and the families the students stayed with for making the program a success.
“This shows that a community of committed people can make a difference in the global community,” Adams said during the ceremony that took place on Nov. 18.
The students, who came from various cities and regions of Mexico, were presented with award certificates from Mexican Consul Enrique Salomón Rosas Ramírez, who said the ongoing success of the program “will focus on four guidelines – increase academic mobility, strengthen language acquisition, promote workforce development and expand joint research and innovation.”
“Thanks to the efforts between Mexico and the United States academic and scientific cooperation, we have seen some significant achievements of students and academics,” Rosas Ramirez said. “Sixty-five thousand students, academics and researchers have participated in some for exchange or academic exchange in the United States.”
Like other students from Mexico at other campuses around the country, the students had come to CSUSB for month-long intensive study of the English language and to learn through their personal experiences with American culture.
Esmeralda Mascareno of Guamúchi, Sinoloa, said she was excited for the opportunity to study in the United States and enjoyed her time at Cal State San Bernardino.
“I liked it very much. The classes were very good, the technology in the classrooms and my host family were very good,” said the 20-year-old Mascareno, who is in her third year of college and plans to get her master’s degree in in food technology working with organic and healthy foods.
Suzy Sharweed, academic coordinator for the CSUSB College of Extended Learning, said the students took classes in cross-cultural communication, public speaking, reading and writing in English and test taking strategies. The latter was a specific request from the Proyecta program administrators.
“Proyecta asked us to focus on test taking to help the students succeed,” Sharweed said. “They wanted the students to achieve higher grades.”
Program administrator Eyad Alfattal said an assessment tests of the students when they arrived and upon completion of the program indicated “they achieved the highest progress in the three years the program had been offered.”
Along with attending English classes, the students learned about how higher education in the United States works, visited the Mexican Consulate in San Bernardino, spent one daylong class session with head consul Salomón Rosas, and experienced American culture with trips to Ontario Mills Mall and Universal Studios. They also celebrated Halloween.
Proyecta 100,000 is a Mexican Agency for International Cooperation and Development student mobility program designed to provide educational opportunities for university-level students from Mexico. The program’s goal is to send 100,000 students from Mexico to the United States and bring 50 thousand U.S. students to Mexico by 2018.
Proyecta 100,000 started in 2013, after a meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto. The program was created because of Mexico’s determination to further develop a knowledge-based economy. The country has dedicated considerable resources to promoting higher education, research and innovation, and pledged to send 100,000 students on study abroad and exchange programs to the United States by 2018.
Through this project, Mexico hopes to strengthen the ties between the U.S. and Mexico, advance the development of its human resources and promote Mexico’s competiveness. Proyecta 100,000 is expected to increase cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries, with a goal to substantially increase the number of Mexican and U.S. exchange students in each other’s country.
For more information, visit the CSUSB College of Extended Learning.
For more information on Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.