press releases 2009

Panamanian Students at Northwest Missouri State University for Cultural Immersion Program

February 10, 2009

Top row, left to right, Marvin Arroyo and Plinio Gutierrez Nunez; middle row, left to right, Luis Sanchez Arrocha, Juan Monterrey Gomez and Florenzio Serrano Castillo; bottom row, left to right, Marjorie Herrera Gutierrez, Aminta Castillo and Carolina Gomez Gonzalez.

An international program involving Northwest, the U.S. State Department and the Republic of Panama is providing eight Panamanian high school students with the opportunity to live on campus for the first two months of the current trimester.  While at Northwest, the students will hone their English skills, audit University classes, prepare for the English-language ACT and participate in field trips and social activities designed to provide knowledge and insight about life in the United States. It is the kind of comprehensive cultural experience  educators often referred to as "immersion." 
 
The students, along with another group of six Panamanian teens at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, are participants in the College Horizons Outreach. Traditionally, the State Department initiative seeks to identify gifted students from low-income families in more than 120 countries and provides them with English instruction and college admissions counseling.  This is the first time Panama has participated in the program, and its approach, under the administrative guidance of Dr. Etilvia Arjona, director of the State Department’s EducationUSA Advising Center in Panama City, is unique.
 
Though the College Horizons Outreach students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, they have all demonstrated high levels of academic achievement, having earned an overall grade-point average of at least 4.2 on a five-point scale. They have also earned high grades in Spanish, mathematics and science courses; demonstrated proficiency in English; and scored exceptionally well on the Spanish-language SATs.