Summer 2023 Program in Mexico Offers Students Professional Placements and Spanish Immersion

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U of A students on the cyclo-path in Puebla, Mexico

The Summer 2023 U of A faculty-led study abroad program in Puebla, Mexico, offers six popular class options. Students select one from among five different service-learning programs, which include 72 hours in a professional service-learning placement in either healthcare, business, education, engineering or community service; or alternatively, students can follow a more traditional classroom program in Spanish and Mexican culture at the advanced or intermediate level.

All students completing the program receive six hours of Spanish credit at the 2000, 3000 or 4000 level, which counts towards a major or minor in Spanish (and/or Latin American and Latino Studies) or also as elective credit.

Information sessions for the program will be conducted at 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 12-13, in Kimpel Hall 416 (a Zoom link for remote attendance is also available). Interested students are invited to drop in for a brief presentation and slide show, with ample opportunity for questions. Students who have already applied can also attend one of the sessions for further information on the program.

Comments from recent Puebla program student participants included many such as the following: 

"This experience was an eye-opener that despite what the United States says about Mexico, Mexico is just a normal place with families and students who live their lives. Not only is it a great academic and cultural experience, it's also a great way to humble yourself and appreciate other places outside your home state."

"This program makes you better at Spanish without even realizing. It is valuable for all levels of Spanish, and you even get the benefit of professional placement so that you have some job experience and know better how Spanish language and Mexican culture play a part in that."

"It's a great program with a wonderful balance of instruction time, internship experience and travel adventures. The host family living situation will also rapidly help improve your Spanish."

"I have become a lot more confident in myself and in my abilities. My attitude about the host country changed because they were so welcoming, and the people there were happier and kinder than I would have expected. It made me wish people in the U.S. were more like that."

The program in Puebla, which runs from May 28 to July 2, 2023, is hosted at the ultra-modern campus of the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) and offers students a true immersion experience. Puebla, a major metropolitan area, is centrally located in the heart of Mexico, between Mexico City and the Caribbean coast, in the shadows of the snow-capped Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanos. It is well-known as one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico as well as one of the safest.

The program fee includes tuition, full room and board, local tours with UPAEP students to sites of historical and cultural significance plus three overnight weekend excursions to Mexico City and the pyramids at Teotihuacan, to Oaxaca and to Cuetzalan, one of Mexico's "pueblos mágicos" with enduring Spanish colonial and Indigenous traditions.

For further information, or for a Zoom link to join one of the sessions, please contact program leaders Steven Bell at sbell@uark.edu and Juan José Bustamante at jjbustam@uark.edu, and visit the Department of World Languages and the Office of Study Abroad websites.