Students Across Borders Web Site Project

AMOUNT: $14,980 US

PROJECT LEADERS: Garry J. Forger and Aldo Joes Juarez de Haro

INSTITUTIONS: The University of Arizona and Universidad de la Sierra

The University of Arizona's Department of Geosciences received $30,000 from Exxon-Mobil to support a summer workshop for Hispanic high school students. The teachers at the University of Arizona, the faculty and high school teachers from Tucson, Yuma, and northern Sonora, Mexico have established the "Students Across Borders" Program to guide Hispanic high school students across international, cultural, and financial barriers that often separate them from success in higher education. Eight students from southern Arizona and four students from Sonora took part in the inaugural workshop. Key features were: (1) a university dormitory residence to familiarize students with college life; (2) counseling sessions on career planning and the college application process; and, (3) field trips to demonstrate how observations and experiments on water quality, vegetation patterns, and geological features can provide insight into the natural history of the Arizona-Sonora Desert spanning the international border.