 |
| Secretary of State Rice and Chile's Foreign Minister Alejandro Rioseco signed an agreement on education earlier this month. J. Scott Applewhite/AP |
US woos top Latin American students
US universities are 'open for business,' said US education secretary Margaret Spellings as she announced new student exchange initiatives this week.
from the August 24, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 2
Page 1 | 2
"Our focus on young people and on themes such as science and technology means that we are looking to the future. We already have good bilateral relations, and we are trying to ensure them for the future."
According to US embassy figures, the number of shorter-term J1 student visas (for exchange visitors participating in a program approved by the State Department) issued to Chileans has risen in recent years. However, only 1,000 longer-term F1 student visas were issued in 2006, as compared to 1,286 in 2001.
Aiming to win hearts and minds
Still, aside from aiming to boost the number of top quality Latin American students at US schools, experts confirm that Washington is aiming to soften its image in the region.
"Since President Bush's March visit to Latin America, there has been a rhetorical shift in US-Latin American relations to focus on social justice as a main US concern," says Shannon O'Neil, a Latin American studies fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
"The Bush administration hopes with its rhetorical shift to improve its relationship with Latin American countries by explicitly recognizing issues that matter to Latin Americans and their leaders," she says. "The importance of issues of poverty, inequality, safety, and economic opportunity were readily apparent in the campaigns of last year's numerous presidential elections [throughout the region]. US rhetoric – if not resources – is catching up with these realities."
Ms. O'Neil also points out that this effort is not very big in scale.
"Few new resources have been committed to programs to fulfill this rhetorical mandate," says O'Neil. "This new program is a case in point ... the US commitment is 100 more potential visas for pre-selected Chilean students."
Chilean students are excited
In spite of the Bush administration's low popularity in the region, Chilean students view this initiative as a harbinger of change.
"Today, the majority of the people who study abroad have already studied at private schools and come from a well-off socioeconomic background. Chileans who have gotten their advanced degrees abroad have done so because they had studied English intensively since elementary school," says Hector Madrid, who is interested in pursuing an advanced degree in psychology in the US.
Katherine Caceres, a student of political science at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, says the new US program will help break down the language barrier.
"I think that these scholarships are a good idea for the main reason that they open doors for more students who would have not been able to study in the [US]," says Ms. Caceres. "They generate greater opportunities for people to develop their skills.
"In the past, many Chilean students have not had access to an education in the US because of the language. English is a big issue for students such as myself."
For some students, the ramifications of such scholarships would go beyond academics.
"These types of programs will certainly generate a more positive image of the United States among Chileans," says Hector Carbacho, who hopes to one day earn a PhD in Social Psychology in the US. "Many people already know the [US] to be one of the richest and most powerful nations in the world. It would be good to see that country helping developing countries."
1 | Page 2
RSS feed
