Franklin College Students and Mexican Teachers in Los Arcos de San Francisco Program Directors: Marcela Ruiz, Sara Colburn-Alsop, Dan Alsop, Guty Cardenas

FC Student Group at Presa el Chiflon in la Manzanilla, Jalisco

In January of 2009, eleven Franklin College students and two Franklin College Professors, Dr. Sara Colburn-Alsop and Dr. Dan Alsop, headed to Guadalajara, Mexico for a three-week, cultural and language immersion program. All students increased their language proficiency in Spanish and expanded their knowledge of the Mexican culture by living with a carefully chosen host family. Additionally, each day, students were paired up with a different teacher who, using the city of Guadalajara as the classroom, guided the students’ learning about the city’s people, culture, history, and language.  The rotation of teachers and guided tours exposed the students to a wide variety of accents, personalities, and aspects of Mexican culture.  In addition to the five hours of daily one-on-one oral/aural practice with teachers, the group had workshops in ceramics, painting, singing, and dancing. The fruit of their artistic efforts culminated in a final fiesta and celebration of all their new-found learning.

La familia Gutierrez Gonzalez con Megan Mattingly y Elizabeth Kuka	La familia Barbosa Chavez con Amy Gibson y Katie VanBuskirk
La familia Valdivia Llanes con Breanna Camacho y Summer French	La familia Portillo Nunez con Adam Scharff y Joe Hall
La familia Perez Chavez con Brittany Beyer, Amanda Wray y Erin Dieckmann	La familia Aldana Guzman con Dan y Sara Alsop

I would be happy to answer any questions or address comments you might have with respect to the program or the website.  I can be reached at scolburnalsop@franklincollege.edu . Interested individuals can also take a look at the individual student links below and/or the links to the program Syllabus, and the program Itinerary .