Mexican College students created Solar Power System for Remote Areas

theyucatantimes.com


As many as half a million Mexican homes have no electricity due to their location in remote, rural and difficult-to-access areas.

For light, they burn candles or oil, which can create health problems.

In those same communities where electrical infrastructure is non-existent, the schools, too, go without. A census of school facilities found 18,000 did not have electricity.

But wherever you go, there’s always sunlight.

On that premise, Manuel Wiechers, an engineering student at the UNAM (National Autonomous University), and seven other electrical engineering classmates decided in 2009 they could transform the lifestyles of marginalized communities with renewable energy.

They developed a prototype of a mini-solar power plant and began knocking on doors. But it wasn’t until they won a 600,000-peso (US $39,000) prize in a sustainability competition sponsored by Banco Santander that they were ready to get serious about their product.

That money, along with funding from the business accelerator Ashoka and the organization Pase Usted de Innovación, helped launch Iluméxico and its product Prometeo.

It’s a simple device: a small panel of photovoltaic cells, a battery and a couple of LED lights that will burn all night on a full charge. It has since been installed in 3,500 homes in 254 communities, delivering light to 18,000 people.

Iluméxico sells its product for 3,000 pesos but a key to its sales success in rural areas has been the offer of credit for one year to families with limited resources.

 

 

 

Installation is designed to be simple.

It’s not only homes that are benefiting from Prometeo, but schools as well.

Company sales manager Ana María Martínez says that with support and donations from other businesses and organizations, Iluméxico has installed its system in 28 schools in rural communities since 2010, and has plans to take it to another 100 over the next four years.

Manuel Wiechers, now 27 and operations manager, describes Iluméxico as a social enterprise that sees providing the basic service offered by Prometeo as an important opportunity to improve the quality of life in rural areas.

“Not having access to energy limits opportunities to generate income and receive a quality education.”

He and his associates have also built a solid business in the process. Iluméxico employs 30 people and recorded sales of nearly 7 million pesos last year.

It expects to install its product in more than 50,000 homes in the next five years and expand into other Latin American countries and the Caribbean.

All they need is a few rays of sunshine.

Source: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/

First research cruise started in Mexican Pacific deep waters

fis.com

Research vessel. (Photo: Sagarpa)

Thursday, June 05, 2014, 04:10 (GMT + 9) 
 
With 22 researchers on board, the Ship of Oceanographic and Fisheries Research of the National Fisheries Institute (BIPO-INAPESCA) started its first cruise to carry out studies in deep waters of the Mexican Pacific Ocean.

The ship, whose operational base is in the port of Mazatlan, Sinaloa, left for the Gulf of California, where biological studies of fisheries acoustics, exploratory fisheries, physical oceanography, chemistry and biological will be conducted.

Through the fisheries acoustics and control fishing operations, researchers will determine abundance and spatio-temporal variation indexes of species that are susceptible for commercial exploitation. Furthermore, the appropriate capture technology will be defined for the capture of the identified resources.

In this first stage of the research planned by INAPESCA a survey phase is considered, which is consistent with the performance of fisheries exploration cruises through fisheries acoustics for verifying and determining the existence of resources to lay the foundation to promote the development of new sustainable commercial fisheries. This is carried out in the water column as well as at or near the seafloor.

To carry out this research, the research vessel has cutting-edge technology for data collection. It also has a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that can go down up to two thousand metres deep for sampling, taking photos and making high resolution videos for scientific documentaries.

The researchers who are part of the scientific group in these early research vessels belong to the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine Sciences of the National Polytechnic Institute (CICIMAR), Centre for Biological Research of the Northwest (CIBNOR), Centre for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE), Autonomous University of Baja California, Sonora University, Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Navy Secretariat, among other institutions.

High school senior from Mazatlan, Mexico creates a biology-teaching game

scpr.com

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez 

May 15th, 2014, 6:53pm

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC

High school senior Marisol Leon Cruz from Mazatlan, Mexico, created a biology-teaching game that earned her a place in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Walk the rows of 1,800 exhibitions at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair at the Los Angeles Convention Center and you’ll see research titles like “Dendritic Crystallization of Salts,” “Evaluating Problem Solving Approaches Using Child Safety Locks,” and “A Better Solar Heater in the Form of a Triangular Pyramid.”
 
These aren't PHD papers. This research was done by high school students from around the world, most them prize-winning entries at their local science fairs.

This year's Intel fair is the biggest since 1950, officials said, when it was founded as the National Science Fair and decades before it was renamed for the computer chip maker.

They said this year's entries show there's a lot to be proud of - but also much to worry about - when it comes to science, math, and engineering education in public schools.

“A lot of these students are getting the science that they bring here through experiences outside of school,” Intel Foundation Executive Director Wendy Hawkins said.

Many science teachers, she said, teach science through cookie cutter experiments that do little to spark a kid’s curiosity and fascination with science and math. The students participating in this fair sought out ways to speed past classroom teaching.

