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Yucatan journey
LAS Minority Student Services Office continues spring break study
abroad experiences in Mexico.
- Every Thursday afternoon during the spring semester, International Studies
420, "Experience Yucatan Mexico," is held.
The highlight of the international experiential course is a weeklong study
abroad trip to Merida in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The trip and course
is coordinated by the Minority Student Services Offices in the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) and the College of Family and Consumer Sciences
(FCS).
And even though the trip is midway through the course, it hasn't dampened
the students' enthusiasm for attending class.
"Actually they (the students) were excited to be back together again
(after the trip)," said June Smith, LAS minority liaison officer. "They
were sharing photos and after class last week I saw almost half the class
still talking and remembering their experiences."
Students in the three credit hour course still have to complete individual
and group presentations on the study abroad experience.
The program is designed to enhance and to promote participation of undergraduate
students in study abroad opportunities. The course covers such topics as
Mexican civilization, Mexican government and politics, business in Mexico,
NAFTA and history of Yucatan.
LAS has offered the course and study abroad experience for the past six
years with the annual spring break trip attracting around 15 students each
year. Enrollment is not limited to LAS and FCS students.
"We encourage diversity in the classroom and as a result we have a
good mix of students with different academic backgrounds," Smith said.
"We typically end up with students from all across the campus."
This past year, Smith and Yanira Pacheco, her FCS counterpart, changed the
program slightly. In the past students have stayed with host families in
the Yucatan, but in an effort to develop a better group dynamic, the group
stayed in a centrally-located hotel in Merida.
"In previous years we have been spread out all over the place and this
made the logistics of the tour a lot smoother," Smith said. "The
students also really bonded in ways they haven't in the past."
By staying together, the course also had a nightly class, made daily evaluations
of the program and completed their journal writing.
Smith said another change in this year's program was allowing the students
to help set the itinerary before they arrived in the Yucatan. Group presentations
prior to the spring break trip helped add stops on the tour.
"That's where our excursions to local villages and a hacienda came
up," Smith said. "We also attended the opening baseball game for
the Yucatan Lions one evening, something we haven't done before."
Other group excursions included a Merida city tour, the Celestun National
Wildlife Refuge, Mayan ruins in Uxmal and Chichen Itza and the local anthropology and history museum.
Around LAS
April 19 to May 9, 2004
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