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Armando Garcia has been involved in the field of International Education since the beginning of his career. During his years as a college student in Mexico, he participated in several academic and professional programs abroad in countries like Switzerland, Singapore, France, the USA, China, and others. Armando currently works for the University of Oklahoma, OU, serving as Director of Programs in Mexico and Co-coordinator for Latin American partnerships. In his new role representing a U.S. institution, Armando and his colleagues are designing unique programs for students and faculty coming from Oklahoma, a place where demographics are changing, and it is becoming clearer the importance and relevance of understanding the Latino context. Armando considers that one of the main roles of international educators is to connect leaders to create a wider vision of a better world and help communities to work together towards that goal.
Why should students study abroad? What skills do they learn in this experience?
There are so many reasons to study abroad, it is difficult to think of a list because the outcomes will be different for each participant. We live in a world that is extremely competitive and in constant change. Studying abroad gives participants a different perspective on how to face global and local challenges and concerns and it also becomes an opportunity to share best practices with future leaders from other countries.
Studying abroad also helps participants to understand themselves and their own culture better, and to realize the impact of their actions as part of a global community. It is interesting to see how that process works; when students start to reflect and understand different cultures, they start to understand their own culture better. When someone comes back from an experience abroad, it's easier to understand and integrate individuals from different cultures and to help them navigate their own system. Hopefully, when they become social leaders, they will put in place policies to integrate people from different backgrounds to create a sense of a multicultural community that is welcoming, sensitive, inclusive and reflective.
Finally, students also become more confident in several ways as they are exposed to a different system including language, manners, behaviors and others. So, once they go back home, they realize that overcoming challenges is doable because they had to be creative to overcome some of those while abroad.
So, I would say that the easiest way to decide whether to study abroad or not, is to pose oneself the opposite question: why I wouldn't go abroad?
In what ways is OU's Puebla program unique?
OU in Puebla (OUP) offers the unique opportunity of studying in a different country, exposure to a different culture, learn or practice one of the most spoken languages in the world and make friends from Mexico and other countries.
While studying at OUP, students will take some classes with OU faculty where language is not a requirement as classes are taught in English or are language courses. Students will still take content courses, taught in English or in Spanish, with Mexican students at OU's host university, UPAEP.
UPAEP is a comprehensive university with hundreds of courses offered each semester for Mexican or international students. Students from all academic fields can participate in the fall, spring or summer term.
There are some unique programs, like the Pre-Health program where students do rotations in hospitals. We are designing an internship program for engineers to be offered next summer. Our Spanish programs offer unique activities outside the classroom setting where students learn the lyrics of a musical theater play or vocabulary that they will use when they visit the Frida Kahlo museum, or sessions with local artists, designers, etc. Faculty from the Spanish department is always thinking on including students in local and immersive activities for learning purposes. And we are always creating and designing new programs with different academic colleges at OU.
Students really receive the best of two worlds and one of the best parts is that they transfer the academic credits when they get back home. OUP offers some of the most affordable and immersive study abroad experiences at OU. OUP is an open door for anyone willing to study abroad!
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