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.