Arriving with returning Murray State students at the start of the spring semester were five students from Panama who will take classes as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” program.
This newly founded, eight-week program for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds was made possible by the financial support of 87 donors, including Murray State, who contributed a combined $27, 000 to support these students’ English as a Second Language (ESL) training.
Murray State was selected to host the Panamanian students due to its role in establishing and designing the Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” program and because of its close relationship with Quality Leadership University, another of the program’s founders located in Panama.
Luis Canales, director of International Studies, said plans for a exchange program with Panama have been in the works for the past two years.
Representatives from Murray State, including Canales and Don Robertson, vice president of Student Affairs, had several meetings with the U.S. Embassy in Panama and several other supportive, private universities during this time.
Canales said one of Murray State’s primary interests in this project was to facilitate heavier recruitment from South America, an area relatively untapped by Murray State’s internationally recruiting. Canales said diversifying the University’s international recruitment would be beneficial in several ways to the University and its students.
“We have a lot of students from Asia: China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India, but Murray State has very little recruitment in Latin America,” he said. “What if there was an economic or health issue in Asia which prevented students from coming (to Murray State)? Our programs here would suffer significantly.”
Beside benefiting the University, Canales said bringing in students from multiple regions of the world would also expose Murray State students to multiple perspectives and ideas which they might not otherwise encounter.
“We are living in a globalized world and our intent is to compensate our students so they can function in this world.” Canales said. “The conversation you could have in a classroom, for instance, about immigration would be very different if you had only domestic students, but if you have students from other countries the conversation would be much more different and the learning experience would be richer.”
Interim President Tim Miller echoed Canales’ stance on the benefit international students have on domestic murray State students.
“It provides a great experience for all of us,” Miller said. “We all learn from each other and that’s really important: it broadens our horizon.”
The Panamanian students, all senior English majors from the University of Panama were selected to be part of this program based on their academic achievements, English level, commitment to community service and interviews. The program is only available to English majors.
Adrian Sanchez, one of the visiting students, said he wanted to be part of the Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” program because, as English students, being in Murray is a great opportunity to be able to practice English.
Anderson Arauz, another of the Panamanians, said that he is also excited to get in touch with America and Murray culturally by attending basketball games and getting to speak with Murray State students.
“I want to learn,” he said. “I want to learn as much as I can while I stay in Murray and to meet new people.”
Not only will the students be practicing their English speaking and listening skills while in Murray, but they have also agreed to meet with several Spanish classes to present information about their home country and help students practice speaking.
Canales said he hopes to make this a recurring program at Murray State..
Story by Ben Manhanke, Assistant News Editor