49 undergrads from Colombian university to learn at Purdue for 6 months
June 11, 2015
Forty-nine top undergraduate students from Universidad Nacional de Colombia are coming to Purdue for six months of learning from research to help them gain experience for their work back home.
They will be at Purdue from June 15 to Dec. 15, working with faculty from nearly 30 departments in eight colleges -- Agriculture, Education, Engineering, Pharmacy, Health and Human Sciences, Liberal Arts, Science and Veterinary Medicine -- as well as the Purdue Polytechnic Institute and the Krannert School of Management and the School of Nursing.
Their work will be in diverse areas such as earthquakes, plate tectonics, biological control, plant sciences, food science and agroforestry economics. In addition, a student is working with a graphic designer in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute in creating an interactive sculpture for downtown Lafayette.
Forty-nine International Friendship families from Greater Lafayette have been matched with the students so that they will learn about U.S. culture and will share occasions that provide insight into how families in the community live.
Students selected for this program are among the top 10 percent of the students from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the country's top public university.
Their visit is the result of a partnership, started in 2010, between Purdue and the government of Colombia that created the Colombia-Purdue Institute, designed to enhance the scientific and entrepreneurial workforce in the South American nation.
More students come to Purdue from Colombia than from any other country in Latin America, resulting in a strong alumni base and making both countries strategic partners. Colombia also is the only non-Asian country among the 10 nations internationally with the most students enrolled at Purdue.
Writer: Keith Robinson, 765-494-2722, robins89@purdue.edu
Sources: Tamara Benjamin, 765-496-1930, tamara17@purdue.edu
