Purchase is pleased to announce the beginning of a new student exchange program linking Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Purchase College, and the Latino immigrant community in Westchester County.   Focused on community service and field research, this exchange is a path-breaking experiment at the undergraduate level; one that brings together two universities and the societies they serve, addressing some crucial social issues of the times.

Students at Universidad Iberoamericana are required to fulfill a significant community service obligation.   In the past they have done so within Mexico. Now, for the first time, a small number will complete that requirement outside of their country, taking courses at Purchase and working as interns with not-for-profit organizations and the county government in Westchester. This year, four students from Iberoamericana, are fulfilling their internship at the Hispanic Resource Center in Mamaroneck, Neighbors Link in Mt. Kisco, the Westchester Hispanic Coalition in White Plains and the county Hispanic Affairs Office.

This fall the first contingent of Purchase College students will be traveling to Mexico to undertake field research on their senior theses under the guidance of faculty at Ibero. The thesis has long been the culminating requirement of the Purchase educational experience.   Now we are adding a new dimension by offering a small number of students in the social sciences the unique opportunity to undertake original research abroad.

We believe the program opens up unique opportunities, not only for the students, but for the faculty, to do collaborative research on issues that link our countries.