International students are living and learning at Cal State Long Beach this summer. Among them are seven female undergraduates from three Mexican universities.
They are part of a research program run by the department of Chicano and Latino studies. This Friday from 10 a.m. to noon, a closing presentation in the Karl Anatol Center will take place where they will be recognized for their work and share their impressions of the six weeks they spent living here.
The California-Mexico Project (CMP), headed by CSULB Chicano and Latino studies professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos, and Mexico’s National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions (ANUIES) arranged the study abroad program. Dr. Ana Uribe of Mexico’s University of Colima directed the program and its research component.
The seven women, who range in age from 20 to 23, come from the Autonomous University of Nayarit, the University of Colima and the University of Guadalajara. Four are communications majors, two are psychology majors and one is a political science major.
In addition to attending classes on Latin American immigration to the United States since World War II and contemporary California politics, the students conducted focus group discussions and interviews with local students who have either emigrated from Mexico’s West-Central region themselves or whose parents have emigrated from there. This includes the states of Nayarit, Colima, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Michoacan and Guanajuato.
The students said they were impressed by the university’s physical design and appearance, the strong emphasis on education here in the United States, and the academic caliber and dedication of CSULB students.
“Without a doubt, they are very committed to their studies,” said Yaneli Aguayo, a senior political science major at the Autonomous University of Nayarit.
“Education is very expensive,” she said. “Therefore, it is logical that students come here to learn and acquire knowledge. They are very privileged to be students at a university in the United States. Not everybody has that right or the economic resources to come and study here.”
For some it was not their first time in the United States. The students said they enjoyed their time here as student researchers. In their free time they went to the beach and Hollywood, among other places.
They saw the good and the bad circumstances that Mexican and Mexican-American college students in California face. while observing the discipline and high standards of American-style higher education in action. They said they learned about what it is like to work full time and attend college at the same time, which is quite common here but rare for Mexican college students. They also investigated the difficulties that undocumented students face when seeking employment after they obtain a college degree.
As part of her work, Laura Mejia, a communications student at the University of Colima conducted roughly 20 hours of filming for a documentary project about the issues she studied here. One event that really made an impression on her was when she interviewed people, some of them her age, who were working in vineyards outside of Bakersfield to earn money to support their families.
“They were working eight hours a day. The sun was intense. The weather was deadly. These were extreme conditions,” Mejia said. “You had to drink water every five or ten minutes, otherwise you would dehydrate. I, with my camera, could move from one place to another. I could go in the shade and sit down. They could not stop; they had to keep working the whole time. You realize that life is not that easy.”
The students lived in the Residence Commons on campus. For all but one, their study abroad trip was fully funded. They all said the trip was a great way to grow not only as scholars, but it also allowed an excellent chance for personal growth. This summer’s trip, they said, is one of those good memories they will always remember.
The closing ceremony is this Friday Aug. 7 at the Karl Anatol Center in the Academic Services building, also known as the East Library, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The public is invited to stay for lunch from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
This article was updated at 10:20 on Thursday, August 6, 2009.