Mexican Students Reflect on Four Weeks of Learning and Friendship as "Proyecta 100,000" @ Mercer" Concludes

Mexican Students Reflect on Four Weeks of Learning and Friendship as “Proyecta 100,000” @ Mercer” Concludes
When 26 students arrived from Mexico at Newark Airport on July 19, they were mostly seeking to improve their English language skills to assist them in careers as professors, psychologists, engineers and more. Ask the Mercer County Community College (MCCC) professors who taught them over the next four weeks and all will agree that the students made significant strides in speaking and understanding the English language.
But the group got other equally important gifts: an appreciation of American history and culture, and strong new friendships with their classmates and the MCCC staff.
It was all part of “Proyecta 100,000 @ MCCC,” a program established to increase academic mobility between Mexico and the United States. The students ranged in age from 20 to 64; some are pursuing graduate and doctoral degrees.
“We began an adventure expecting the unexpected in a country we didn’t know except through the movies,” said Cecilia Mendez, who hails from Durango, Mexico, and is a Professor of Business at the Technical Institute there. “This experience was a first time for many life-changing things. It has changed the way we see today and the way we envision the future. It will affect the way we teach and the way we encounter other cultures.” Mendez was among numerous speakers who reflected on their Proyecta @ Mercer experience during an awards ceremony on Aug. 14, the group’s final day on campus.
According to MCCC Associate Professor of Business Andrea Lynch, co-coordinator of the Proyecta @ Mercer program, planning for the summer immersion program began in earnest in April, when MCCC learned that its Proyecta 100,000 proposal had received funding as part of the National Training Program for Students and Teachers SEP-SRE Proyecta 100,000. Mercer was one of only a handful of community colleges to receive funding.
The Mexican students spent the bulk of their days in the classroom and the bulk of their evenings studying. Their four weeks of intensive academic coursework, taught fully in English, added up to a full semester that earned them 12 college credits, with courses including English, Computer Concepts with Applications, Speech and Human Communication, and Concepts of Health and Fitness.
On the weekends, the students and their guide, Georgette Shaymer, toured major cultural and historic sites in Trenton, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Local trips included Grounds for Sculpture, a Trenton Thunder baseball game, Camden Aquarium and Princeton University.
Among the speakers at the awards ceremony was MCCC President Jianping Wang. “We think you are great,” she said to the students, having met many of them during a scavenger hunt on campus that required a photo with the president. “You will always have friends here. We hope you will be ambassadors for our people and our country,” she said.
Larry Nespoli, who traveled to Mexico with Gov. Chris Christie in the fall of 2014, noted that Proyecta 100,000 was an opportunity for New Jersey to establish a relationship with Mexico. “Mercer made it happen,” he said, giving special credit to project coordinator Andrea Lynch and Vice President for Academic Affairs Eun-Woo Chang.
Brian Murray, the Governor’s spokesperson added, “The MCCC program is exactly the kind of partnership we envisioned. It is an opportunity for graduate students and educators from Mexican public higher education institutions to come to the U.S. to pursue an academic program.”