Posted: 02/07/07

Adios to the Cholula program
St. Michael's decides to cancel their association with the Cholula, Mexico exchange program

Sarah Coghlan | contributing writer
scoghlan@smcvt.edu

After 10 years, St. Michael’s College has decided to end the Universidad De Las Americas (UDLA) Exchange Program in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico due to a persistent lack of student interest.

What Happened?

The program was designed to allow a faculty member to accompany a group of students who desired to study at UDLA. This faculty involvement helped facilitate a smooth transition into a new culture as well as ease parental concerns, Spanish Professor Amanda Amend says. Amend was the last faculty member to participate in the exchange program. Upon return, faculty could use their experiences abroad as tools in the classroom, increasing faculty development, she says.

Professor Amanda Amend has supervised the UDLA program in Mexico for many years. (Sarah Coghlan, photo)

The program was managed well and Amend’s time spent teaching in Mexico was rewarding, she says. The cancellation was only due to student disinterest in the UDLA program over the past few years, she says.

William Wilson, provost/vice president for academic affairs, is sad to cancel the exchange program, but feels it had run its course, he says. A sustainable level of student participation was needed to run it and was not found, he says. Time put into recruiting students to study at UDLA took away from study abroad program time spent otherwise, he says.

“When a school has its own program, a lot of effort is put into maintaining it. With so much time being put into this work, other students were not being served as well, and that is a loss,” Wilson says.

Europe is more desirable

Wilson says Mexico is not the desired location for many students for two reasons. Mexico can be perceived as too much of a risk for those who do not desire an extreme challenge, but also not challenging enough for students who really want to leave their comfort zones, he says.

“It is difficult to define what that ‘challenge’ is,” Wilson says. “You can have a dramatic cross-cultural experience right here in Burlington. When it comes to Mexico, most people just seem to choose other places.”

A view of the campus gardens at the UDLA campus in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. (photo courtesy of Amanda Amend)

Though Wilson did not want to cancel the program, he did not want to push students to go to Mexico over another destination just to keep the UDLA program running, he says.

“Nearly one-third of students at St. Michael’s study abroad, many focusing on modern languages, especially Spanish,” he says. “Overall, Spain has been more attractive. Pushing students to go to Mexico would only be feeding our own self interests.”

Peggy Imai, director of study abroad, says she agrees with Wilson in believing that more students desire European study abroad experiences.

“I believe one reason why students choose not to study abroad in Mexico is because Mexico is close and people think they’ll always have a chance to go there,” she says. “Mexico has also received some bad political press recently, which may lead parents to be reluctant about such a trip.”

Two weeks before Amend left for Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who lost the presidential election, declared himself president anyway, Amend says. She says she felt nervous surrounding this recent political unrest, but it did not turn out to be problematic, she says.

“I had no idea how people would react to this,” she says.” “I had many questions about how the situation would unfold. When I arrived in Mexico however, I was told not to worry about it. This advice was well-founded and Mexicans largely ignored the self proclaimed movement.”

Amend highly recommends the program even though faculty accompaniment will no longer be part of the exchange, she says.

“I think students subscribe to the, ‘I can always go to Mexico’ mentality, but living there is a completely different experience,” Amend says. “Students are able to make connections that give them roots.”

Other options

For students who wish to study abroad in Mexico, UDLA is still an option, if students apply through a larger program like Academic Programs International (API), Imai says.

“St. Michae'ls has chosen to work with API so that students can continue to enjoy the UDLA experience. Through API, students have an academic director on site who helps students with orientation, enrollment, living arrangements and excursions,” she says. “From a safety point of view, these are all good things. Having an academic director from the region is helpful for students.”

Because students are still able to study at UDLA, it is really the faculty and college that suffer the greatest losses with the cancellation of the exchange program, Wilson says.

“We are going to face the loss of sending professors out of our country and bringing back a wealth of knowledge,” he says. “We will also lose the exchange program aspect of the trip, Mexican students coming to study at St. Michael’s.”

Student sentiments

Sophomore Julia Berberan, one of four St. Michael's students to study at UDLA this past fall, says she is saddened by the lack of interest and the cancellation of the program. Berberan says she enjoyed studying and living in Mexico for a semester and found the campus stunning.

“The UDLA campus was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” she says. “There were peacocks roaming around, tropical flower gardens and meditation gardens where I would sit with music and do nothing but relax.”

Although Berberan is not majoring in Spanish, living with a family and taking classes in Spanish greatly improved her language skills, she says.

“In Mexico I took two Spanish classes, a live drawing class, ceramics and Cholula, the Sacred City," Berberan says. "All of my classes were in Spanish and I was the only non-Mexican in my art class,” she says.

Although what initially interested Berberan in the program was the ability to go as a sophomore, going with Amend was extremely helpful, she says.

“I think that having [Amend] there gave it more of a homey feeling because I felt like she was my Mexican mom,” she says. “We met with her once a week and she and her husband also came to my Cholula class.”

Sophomore Julia Berberan was one of the last students to participate in the UDLA program with Professor Amend this past fall. (Sarah Goghlan, photo)

Having Amend on the trip also eased Berberan’s mother’s worries, she says.

“Going with Amanda was great because we didn’t have to go through a program which made things easier and it really made my mom feel a lot better,” Berberan says. “She called my house one time to check on arrangements for the trip and ended up leaving a message. My mom was so touched and was just like ‘aw, she seems like such a nice lady.’”

Unlike many other students, Berberan knew that she wanted to study in Latin America rather than Europe , she says.

“I know the Spanish in Latin America is much different from that in Spain and I figured since we live so close, it would be good to learn that type of Spanish,” she says. “I think a lot of people choose not to study abroad in Mexico because it has a lot of bad connotations, but really it’s a lot more kind hearted than Massachusetts where I am from.”

Although the faculty exchange opportunity is no longer an option, Berberan hopes that other students look into studying at UDLA and hopes to return again herself, she says.

“As soon as I have more than six dollars to my name, I’ll be there,” she says.