“They’re working with faculty at universities, they’re working with researchers, and research institutions, they’re building labs under their beds,” Hawkins said.

Fair officials said improving science, math, and engineering learning in schools is a top priority and the fair – which hands out $5 million in awards Friday.

Charts, drawings, and descriptions are meticulously arranged on tri-fold cardboard panel making up Samantha Wathugala's entry. The title on top reads “Dependence of Silica Sol-gel Thin Film Material Properties on Fabrication Method.”

The Palos Verdes High School senior researched ultra thin glass coatings that can detect viruses or other biological matter. Her knowledge about the topic went through the roof last year when she spent the summer working at USC.

“I found this professor, and emailed her, Skyped her, and finally got a position in her lab,” she said.
Her parents are both engineers and guided her. She made the trip from Palos Verdes to USC by commuting with her mother.

The convention center exhibit hall was a big field trip destination for Southern California high school and middle school students.

Victoria Llamas brought her seventh grade science class from South Gate Middle School to check it out. She wanted her students to see the young teen scientists. But the work was so advanced some of her students were discouraged.

“Many of them have stopped by and said, 'Ms Llamas, I’m listening to them and all I knew was the word ‘carbon’ I don’t know how I could ever do something like this. I’m overwhelmed,’” she said.
She said she's determined to show them they can.

Gov’t to review youth initiatives

Thursday, 24 April 2014 01:10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

thenews.com.mx

20 winning ideas by students presented to House

BY YVONNE REYES CAMPOS

The News

MEXICO CITY – Members of the Chamber of Deputies Young People’s Committee submitted 20 initiatives to the chamber’s floor on Wednesday. The measures were drafted by students from across the country and selected through a nationwide contest called Joven-es Por Mexico.

National Action Party (PAN) Deputy José Luis Oliveros Usabiaga, president of the Young People’s Committee, said that 250 bills were submitted to the contest, but only 20 finalists were selected.

According to Oliveros Usabiaga, the purpose of the contest is to create a civic consciousness among young people and help them understand the importance of politics by involving them directly in the political process. He said that many young people feel they are not represented by Mexico’s political system and that the country’s politicians don’t take their concerns into account.

“There were very interesting initiatives, the majority of them promoting the country’s development,” he said. “There were many about science and technology, there’s one that greatly interests me about education, science and technology.”

Oliveros Usabiaga said that the bill he was most interested in would create a national fund for the country’s high schools, which would promote infrastructure projects and provide low-income students with grants, which he said would help lower Mexico’s high school dropout rates by helping young people avoid having to choose between working and their education.

He went on to mention another proposal to include hate crimes against sexual minorities in the Federal Criminal Code. The contest was organized by federal institutions as well as prestigious Mexican universities.

ASU scientist finds women shaping Mexico's shrimp industry

phys.org

by Judy Crawford

Growing up in a small, coastal town in Puerto Rico with grandfathers who were both farmers, Maria Cruz-Torres knew from a young age the impact of the environment on people's livelihoods. So it was perhaps a natural thing for the Arizona State University anthropologist to focus her research on the relationship between adequate fishing resources and food security in northwestern Mexico – where she has discovered that women in particular play a critical role.

Cruz-Torres comes from a family of strong Latina women that includes her mother and three sisters, besides her father. She was the one who loved the sciences and dreamed of becoming a doctor one day. But in her second year of medical school at the University of Puerto Rico, the internationally recognized scholar balked at performing an autopsy and realized that medicine was not for her.

"I couldn't tell my family that I didn't want to be a doctor," said Cruz-Torres, associate professor in ASU's School of Transborder Studies and senior sustainability scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability. "My mother is a nurse and wanted me to become a physician, and I wanted her to be proud of me."

But another door opened when her affinity for the natural world led Cruz-Torres to switch her major to marine biology, inspired by Puerto Rico's first female marine biologist with a doctorate, Alida Ortiz. Cruz-Torres took the professor's seminar in fisheries her senior year. The topic she tackled – the social aspects of the country's fisheries – up to that point had been little explored.

So her professor connected Cruz-Torres with a worldwide expert in maritime anthropology, Bonnie McCay, Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Human Ecology of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University. Cruz-Torres moved to New Jersey and eventually earned her doctorate in anthropology/human ecology under McCay's tutelage.

Studying Mexico's fisheries-dependent communities

In searching for a location for her postdoctoral research, Cruz-Torres said it was Mexico that offered the support she needed: "The Minister of Fisheries in Mexico City sent me several books and asked me to come," she said. "He also connected me with another woman, a well-known historian who was writing about fisheries, and asked her to be my mentor."

It was 1990 and Mexico had just begun raising shrimp in hatcheries under a United Nations program to expand rural development, Cruz-Torres explained. At the time, the fisheries obtained their larvae from the ocean, where wild shrimp were abundant.

