Saint Martin’s recent sister-university agreement to foster
new relationship with Brazil
November 16, 2012
LACEY, WASHINGTON — Saint Martin’s University soon may host its
first Brazilian students and help supply educational opportunities
abroad sought by that nation’s leaders to stem a shortage of skilled
workers.
On Nov. 14, Prof. Carlos Henrique Figueiredo Alves, general
director of Centro Federal de Educacao Tecnologica Celso Suckow da
Fonseca (known as CEFET), traveled to Saint Martin’s to sign a
sister-university agreement with University President Roy F.
Heynderickx, Ph.D. The agreement paves the way for academic and
cultural exchange between Saint Martin’s and the respected Brazilian
technological institute.
The ceremony is the first fruit from Saint Martin’s participation in
the U.S. Department of Commerce’s education services trade mission
to Brazil earlier this fall. Sixty-six colleges and universities
sent representatives on the mission, which took part in student
education fairs in Brasilia, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.
Saint Martin’s interim Office of International Programs and
Development Director Marco Tulluck was the sole representative on
the trade mission from Washington state’s higher education
community. He took the opportunity while there to meet with Prof.
Alves, as well as several other Brazilian officials.
“Bringing Brazilian students to Saint Martin’s will add valuable
diversity to our community and aid in creating a culture of ‘global
citizenry’ on our campus,” Tulluck said. “Ninety percent of the
University’s international students come from countries in Asia,
namely China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Currently, Saint Martin’s
doesn’t have any international students from Brazil or from any
countries in South America.”
It also furthers Saint Martin’s efforts to encourage hospitality
and to develop in each student an appreciation and respect of other
cultures, in keeping with the University’s Benedictine traditions,
he said.
The trade mission dovetails with Brazilian efforts to expand the
number of its students studying abroad through its “Science Without
Borders” education initiative. Initiated by Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff, the program seeks to send 100,000 of the nation’s
students abroad for education to help fill a significant shortage of
skilled Brazilian workers in the sciences, math and technology.
An Aug. 28 media advisory from the commerce department notes that
Brazil is expected to become the world’s fifth largest economy and
an increasingly important trade partner in coming years.
Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year,
coeducational university located on a 380-acre wooded campus in
Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of
Saint Benedict, the University is one of 14 Benedictine colleges and
universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west
of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students
for successful lives through its 23 majors and seven graduate
programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education, nursing and
engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes more than 1,100 undergraduate
students and 375 graduate students from many ethnic and religious
backgrounds to its main campus, and 300 more undergraduate students
to its extension campuses located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and
Centralia College. Visit the Saint Martin’s University website at
www.stmartin.edu.
For additional information:
Marco Tulluck
Interim Director of International Programs and Development
Saint Martin's University
360-438-4597;
mtulluck@stmartin.edu
Sarah Holdener
Director of Community Relations and event management
Office of Marketing and Communications
Saint Martin’s University
360-412-6140;
sholdener@stmartin.edu