Latin American Studies & Foreign Language Program
Universidad del Bio Bio, Concepcion, ChileOn January 6th, 2009 the Provost and VP for Academic Affairs at Universidad del Bio Bio was contacted to explore the possibility to offer a Virtual School via TTVN with his institution. He immediately endorsed the idea. In turn he asked his deans to identify and contact faculty members who could be interested in this project. Those interested and selected were later contacted via email and over the phone. An initial communication took place separately with each one of them to discuss about the purpose of the Virtual School, set tentative dates, and arrange other technical logistics for the day and time after they would come back to begin their academic year. A Virtual School Form was sent to Provost and VP for Academic Affairs. Professor Leslie Valenzuela, an International Marketing faculty, become my counterpart to discuss business and economic issues with students from both sides. These topics ranged from: i) the impact of the US recession on small developing economies like Chile, ii) tradeable goods and services that are and will be most affected, iii) Industries, corporations, and firms that will suffer the most, iv) policies to counteract the economic crises both in Chile and the US, to v) forecasting its end. The TTVN event took place on Thursday, April 30th. Prof. Valenzuela did an outstanding job and should be highly commended for her effort, patience, and time to participate with her class in this pilot Virtual School experience with TAMIU. The feedback I got from my Regional Economic Integration students was phenomenal. They really enjoyed the dialogue and the different viewpoints being exchanged with the Universidad del Bio Bio students. I certainly look forward to maintain having this type of enriching interaction in the future with this and other schools. |