Cruz-Torres centered her research on the fisheries-dependent coastal communities of Sinaloa, a state in western Mexico on the Gulf of California. The University of Sinaloa has a marine sciences department that trains students in fisheries and aquaculture, and a local technical school offers a fisheries degree, but not much research was being done on the social and sustainability aspects of shrimp aquaculture, she said.

"Shrimp in this region has a lot of value," Cruz-Torres said. "It is not only an export commodity, but it is consumed locally. People living there, in fact, have shrimp recipes for every social occasion.

"My research also is showing that shrimp is used as a currency, such as paying for a visit to the doctor. Especially in Mazatlan, Americans and Canadians living there accept shrimp as payment for things they provide to locals, such as clothes and services."

Cruz-Torres pointed out that this agricultural region uses a lot of pesticides and fertilizers. Some of the chemicals and metals they contain end up in lagoons and estuaries, even washing into the ocean where they are being found in fish and marine organisms.

"For many people, the shrimp industry is their main livelihood allowing them to survive on a daily basis," she explained. "When those fishing resources are depleted, there are not many options. But one of them is for people to migrate."

How Mexican women are changing the shrimp industry

Cruz-Torres said that women are key players in helping these communities cope with a changing fishing industry. Her research is identifying several significant trends. One is that not only men are migrating north to find work in maquiladoras, border factories run by United States companies in Mexico. Young women, even entire families, are leaving Sinaloa to find jobs in Mexicali and Tijuana, she said.

"They come with expectations, but often the high cost of living and the stress of living in the U.S. cause them to return," Cruz-Torres said. "Sometimes they save enough money from working in the U.S. to buy land, build homes and start their own businesses back in Mexico."

The anthropologist said that women are also organizing unions and becoming labor activists to improve working conditions in both the border-town maquiladoras and in Sinaloa's shrimp fisheries. Additionally, more and more of them are managing small family businesses that sell shrimp within the larger hierarchy of Mazatlan's seafood processing and marketing industry.

"I think my research will give visibility to women in the fishing industry," Cruz-Torres explained. "Instead of being an invisible part of the labor force, these women are becoming a very important part of the popular culture now. They are almost famous in many ways."

For her part, Cruz-Torres has been able to capture the women's stories via her research, said McCay, calling the scientist "exceptional" as an interviewer and ethnographer.

"Maria has proved the ability to endure exceptional hardships in difficult environments and communities – harsh deserts, extreme poverty, prevalent crime and corruption – and to gain the trust and confidence of people who have so many reasons to distrust any outsider, particularly someone with pencil, paper and tape recorder in hand," McCay said.

"The trust and confidence given to Dr. Cruz by the people of the communities in western Mexico that she has studied are extremely valuable, and Dr. Cruz goes further in respecting this value by writing the brilliant accounts of their lives that figure in her articles and books."

American Consulate Offers Education Opportunities

by Maureen Dietrich

29 Mar 14 

mazmessenger.com

 

Leobardo Montero, head of the American Consulate in Hermosillo, said in a visit to the Spanish language daily newspaper Noroeste yesterday that the consulate will soon open an educational assessment center in Culiacán where Mexican students interested in studying in the States can find information on universities, exchange programs and financial grants.

Montero, along with two of his colleagues, was in Mazatlán to attend an education forum entitled “Crossing borders: Technology and the Future of Education: Perspectives from Mexico and the United States.”

The Consulate’s grants and programs, said Montero, are available for the study of English at a basic level to full grants for Masters and Doctorate studies in the States.

This is just one of many educational cooperative bilateral projects, said the Consulate’s cultural and press attaché Madison Conoley, adding the Consulate has a particular interest in strengthening its presence in Sinaloa.

For further information on the education projects, see www.comexus.org.mx or www.usembassy-mexico.gov/. 

(from Noroeste)

US supports Mexico bid to boost bilateral exchange

thepienews.com

ed on Mar 11, 2014 

by Beckie Smith

 

North American leaders have issued a joint statement via the White House lending their support to Mexico’s international education initiative, Proyecta 100,000, after it was discussed at the annual North American Leaders Summit (NALS) in Toluca, Mexico last month. However some commentators believe the trade-boosting talks between the US, Canada and Mexico did not go far enough on immigration change.

 

FOBESII proposes short- and medium-term initiatives for bilateral cooperation and policy coordination

One proposal is a reciprocal agreement whereby Mexican students will be eligible for In-State Tuition at some US institutions and vice versa

Mexico has embarked on an ambitious strategy to boost the number of students it sends to the USA each year to 100,000 by 2018 and is hoping that various proposals to ease student exchange can help it achieve its aims.

“The potential to develop cooperation in higher education, innovation and research to benefit citizens of both countries must be seized”

Proyecta 100,000, which also aims to increase the number of US students in Mexico to 50,000, aims to double the number of Mexican international students enrolled at US colleges to 27,000 this year, increasing the number every year thereafter.

