I wrote a column back in April posing a question: Why don’t more students from the U.S. and Canada choose to study abroad in Mexico?
Given the close connections between these countries, the increasing business opportunities and the huge Mexican population living north of the border, it seems only logical that more students would want to study in Mexico.
Of course, there are some obvious obstacles that get in the way of more exchange programs — as pointed out by some readers.
But I was delighted when, shortly after the article was published, I received an email from a professor at the University of Oregon who was about to take a group of journalism students to Querétaro for a summer abroad program.
The professor asked if I would spend some time with the class talking about journalism in Mexico, which I was more than happy to do.
After our time together, we decided to have our lead editors at Mexico News Daily select and publish the top two articles written by the journalism students during their studies in Querétaro.
Keep an eye out this coming week for the two best student stories here on MND.
Below you will find a short summary of the project from Professor Peter Laufer, the James Wallace Chair Professor of Journalism at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication:
“Why don’t more students study abroad in Mexico?” asked Travis Bembenek in a Mexico News Daily op-ed.
I read the piece as I was packing for a summer in Querétaro with twelve outstanding University of Oregon journalism students. My faculty colleagues were taking students out of their U.S. cocoons too, but to more usual locales along what I tend to dismiss as the London-Paris-Rome axis. Nothing wrong with Europe, but fighting mobs of tourists — too many in Bermuda shorts yelling in American-accented English — holds little allure for me.
Mexico, especially for journalism students, makes perfect sense. As Bembenek argues, it’s our neighbor and its people our cousins. Let’s get to know each other.
Yet faculty colleagues, plenty of students, and — understandably — parents howled the usual litany of concerns. Cartels! Corruption! Migration! Not to negate the importance of those stories (and that reality), but we weren’t heading south to report on what a reporter friend of mine calls “the dismal details of the daily downer.” The idea was to mix with the locals and find out how some average Josés live their lives.
Querétaro is ideal for the assignment. There are plenty of tourists, but most are locals (the gringos are just up the road in San Miguel!). The city bustles with business and social successes as it revels in the crucial role it played in New World liberation from Europe.
I’m pleased to introduce MND readers to a handful of student work examples. We invite you to stroll the Querétaro streets with us — meet a cobbler working against throwaway culture, or hear an argument in favor of raising fighting cocks versus chickens destined for tacos.
We at MND are proud to support and encourage future journalists, and we hope you enjoy reading their stories next week.
Travis Bembenek is the CEO of Mexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for over 27 years.
So glad to see this. I know that the Arkansas State campus should be doing the same thing and also the UAQ Aeronautical campus with the others in the USA. With so many foreign investments coming into our area of QRO, it just makes sense to get the students into the area and the same for Mexican students to head up to the USA. Semper!!
¡Gracias for the upcoming splash of our students’ work, Travis! And thank you for the guest lecture. How your experiences as a study abroad student in México led to your life-long love affair with our hermana country was motivating for our students. We look forward to seeing their work in Mexico News Daily. And to seeing you next summer in Querétaro…
Also thrilled to see these students are in Mexico to learn so much more than the daily downer on crime & corruption! Kudos to MDN for reporting on and encouraging this visit!
I am a former teacher in Arizona and a student of Spanish. Spanish has been one of my best tools to connect with students and families. Once I retired, we started a program for elementary school teachers in the Phoenix area to travel to Querétaro to study Spanish for 2 weeks, with a great language school. Our “alumnos” are overwhelmed with the beauty of the Centro Histórico, the kindness of their host famiilies, and the new and improved Spanish they take home. Their feedback is always the same…”I loved it! I can greet my families in their language! It makes a difference!” They especially comment that they had no idea Mexico was so beautiful. Being in the culture makes a huge difference. It’s so much more than just visiting a different country.
My lifelong connection with Mexico of sailing, studying, working and retiring there is a product of studying at the University of the Americas some 50 years ago. Surprisingly one of those “downer” subjects not mentioned by either you or the professor is the occupational hazard of being a journalist in Mexico.
It would be interesting to hear the students views on the frequent murder of investigative journalists working on corruption and criminality
As a native of Oregon, and a resident of Mexico for the last 19 years, I’m so happy that journalism students will be writing in this great on-line paper!
This is such good news. I just read today a lengthy article about Americans polling extremely negative attitudes about Mexico/Mexicans. Approval ratings down in 30%. Mexicans have not experienced this same decline. Of course crime/cartels contribute to negative impressions but this article attributed much of the decline to continuous political coverage of the “border” problems. Mexicans also expressed distress over border. Perhaps because it is their land that is the pathway of millions seeking a better life. But I doubt they are constantly bombarded by the false claim that these people are the dregs of society- recent releases from prisons or mental institutions. Vermin that will poison American blood – carrying disease and drugs. All proven false. Of course no mention is made of the incredible shipments of arms that come south – 7000 USA gun stores within spitting distance of border, money hauled south in 18 wheelers and drugs and people hauled north in similar fashion. That woman carrying a baby with a toddler , who crossed the Darian gap on foot, is not a Fentanyl dealer. Of course the immigration situation is a mess. Needs much better processes by both Mexico & America.
But with dictators like Madero stealing elections & cartels extorting & terrorizing people, and corruption on both sides – people just trying to survive will continue to come. If every cartel member died today – within a week- the flow of drugs would continue as long as user demand continued— not just USA – but worldwide demand increases continuously. And as far as personal safety goes- In my 25 years here I have never been knowingly in contact with Cartel members. But in the USA – you really always know that there is a minimal but real danger when you enter a big store or a school. USA has lost many Foreign students because of those fears. Just so sad to scapegoat Mexico for political gain. America could certainly live in a much worse neighborhood.
Both Mexicans & Americans really deserve better governance than we have had.
Carol
Thanks, Carol, for calling out some “leaders” for their nasty smears on people we know and love from our many years of positive exposure to Mexicans, Mexico and the Mexican culture. Of course there are some nasty cartel people happy to make millions supplying the many Americans who seem unable to live successfully in the U.S. without drugs, and there are some nasty gun dealers on the U.S. side who are ruthlessly supplying the cartels with all they need to slaughter their compatriots and innocent Mexicans who get in their way. As long as they’re making millions, both sides are happy to keep up the slaughter, which in part causes desperate people to head pa’ el Norte. As to the U.S., let’s hope the politics of hatred, division and negativity are rejected soon, although I’m not optimistic on that count.