Southeast Missouri State University student publication

Vargas travels to Costa Rica, Panama

Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Dr. Vargas and a number of faculty members vistied Costa Rica (red) and Panama (orange) to connect with alumni in the area. Map from Lesson Planet

Over the summer, Southeast Missouri State University's president Dr. Carlos Vargas and a number of faculty members visited Panama and Costa Rica.

According to Vargas, there are approximately 30 Southeast alumni living in Panama, but relationships in the past between these alumni and the university were weak.

"In the recent past, there's been little communication between the university and alumni in Panama," Vargas said. "We're trying to encourage students from Panama to come here, so the division for advancement suggested we make a trip to Panama to establish, or at least strengthen, our relationship with alumni there."

Vargas added that by rebuilding relationships with alumni in Latin America, the university could increase opportunities for students to study abroad. By partnering with universities in Panama, students will be able travel to the country for research and other opportunities.

"We are in the process of establishing something that will allow an exchange of students back and forth," Vargas said. "Also, we talked with them about having them help us recruit some students to have them come study here at the university from Panama."

Vargas said conversations have been had with Universidad Cat--lica Santa Mar'a La Antigua (St. Mary the Old Catholic University) in Panama City to extend a previously held agreement between the universities. During the visit, a letter of intent was signed to agree to develop another agreement of collaboration. Vargas hopes by further partnering with the university, Southeast students in education and health studies will be offered more opportunities to study in Latin America. The university currently has a partnership with a school in Chile that allows education students to student-teach in the country, but because of the distance between Missouri and Chile, the program can be costly to students. Vargas said allowing students an opportunity to study in a closer country, the price would be lower.

After visiting Panama, Vargas went to Costa Rica, a country he said has very few Southeast alumni and currently offers few opportunities for students.

Vargas visited the Universidad Ibero Americana (UNIBE), a university that is strong in health science studies and is beginning to form an educational studies program. Vargas said faculty from UNIBE will visit Southeast in the coming weeks to discuss the opportunities available for Southeast students to study in Costa Rica and for UNIBE students to study at Southeast.

"I had been [to Costa Rica] a few years ago before I came to Southeast Missouri, and I had come in contact with a university there that is very strong in the area of health sciences," Vargas said. "When we were there we were able to to visit their facilities and we actually felt there was some opportunities there."

UNIBE's faculty will meet with the faculty who are part of the Intensive English Program at Southeast, which allows students to attend the university and learn English.

"We're exploring different ways, as we continue we might find other areas that surface, to work with them on," Vargas said.

Vargas said the trip to Central America was made in order to connect with alumni and encourage students from Latin America to come to Southeast. Vargas said Latin America is an untapped market for Southeast that offers opportunities to Southeast students, such as internships and studying of the Spanish language, a skill Vargas said is important today as the number of Spanish speakers in the United States is continuing to increase.

"I think opening these opportunities is very important," Vargas said. "One advantage there is that they speak Spanish and in the U.S. right now, Spanish is becoming such a useful tool for students to have in their professional life. So, if we open up opportunities for internships or reciprocal visits, they provide opportunities for our students to improve their mastery of Spanish, which of course helps them here with job opportunities."

Vargas said students from Central America will have many benefits to Southeast, including adding culture to the university campus as well as giving domestic students the opportunity to learn about other cultures and lifestyles.

"International students really enrich the study body and environment of the university," Vargas said. "It puts our students in contact with other ways of life. It may not be the same as having our students go on and travel to those other countries, but having the opportunity to meet here students from those countries, you start understanding better how they act, how they think, their culture, their traditions, and that overall, I think in the big scheme of things, that interaction between people of different countries increases the chances of having peace in the world."

Vargas said the university plans to continue to explore opportunities available in other Latin American countries, including Mexico.

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