10
Wednesday, July 25, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Paraguay exchange program promotes sister-state rapport
By Brenda Krebs
Special to the Kansan
Every year 24 Paraguayan students take advantage of an exchange program that enables them to study at KU while paying in-state tuition.
"Those who have gone have been extremely independent and mature."
But during the eight-year existence of the Kansas-Paraguay educational exchange program, only four U.S. students have gone to Paraguay, said Nancy Chaison, secretary at the Center for Latin American Studies.
Mark McMeyle, adviser at the Office of Study Abroad, said he did not encourage students to study in Paraguay unless they had a strong background in Spanish, special interest in the southern nations of Latin America and previous experience traveling and studying abroad particularly in a Third World country.
McMeley offered a general warning to U.S. students considering study in Paraguay: "From day one, you are going to have to do a lot of leg work."
Because the Office of Study Abroad does not have a program coordinator in Paraguay, the exchange student would not have help finding housing, figuring out where and when classes are offered, and explaining his exchange-student status to Paraguayan faculty members.
McMeyle said the Office of Study Abroad had offered a well-structured program in Costa Rica for the past 32 years that diverted interest from the Paraguav program.
"Not many people take the time to study Paraguayan issues even though Paraguay and Kansas are sister states," he said.
A sister-state relationship linking Kansas and Paraguay was established in 1988 under the Partners of the Americas program.
Partners of the Americas is a network of partnerships that links 27 Latin American and Caribbean nations with 45 U.S. states.
Jorge "Tuga" Ramirez, a Paraguayan student who came to the University of Kansas two years ago through the program, said that an imbalance unfortunately existed in the Kansas-Paraguay partnership.
"No true exchange occurs because no Americans go to Paraguay," he said.
Ramirez said the organization's weakest aspects were its failure to promote the program among U.S. students and to give them the incentive to venture to Paraguay.
Ramirez said that despite the problems he had no complaints because the organization existed solely through volunteer efforts.
Besides the difficulty the program has had enticing U.S. students to study in Paraguay, Ramirez said another flaw was the limited contact Paraguayan students had with their U.S. peers.
He said many Paraguayan students were enrolled in classes at the Applied English Center where they study, but fewer than bifurcated from the United States.
"I have little contact with American students, just the teachers," he said.
However, another Kansas-Paraguay exchange student, Mirtha Palacies, voiced no similar complaints.
She lives in Hashinger Hall, where she said she found making U.S. friends easy because of the residence hall's common mealtimes and contacts she made through her roommate, a U.S. citizen.
Because of the initial language barrier and because Kansas-Paraguay Partners has no full-time KU campus coordinator to help students acclimate to U.S. life, a group of Paraguayan students last year formed their own organization.
The group is called "Paraguay Roga" roga means "home" in Paraguay's second official language, Spanish is the other official language.
The group was formed to help new arrivals adjust to life at KU and to provide social activities for students.
The group provides services such as transportation from the airport, personal advice on how to survive at KU, help on registration day, information on how to open a bank account and parties that celebrate Paraguayan holidays and ward off homeschickness.
"If a group of U.S. students were in Paraguay, it would be easier," Ramirez said.
FRESHMEN...
LIVE WHERE YOU'VE GOT IT MAID.
Make a clean getaway from messy apartment living with a residence hall that will let you sweep your worries away. We've got free weekly maid service, just one of our many features that leave apartments in the dust.
Now, you can get all of the advantages of living in a residence hall with the freedom and privacy of an off-campus lifestyle. Plus, there are added benefits—like a fitness center, great social activities and our fantastic "Dine Anytime" program.
Call today for more information.
6