Silver City, NM; Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico- One of Western New Mexico University’s fastest growing programs is the Language Institute. This part of the college encompasses our ESL (English as a Second Language) courses but lately has been doing a lot of work internationally, particularly in many different parts of Mexico.
Friday morning, on October 9th, a delegation from the Universidad de Occidente out of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico gathered with representatives of WNMU and the Language Institute as WNMU President Joseph Shepard and UdeO’s Director of Academic Development Judith Gastelum Salas signed an agreement that would allow their two university’s to exchange teachers and students, in hopes of sharing ideas, research and forming a strong working relationship.
The exchange was the idea of Language Institute Director Manuel Rodriguez and James Ortiz from Applied Technologies, who performed the negotiations with UdeO to ensure that this agreement would be signed. Rodriguez said that the first batch of teachers and students would arrive at WNMU this November and would be split off into different departments, grouped by interest, and find areas where the exchange students and the university can develop together.
Among the groups present at the agreement were representatives of UdeO’s nursing, CNA, academics, sociology and communications programs. Teachers will arrive from Los Mochis to teach short, two-day courses while students will attend Western for different programs lasting two, three, or four weeks.
One hope that Rodriguez has for the exchange is to eventually increase the mobility of WNMU students, stating that our students would be able to travel to Mexican Institutes and participate in research programs.
This thought was shared by President Shepard, who stated, “Education has moved globally.” He said that he hopes that the Language Institute will allow WNMU to develop symbiotic relationships with international universities and be a great opportunity to develop information and exchange ideas. He also hopes to see more of the Language Institutes programs reach beyond Mexico and target other Spanish-speaking countries such as Brazil and Spain.
Among the upcoming things the Language Institute has planned for WNMU is an upcoming agreement with a university in Chihuahua, Mexico and a summer program for students of Colegio Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a private Catholic school in Los Mochis. The program, which was signed last summer, will allow students to come to Silver City and attend a summer camp that will be half graphic-design and photoshop and half academic writing. If the camp proves to be a success, Director Rodriguez says that 22 more schools will join the program.
For more information on WNMU’s Language Institute rapidly growing international developments, you visit http://language.wnmu.edu/, and as always you can count on The Mustang to keep you posted on all of their developments.
