Yucatan Families in Mexico Open their Homes and their Hearts to Host TAMU Aggies for the IRAP-Yucatan Study Abroad Program

Students from Texas A&M University College of Engineering , Texas A&M AgriLife , Mays Business School – Texas A&M University , and Texas A&M University College of Liberal Arts participated in IRAP\’s 2023 Edition, diving into Yucatan\’s research infrastructure, learning about Yucatan\’s regional problems, and discussing with Yucatan\’s students best ways to solve them, after visiting and conducting hands-on #research on more than a dozen institutions of the System of Research, Innovation and Technology Development of the State of Yucatan #SIIDETEY, through 31 of its laboratories, and over 130 staff members supporting the technical visits, in a period of 2 weeks!

#IRAP2023 Yucatecan hosting families were essential for the execution of this program providing our students accommodation, and the opportunity to meet their homes, family, and customs. After the day\’s research visits, workshops, and cultural activities students went \”home\” to their hosting families.

Dr. Zenon Medina-Cetina , Director of the Iniciativa Yucatán and faculty lead of #IRAP2023–#Yucatan said:

\”We are really thankful to families in Yucatan Mexico for opening their homes to our TAMU students. Once again we see how welcoming families from Yucatan are, and see how life-changing this experience is for our students. Learning that they have a new extended family and home in Mexico, goes all in favor of building bridges of understanding and strengthen relations between USA and Mexico in a personal level, and in particular between the states of Texas and Yucatan\”

For which we want to THANK #IRAP2023\’s hosting families, including:

• the Abraham family
• the Solis family
• the Evangelista family
• the Rosas family
• the Medina family
• the Arjona family
• the Vargas family
• the Matos family
• the Oliva family
• the Peniche family
• the Hoyos family
• the Vivas family
• the Cabrera family
• the Manzur family
• the Alfaro family
• the MacGregror family
• the Patron family
• the Quintal family
• the Gongora family, and
• the Ponce family

#IRAP2023-Yucatan would not have been possible without your warmth support to our students!

And we were really pleased to hear from our Yucatan host families, your impressions about our program and about our students::

\”Would like to tell the Faculty that I am unaware of the students selection process but I can assure they are the best, you were not wrong, they are educated, kind, and responsible. We don\’t have any complaints. Congratulations to the lead Faculty, and Texas A&M University, and also to Universidad Marista for giving us this opportunity for our families to grow!\”

\”We had a great time, both the students and us!\”

\”Thank you for this great experience\”

\”It is always a pleasure to receive the study abroad girls and boys. My two girls were awesome, in such a short time they have become special to us. We hope to continue supporting the upcoming study abroad programs, it is a pleasure to share those moments in their lives.\”

\”This guy plans to come back, he was happy here\”

And as students arrived back to their homes in #Texas, they sent back appreciation messages to their host families:

\”We just arrived at the airport … thank you so much for everything ❤️\”

\”I have just arrived to Dallas. Thank you for the past two weeks, and for being so kind to us. We will miss you, and your daughter … Take care … !\”

\”Thank you for hosting us, everything was great. The Yucatecan food. My parents and I may travel to Yucatan in August, my mom wants to visit the Rivera Maya.\”

Dr. Medina-Cetina on behalf of the #IRAP2023–#Yucatan also thanked Universidad Marista de Mérida for facilitating the coordination of the family hosts in Yucatan, and made an announcement, first for the program:

\”On behalf of the #IRAP2023–#Yucatan program, we want to thank a la #Marista for coordinating the family hosts program for our students. In particular to Diana González and Sol Gordillo Mena .

And also want to announce, that for the first time, students from Yucatan will be hosted by families in College Station later in the summer, during their visit to #TAMU for the presentation of their research proposals, addressing solutions to regional problems present in Yucatan and Texas. This will be also an opportunity to show the unique \’southern hospitality\’ from Texans\”.

Thanks to the #TAMU\’s #IRAP2023–#Yucatan\’s Program Coordinators Maria Claudia B. Alves , Senior Director, Engineering Global Programs at Texas A&M – Empowering Global Connections, and Katy Lane , Director, Center for International Business Studies at Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, students from Yucatan will also experience staying with a Texas family. A first to the #IRAP program!

And last but not least, a major thank you! To our fearless logistics coordinator in Yucatan Victor Manuel Camara Poot , who made our experience in Yucatan to be on schedule all the time and without a glitch!

Take a look at our IRAP 2023 Flickr photo gallery HERE.

Iniciativa Yucatán