International students travel from Mexico to learn English at UB

BUFFALO, N.Y.—The University at Buffalo’s English Language Institute (ELI) welcomes 13 students from universities in the Mexican state of Puebla this summer to take part in its six-week, Summer II Intensive English Program.

The students will arrive in Buffalo on June 29, and will join the program’s 75 other international students, mostly from Asia. They will spend 25 hours per week on UB’s North Campus taking three intensive English courses: reading and listening, grammar and speaking, and writing.

“It means a lot to us that SUNY was approached by the State of Puebla to participate in this program,” says Kathleen Curtis, associate director of ELI, a program that has taught English as a second language to international students, scholars and professionals since 1971. “Having students from Asia and Mexico come together to study English in Buffalo gives us an opportunity to diversify our program.”

The Mexican students will study at UB under a new SUNY-Puebla Intensive English Program (IEP), which was created through a partnership among SUNY, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico and the State of Puebla. The program hopes to deepen the university’s engagement with Puebla, and to bring enhanced global opportunities to Puebla students.

The SUNY-Puebla partnership will bring 28 English professors and 25 students from 26 of Puebla’s public technical universities to participate in simultaneous summer English instruction programs offered on four SUNY campuses: University at Albany, University at Buffalo, SUNY New Paltz and Stony Brook University.

This new partnership is one of the first efforts in Mexico to take place under President Obama’s “100,000 Strong in the America” education initiative, which aims to increase the number of cultural and educational exchanges from the U.S. to Latin America and the Caribbean, and vice versa.

This marks the first time many of the students are leaving Mexico, and for some, their first journey outside of Puebla. To make the most of their experience in Buffalo, the Mexican students will dorm in Clement Hall on UB’s South Campus, a prime spot to ride the NFTA metro rail and explore the city. ELI will also lead weekend outings to the Walden Galleria Mall, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Taste of Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

Participation in the Intensive English Program does not offer credit, but the skills the students gain will be invaluable for their careers.