There are currently 13,893 Mexican students studying abroad on accredited US higher education programmes, and just 4,167 US international students in Mexico, according to Institute of International Education statistics.

Mexico’s initiative was published in September 2013 by the Bilateral Forum on Higher Education Innovation and Research (FOBESII), which was set up by Mexico and US Presidents Enrique Peña Nieto and Barack Obama to propose initiatives for bilateral cooperation and policy coordination.

Via FOBESII, Mexico and the US plan a number of measures to overcome specific barriers to student mobility, including visa processing and tuition fee gaps.

One proposal is a reciprocal agreement whereby Mexican students will be eligible for In-State Tuition at some US institutions and vice versa. Another is that Mexican students can study on a J visa which can be swifter to be issued than an F-1 or M-1.

Other measures include increasing English tuition at elementary level and encouraging higher education institutions to teach some core major subjects in English within Mexico.

Proyecta 100,000 would “contribute decisively” to the US government’s ’100,000 Strong in the Americas’ initiative, which aims to boost student mobility between the US and Latin America, the document states.

“The potential to develop cooperation in higher education, innovation and research to benefit citizens of both countries must be seized,” it adds.

After the NALS event in President Enrique Pena Nieto’s hometown, a statement was issued from the three participant countries that said, “We commit to increase the number of student exchanges from within the region in our respective higher education systems, in line with the United States’ 100,000 Strong in the Americas Initiative, Mexico’s Proyecta 100,000, and Canada’s International Education Strategy.”

No further detail however was given on specific proposals made in last year’s document.

Illinois and Mexico: Working together

 bcrnews.com

URBANA — To promote collaboration and create opportunities for expanded trade between Mexico and Illinois, the University of Illinois has established an official partnership with the Universidad Autonomous del Estado de Mexico (UAEM) and the Mexican-based Foundation for Regional Development and Competitiveness (FUNDECO).

“Illinois agriculture is an export-dependent industry, and Mexico is one of our best customers,” Agriculture Director Bob Flider said. “The memoranda signed today will build upon that friendship. It will start new dialogue on everything from animal genetics and crop science to biofuels and agri-business development, identify areas of potential collaboration, and hopefully, create opportunities for expanded trade,” Flider added.

The partnership became official at the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield with a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) document by Dean Robert Hauser of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), representing the University of Illinois, and Jorge Olvera Garcia, the rector of UAEM.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Gov. Eruviel Avila of the State of Mexico also signed the document as honorary witnesses.

The cooperation has the potential to boost the state of Illinois’s already strong ties with Mexico. Every year, more than 40 percent of Illinois’s farm commodities are sold overseas, and Mexico is one of Illinois’s most loyal trading partners. The past five years alone, Mexico has purchased $3.3 billion in agricultural products from Illinois, making it the state’s third-largest agricultural export market.

The academic component to this agreement, aligning the University of Illinois and UAEM, will allow the Illinois Department of Agriculture, FUNDECO, and other economic organizations to benefit from cooperation between the universities who are best equipped to disseminate knowledge on science and technology.

“This agreement is a continuation of the college’s ever increasing involvement with institutions in Mexico,” noted Dean Hauser. “We have forged similar agreements with institutions such as the Univesidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), El Colegio de Postgraduados, and the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosui, the latter, of which has resulted in several projects pertaining to obesity in our respective countries.

Additionally, we have fostered dually funded research programs with the Mexican government and Mexican universities, for example, the University of Queretaro. This new relationship with UAEM has tremendous possibilities for both Illinois and Mexico as we collaborate to realize our shared interests in agricultural, nutritional, and economic benefits,” Hauser added.

The specific objectives outlined in the MOU include fostering a collaborative relationship through joint educational, cultural, and research activities and faculty and student exchanges, and promoting collaboration between the two states and universities on extension, animal genetics, biofuels, crop sciences, irrigation, and veterinary medicine.

The partnership among the three organizations was initiated by the Illinois Trade and Investment Latin America Office, based in Mexico City, which is part of the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. This office promotes Illinois exports in the Latin American Spanish-speaking countries, and endorses Illinois as the ideal place to invest among Latin American entrepreneurs.

Haiti - Mexico : Signing of an agreement of academic cooperation, scientific and technological

haitilibre.com
06/02/2014 09:35:55

Wednesday, February 5, an agreement of academic, scientific and technological cooperation was signed between the Ministry of Tourism of Haiti and the Anahuac University of Mexico which this year celebrates its 50 years of existence and whose school of Tourism, now has more than 8,000 students.

Under the terms of this agreement, the two institutions agreed to establish the basis for cooperation in order to achieve maximum utilization of human resources, and material in the execution of projects of interest and mutual benefit, in connection with the hotel and Tourism Training through the various programs offered by the Anahuac University.

