Pierce College Studies Program With Mexico

Pierce College officials are considering adding a student exchange program with Mexico’s national professional trade college system.

Pierce officials said the details have not been finalized for the new program--tentatively planned for implementation by spring--but would likely mirror that of another established in the United States by the Colegio Nacional de Educacion Profesional Tecnica system.

The CONALEP system institution sends about 20 students a year to a college in Missouri to study English and meet with professionals from their chosen fields. Admission to the program is awarded upon exemplary completion of the system’s two-year vocational program.

“The objective of the exchange is to bring the standards of the same industries in their country to the levels we have here,” said Carmelita Thomas, Pierce’s vice president of academic affairs.

College President E. Bing Inocencio met recently with Carlos Fernando Lopez Leal, general coordinator of international business affairs for the CONALEP, and with Gabriela Wartenweiler, director of international relations, to discuss the program.

“The students would stay with us for four weeks,” Thomas said. “They will be learning a little bit of English and about the American culture.

“And we would provide for them the opportunity to come in contact with professionals.”

Pierce students would have the opportunity to study at Mexican colleges for a full semester as well.

Thomas and her staff are looking into what course offerings the 260 campuses have to offer to determine which schools and majors would be considered for the program.

“We hope it will be a complement of both language and technical application,” Thomas said.