VOA常速英语:Education Partnerships with Latin America

The U.S. Department of State, Partners of the Americas, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators announced this month the latest 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund grant winners, again fueling strategic partnerships among higher education institutions in the Western Hemisphere.

Sponsored by MetLife Foundation, an independent grant-awarding and charitable foundation of the MetLife insurance corporation, these 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund grants will facilitate eight new higher education partnerships between the United States and Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia. These grants will provide new exchange and training opportunities, with an emphasis on students who traditionally lack access to or are underrepresented in international exchange programs.

“We are proud to strengthen the partnership between higher education institutions across the Americas and to enhance the development of the students these institutions are preparing for leadership in the workforce and communities,” said Dennis White, President and CEO of MetLife Foundation.

“100,000 Strong in the Americas” fosters region-wide prosperity through greater international exchange of students, who are our future leaders and innovators. As Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Francisco Palmieri emphasized recently, “Working together, we have stimulated innovative and sustainable higher-education partnerships that help U.S. students study abroad in Latin America and the Caribbean. And we welcome students from Latin America and the Caribbean to the United States....The result: better-trained students who can more successfully compete in today's job market, and better-equipped universities that can train the workforce of tomorrow.”

The 19 new grant winning institutions will provide ground-breaking exchange programs that will allow students to work in teams, gain technical skills, and become more competent for the global workforce. The Innovation Fund grants are $25,000 each, and grant-winning teams contribute additional resources to leverage and implement sustainable short-term study abroad programs in the Western Hemisphere.More than 1,700 higher education institutions are part of the Innovation Fund's network. To learn more, please visit www.100kstrongamericas.org.

The United States is proud to work with its regional partners and the private sector to foster education exchanges and stronger people to people ties among all Western Hemisphere nations.