In this sense, working staff and associated with the Ministry of Tourism, will be able to receive adequate training to the Anahuac University through specialized courses, professional upgrade and postgraduate courses. Seminars, conferences, symposia and other academic activities will also be organized in the framework of this agreement. A proposed of "diplomado" was submitted to the Ministry of Tourism and will be delivered both in Port-au-Prince and Mexico, as well as training courses for trainers.

The Ambassador of Haiti to Mexico, Guy Lamothe, who signed the agreement on behalf of Stéphanie Balmir Villedrouin, the Minister of Tourism declared, "At a time when Haiti is making great efforts to position itself as a tourist destination, it is imperative that those called to receive tourists, are well trained to provide the best service. Thanks to this cooperation agreement, Haitians can come and train in Mexico, which has a length ahead of Haiti in terms of tourism and the University of Anahuac is one of the best training centers to achieve this goal."

As the Rector of the Anahuac University, Jaime Enrique Duran Lomeli he stressed that "this agreement that is emerging after several months of negotiations, will allow university professors to share the Haitian experience, while providing teaching quality to young Haitians."

Flores Madrid, the Director of the School of Tourism of the Anahuac University noted that "the signing of the agreement between the Ministry of Tourism of Haiti and the Anahuac University is the beginning of an academic relationship, which wants to be promising and sustainable."

Note that Mexico, a major destination for a quarter century, is the eighth country in the world in terms of tourist destination, an industry that generates in this country, more than five million jobs.

HL/ HaitiLibre

ASU set to break ground on campus in Mexico

baxterbulletin.com

Dec. 26, 2013 5:22 AM  

 

JILL BLEED

The Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK — A groundbreaking on Feb. 5 is scheduled for Arkansas State University’s new campus in Mexico, a $50 million undertaking that’s being funded with private money.

The new campus will be built in Queretaro in north central Mexico. Officials there approached Arkansas State for help in creating an American-style university where students live on campus as an alternative to the traditional commuter school in Mexico, said Yvonne Unnold, project leader for ASU-Queretaro.


“We will do what we do best,” Unnold said. “We will focus exclusively on facilitating excellence in education within an academic living-learning community.”

The Queretaro campus is scheduled to open in fall 2015 with about 1,000 students, and enrollment is expected to grow to about 5,000 students in about five years. The school estimates that about 30 percent of the students will come from the state of Queretaro, while another 30 percent will come from other states in Mexico. The remainder of the population will come from Latin America and other countries worldwide, including current Arkansas State students in the United States.

Classes will be taught in English, and the school will initially offer 15 majors, including electrical engineering, chemistry, world languages, business administration and strategic communications.


“We are creating a living-learning community and we are teaching our ways, where it is not a lecture hall where we spoon-feed knowledge,” Unnold said. “We need our students to acquire skills. We are preparing a new generation for employment opportunities and employment needs that have not yet been defined. We need our students to be able to problem-solve.”



The Association for the Advancement of Mexican Education, which is a private business foundation, has acquired about 2,000 acres for a development that includes the Arkansas State campus in Queretaro. The $50 million campus will be paid for through private gifts, with the private foundation underwriting any operating deficits for up to three years after the campus opens.



“The campus will be transformative for Arkansas State and energize our mission of creating globally competitive opportunities for our faculty and students,” Arkansas State Chancellor Tim Hudson said earlier this year. “The business and government partners share our interest in educating students who will contribute to a sustainable democracy and socioeconomic progress in Mexico.”


Queretaro Gov. Jose Calzada Rovirosa traveled to Jonesboro earlier this month to address graduates at Arkansas State’s fall commencement.



“The outstanding leadership of Chancellor Tim Hudson and the extraordinary support from the Board of Trustees are making this a reality,” Calzada said during his commencement address. “It is an honor for my state to host Arkansas State University. We are the most progressive state in my country. We must tear down the walls that inhibit the quality formation of the future leaders of the world.”

Nation’s universities boosting enrollment

Thursday, 26 December 2013 
BY CIRCE VARGON
AND VÍCTOR MAYÉN
The News


The Public Education Secretariat (SEP) said in a Wednesday press release that the number of spaces in Mexico’s public universities has increased during the 2013-14 school year, offering an additional 41,406 spaces through the Emerging Enrollment Program for Higher Education.

The press release also said that it is prioritizing college educations for young people from indigenous communities through an evaluation of the Intercultural Universities system, which are designed to address the educational needs of Mexico’s indigenous population.

These universities have an enrollment of 11,600 students — over half of whom speak an indigenous language — and offer 56 majors, 11 master’s degrees and one doctorate.

The SEP also said that it has established an agreement with the French government to promote student exchanges between the universities of both countries, which it claimed will help modernize Mexico’s economy.

Nevertheless, Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Deputy Miguel Alonso Raya said that the SEP must publish a review of Mexico’s current educational system by Jan. 15 at the latest, as required under the terms of the education reform passed earlier this year.

