(Delaware and Chester Counties, PA)—As part of Delaware County Community College’s commitment to increasing study abroad opportunities for students, Dr. Sabuur Abdul-Kareem, Director of International Programs and Partnerships, recently journeyed to Mexico to explore study abroad opportunities in the region. There, he participated in a workshop on Mexico as a Study Abroad Destination along with nine colleagues from schools throughout the United States. Sponsored by study abroad offices within the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and COMEXUS (the Fulbright-García Robles Commission in Mexico) and co-organized by EducationUSA, the workshop was aimed at increasing student mobility and academic partnerships with Mexico.
From May 22 to May 25, participants visited four university campuses and met with representatives of several others while sampling local culture and cuisine in Mexico City and Puebla. In Mexico City, they visited Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Cuajimalpa and Universidad Iberoamericana. At the U.S. Embassy’s Benjamin Franklin Library, they heard presentations by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Universidad La Salle; Tecnológico de Monterrey; Universidades Interculturales from Estado de Mexico, Hidalgo, Puebla, and Tabasco; Fulbright-García Robles, Mexico’s national association of universities and higher education institutions (ANUIES); and the U.S. Embassy on student mobility programs and the higher education system in Mexico.
In Puebla, the participants were hosted by Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla to attend talks given by representatives of the same university and Universidad Anahuac. Peers from the University of Oklahoma and Notre Dame based in Puebla, also shared their own experiences and best practices on exchanges with Mexico. Additionally, the group toured the Universidad de las Américas Puebla and sat in on a talk with campus representatives.
Through this initiative COMEXUS and EducationUSA hope to increase student mobility to Mexico. In the past year, 4,712 U.S. students participated in study-abroad programs in Mexico, according to the Institute for International Education’s Open Doors report. Now, workshop participants return to their respective campuses with the necessary tools to solidify the partnerships made during this workshop in hopes of raising these numbers.
“I was honored to represent Delaware County and be among a group of distinguished schools invited for this program,” says Dr. Abdul-Kareem. “We were given various examples of how other colleges have brought or sent their students to study in Mexico, and I hope to share these ideas with my colleagues to see what kinds of programs we can develop for the College.”
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