Alonso Raya went on to say that the education reform’s controversial teacher evaluations — which led to a prolonged teachers’ strike this past fall — are still unclear, adding that what exactly the evaluations will consist of should be cleared up as soon as possible.

Mazatlán Hosts College Athletes

by Maureen Dietrichon 12 Nov 13
mazmessenger.com

 

For the fourth time, Mazatlán is host to the Copa Interlobo athletic games this week.

College athletes from the Universidades Autónomas de Durango throughout the country are here to compete in basketball, soccer, beach volleyball, indoor volleyball, baseball, track and swimming.

The competitions are taking place at the municipal Unidad Deportiva Sahop fields and at Kilómetro Cero park.

(from Noroeste)

Mexico Colleges Look To Expand To The U.S.

The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México campus in San Antonio.

UNAM 

 By Matt Krupnick

The Hechinger Report

LYNWOOD, Calif -- In an ethnically themed shopping center called Plaza Mexico just south of Los Angeles, a public university from the Mexican state of Colima has planted its flag.

Alongside the shopping center’s stores and taquerias, the University of Colima offers mostly remedial education in reading, writing and math to about 100 Mexican immigrants. But a handful of students here are preparing to take their final exams for Mexican degrees, just one of several recent efforts by Mexican universities to branch into providing full-fledged university educations in the United States.

“It’s important for at least one university to pursue this,” said Ana Uribe, a University of Colima professor who runs the Lynwood branch.

In fact, several Mexican universities are considering stepping in to offer accredited university classes in California and other states primarily to serve an immigrant population that lags far behind others in college education.

California, where public universities have been dealing with deep budget cuts and enrollment limits, probably will be the principal target of Mexican universities. There’s a huge market in the state, where Latinos account for more than 52 percent of public school students who’ll eventually be college-aged. A quarter of elementary-school students nationwide are Hispanic, the Pew Research Center reports.

Conversations between Mexican and U.S. universities have increased to the point that U.S. accreditors, knowing they’ll be asked to evaluate more Mexican schools soon, are working with their Mexican counterparts to find out more about higher education south of the border, said William Plater, who advises the Western Association of Schools and Colleges – the primary accreditor in the Western United States – on international affairs.

“We think it’s in our best interest to learn more about quality assurance,” he said.

The days of Mexican campuses in the United States are just around the corner, some said.

“I don’t think it will be five, 10, 20 years” before Mexican universities build U.S. campuses, said Jonathan Brown, a higher-education consultant who’s working with Mexico’s Center for Higher and Technical Education as it decides whether to expand to Sacramento. “I think it will be sooner. In the next few years, we’re going to be 2 million degrees short of what California needs. Who wouldn’t want to go to a first-rate (Mexican) university close to home?”

Nearly 34 million people in the United States identify themselves as Mexican or of Mexican origin, but only 5 out of every 100 have university degrees, compared with about a third of immigrants in general, according to the Migration Policy Institute. About 35 percent of native-born citizens do.

In California, only 10 percent of Hispanic immigrants ages 25 and 26 have completed at least two-year degrees, compared with the state average of 36 percent, according to a report to be released soon by the institute. Latino youth – both immigrants and those born in the United States – have the lowest rate of college attainment in California, researchers found.

Even Hispanics who do enroll in American colleges and universities are 50 percent less likely than non-Hispanics are to earn bachelor’s degrees by age 24, Pew reports.

Many U.S. universities, coping with competing demands for stretched resources, have been struggling to provide the kinds of support that could increase the number of Mexican-Americans who graduate. In a survey released in January by Hart Research Associates, 40 percent of Hispanics said the American higher education system was meeting their needs only somewhat well or not well at all. Many Hispanic students are the first in their families to go to college, come from high schools in low-income areas that don’t necessarily prepare them well for advanced course work and are disproportionately reluctant to borrow money to pay tuition.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/04/3731769/mexican-colleges-look-to-expand.html#storylink=cpy

Girl dubbed 'The Next Steve Jobs' captivates Mexico

ndtv.com

Agence France-Presse | Updated: November 01, 2013 08:03 IST

Paloma Noyola at a two-day National Mental Math Calculation Championships at the Technologic of Monterrey campus, in Mexico City (AFP)

 

 

Mexico City:  Mexico has found a new heroine: A 12-year-old math whiz from a state plagued by drug violence who was dubbed "The Next Steve Jobs" by a US magazine.

The youngest of eight children from a modest family, Paloma Noyola was thrown under the media spotlight since Wired magazine featured the black-haired girl on its cover two weeks ago.

She has appeared in national newspapers and on cable news, redubbed "La Nina Jobs" -- "The Jobs Girl" -- with photographers and cameramen chasing the girl nicknamed after Apple's late founder.

This week, she traveled from her hometown of Matamoros, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, to the hustle and bustle of Mexico City for a mental math competition.

"I'm very happy. If you want it, you can do it," said Noyola.

With so much attention on the girl, Tamaulipas state officials who flew in with her shielded Noyola from the press pack.

She sat alone at a large table and was whisked away after the contest organized by the Tecnologico de Monterrey university ended. But she did not win the contest.

Last year, the girl whose school lies next to a dump across the US border wowed the country when she scored the maximum 921 in the national standardized exam, the best in Mexico.

Her father died of lung cancer last year and her family earns an income from selling scrap metal and food in Matamoros, a city tormented for years by a turf war between the Zetas and Gulf drug cartels.

Minimally invasive education

While Noyola made the cover of Wired, it was her teacher's radical methods that featured prominently in the magazine's story.

Sergio Juarez Correa, 32, saw his entire class's Spanish and math scores dramatically improve after he implemented a new approach, allowing students to tap into their own curiosity and self-learning to solve problems.

Juarez Correa took inspiration from the "minimally invasive education" concept of Sugata Mitra, a professor of educational technology at Britain's Newcastle University.

While Noyola garnered attention for acing the national exam last year, nine other students scored more than 900 in the math test.

The school is located in a "punishment zone" for education, dubbed that way because no professor wants to be there due to the high level of crime and dismal infrastructure.

The school lacks basic services such as running water, drainage or a telephone line -- an all-too-common problem in Mexican classrooms.

"If Paloma had the same opportunities or open doors as Steve Jobs, she probably would be a genius in this subject," Juarez told AFP.

Two of Noyola's classmates disappeared midway through the school year without anybody knowing why.

"The Mexican education system is like a bus with broken seats, wheels in bad shape and a broken engine that must climb a hill," Juarez said.

The education system of Latin America's second economy ranks last among the 34 nations of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development.

President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December, pushed through an education reform in a country where less than half of high school students are expected to graduate.

Juarez lamented that the government's reform lacks plans to improve school infrastructure. The Wired article noted how his school lacked computers.

 

 

 

UVU, Mexico sign landmark agreement

 

Barbara Christiansen - Daily Herald

 

The geographic distance between Utah and Mexico has not changed, but the psychological distance continues to decrease.

Utah Valley University hosted a Doing Business with Mexico conference Thursday and included a landmark signing of a Utah chapter of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce. Pres. Matthew S. Holland welcomed business leaders and students, speaking in both English and Spanish.

"Utah is on the precipice of something incredible with this landmark agreement that has the potential to reach 110 million consumers in Mexico," Holland said. "This partnership will positively change the course of doing business with Mexico forever."

Newly appointed Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox was also on hand to officiate at the signing.

The event fit in with UVU in several ways.

"It was part of our global spotlight on Mexico," Holland said. "We do one of these every year. This year it is Mexico." During the academic year, there are many events that introduce students to the country and create a bond between the two entities. "We have a lineup of events that are both substantive and meaningful," Holland sad. "I think it is our best lineup yet."

"It really fits at an intersection of two or three things that are the core of what we aspire to do," he said. "We want to be an inclusive institution with a continuing commitment to that value. This was an outreach to a close and important neighbor, trading partner and a geographically close country that we need to deal with effectively."

UVU also follows the path of engaged learning and Holland said the relationship with Mexico fits with that.
"The United States and Mexico do $1.5 billion in trade every day," he said. "Utah exports $5 million in goods and imports $5 billion annually."

"This is a very important relationship," he said. "We need to understand it, study it, understand the people, the transactions and the opportunities. This was a chance for our business students and business leaders to hear experts talk about the tremendous potential that exists and is currently quite under leveraged. We could be doing so much more to benefit our economy and productivity."

Norman Wright, the dean of UVU's Woodbury School of Business, called the conference a success.

"I talked to a local business owner after the conference ended and he was gushing about it," he said. "He said he saw a number of connections that were going to help his business move forward. For me that is a great outcome."

Sometimes business people overlook what Wright called the "miracle of Mexico." They can get caught up in lower labor costs in China, but overlook factors such as the proximity of Mexico and the less expensive shipping costs.

"That makes Mexico a great place for people from the U.S. to do business," he said.

The conference included several breakout sessions, and a primary sessions, with about 150 people attending.

"They were from government, the Chamber of Commerce, local business leaders, students and faculty," Wright said. "That was a nice event to tie together the various communities."

Signing the official chamber partnership marked the ninth site in the U.S. that is involved in the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce.

"This is the Intermountain region," Wright said. "We have the headquarters in Salt Lake City."

The chapter in Utah is one more step in the institutionalization process between Mexico and Utah, creating that soft landing that many businesses demand when looking at international expansion opportunities. Now, Utah businesses can simply reach out to the new chapter of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, and they can be put directly in touch with hundreds of businesses in Mexico -- and vice versa.

"Utah is the most linguistically diverse state in the country with 180 different languages spoken," said Harvey Scott, director of international trade and diplomacy for the Utah governor's office. "Our economic stability, diversity and vitality, and level of engagement with the Hispanic community positions us well to draw attention as Mexican businesses consider U.S. operations."

"This partnership is about how Utah companies command a presence outside of the U.S., and who they should look to first," Scott said. "The U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and Utah want to get it right, and this is great next step to achieving our goals."

President Holland said UVU was pleased to play a leading role in the conference.

"It matched nicely with our mission dating back to our roots as an applied technical school," he said. "We still have that spirit of application, bringing academic leaders, business leaders and students together on important issues and promoting positive outcomes, UVU plays that role very well."

Higher Education In Mexico: The Quest To Become More-Competitive Globally

By David Felsen

 October 24 2013 

ibtimes.com

Mexico City, Mexico. Reuters 

 

 

Since Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took office at the end of 2012, his government has proceeded to address some important policy challenges.

The administration has tackled energy reform to open up the country’s state oil monopoly to foreign investment and to develop global partnerships in the energy sector. The government also recently introduced an education reform with a view to raising teaching standards and holding Mexican teachers more accountable at the K-12 level, through changes such as the introduction of across-the-board performance evaluations. Furthermore, the government’s recent autumn tax bill seeks to improve efficiency in the country’s tax system.

However, despite the positive measures undertaken during President Peña’s first year in office, numerous challenges remain across a range of sectors. These include issues that impact the country’s global competitiveness, not the least of which is higher education. In September the 2013 QS World University Rankings -- considered by many to be the gold standard of rankings in global higher education -- came out with its list of the world’s top universities. And the telling stat? Mexico did not have a single university represented within the top 100. Nor, for that matter, did Brazil or India. China produced only one Top 100 school. The Top 10 schools were all located either in the United States or the United Kingdom.

There was some disappointment among Latin American countries with the QS rankings. That said, the rankings themselves cannot fully capture the progress made by Mexican, Brazilian and other Latin American institutions in strengthening their academic standards and in raising their global profiles in recent years.  These developments were among some of the issues discussed at the most recent Conference of the Americas on International Education (CAIE), held in Monterrey, Mexico, from Oct. 16-18. The conference attracted more than 900 representatives from higher education institutions, government agencies, and multilateral organizations from across Latin America, the United States, Canada, Europe and beyond. Participants at the conference discussed and debated a number of salient global higher education themes with widespread implications, including different strategies for comprehensive internationalization, the role of global distance education, the financing of global education, and issues surrounding global education research and innovation.  

Bold Higher Education Strategy Needed To Raise Global Rank 

Further, these matters are very much on the minds of Mexico’s higher education officials. One conference participant, Francisco Marmolejo, who hails from Mexico and currently serves as lead tertiary education specialist at the World Bank, noted that while many challenges lie ahead, the government has already done much to address a range of issues confronting Mexican higher education, including improving access to higher education and increasing the retention of Mexican students at its institutions.  Marmolejo added that Mexico has been participating actively in a number of global higher education initiatives, such as the recent U.S.-Mexico bilateral forum on higher education held in September 2013 in Mexico City and the “100,000 Strong in the Americas” initiative of the U.S. Department of State to foster international exchanges within the Americas.

Nonetheless, Marmolejo also cautions that Mexico has not yet fully articulated a bold and comprehensive higher education strategy to promote global education, as is the case in other countries in Latin America, such as Colombia, or in other parts of the world, notably Australia. “Mexico still needs a comprehensive internationalization strategy in higher education that integrates government, academic institutions, the private sector and civil society in a more effective way,” he said.

The advances made by Mexican institutions in the area of global higher education were clearly on display in Monterrey last week, but, as is the case in other sectors, much work remains to be done to guarantee Mexico’s global higher education competitiveness going forward.

Mexico gives scholarships to students in San Diego

 fox5sandiego.com
 by Christian De La Rosa

SAN DIEGO — Tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships were handed out Tuesday in San Diego and it’s not tax-payer money, nor is it private money.

Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto gave out $45,000 in scholarships to 160 students of Mexican descent living in San Diego, who are in tough spot.


Alejandra Garcia was brought to the U.S. illegally by her family when she was a young girl.  When she turned 18 years old, her family decided to go back to Mexico – she stayed behind to finish school.

Garcia’s undocumented status makes scholarship options slim to none, so her share of the scholarship money, about $600, will be put to good use.

“My books for my last semester,” said the Southwestern College sophomore.

The scholarship money will also help some of San Diego’s adult education programs that help people like Francisca Hernandez Nuñez, a 47-year-old mother of four who cleans houses for a living in Vista and recently graduated from the sixth grade.

“I am now learning in English,” Nuñez added.

The scholarship program, IME Becas, has been around for 5 years and has made over $5 million in scholarships available to 34,000 students across the United States.