Center Programs in Latin America


Latin American Business Study Tour to Brazil
The Latin American Business Study Tour, now in its seventh year, returned to
Brazil in October 2007. The one week, two credit tour annually rotates among
Brazil, Argentina and Chile. This year's tour, which was led by Andy Naranjo
(Finance) and Terry McCoy (LAS) and hosted by the Catholic University of Rio de
Janeiro (PUC Rio), featured an outstanding mixture of academic lectures on
Brazilian finance and economics and visits in the greater Rio metropolitan region
to the National Development Bank, the national oil company PETROBRAS, the
mining company CVRD, and the production facilities of the Globo media
conglomerate, among others. The 23 student participants came from UF's MBA,
MAIB and Masters in Finance programs. The next tour will go to Chile in March
2008. The Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) in
UF's Warrington College of Business Administration co sponsors the A Terry McCoy (LAS) and Andy Naranjo (Finance) with Latin
study tour. American Business Study Tour students in front of the National
 Development Bank in Rio de Janeiro, October 2007.
2008 Business in Brazil Program
The Center's Business in Brazil summer study program, another Center joint undertaking with CIBER and PUC Rio, is changing its format. For its
eighth year, the program will take place during four weeks in June instead of six weeks in July and August as was the case since its inception in 1999.
The first three weeks will be in Rio and combine lectures in English by PUC professors on finance, marketing, human resources, business ethics and
outlook for the Brazilian economy along with visits to companies based in the Rio and Portuguese language instruction oriented to the needs of
business students. While in Rio, students live with local host families. For the final week, the program shifts to Sao Paulo, the finance and industrial
heart of Brazil. There students will visit the stock and futures markets, investment banks, consumer goods and heavy industries. The program is open
to advanced undergraduates and graduate students from UF and other universities with business-related majors. For more information contact Terry
McCoy (tlmccoy@latam.ufl.edu) or Mary Risner (mrisner@latam.ufl.edu).

2008 Semester in Costa Rica
The Center for Latin American Studies has developed a new semester-length study abroad program for undergraduate students at the Universidad de
Costa Rica (UCR) in San Jose. The program will be directed by Mark Thurner, Associate Professor of History, and will be UF's first semester-length
group program in Latin America. All program participants will enroll in intensive Intermediate or Advanced Spanish (taught by UCR faculty) and in
Latin American History and Culture (taught by Dr. Thurner). Program participants will also enroll in 1 or 2 elective courses taught in English
through UCR's Academic Program for International Students. It is anticipated that 15 students will participate in the inaugural program in Fall 2008.
Undergraduate students from any major with one year of Spanish language study (or the equivalent) are welcome to apply.

For further information on the 2008 semester in Costa Rica, contact Angela Grindal, Study Abroad Adviser, at adikeman@-f ,. ;,ji ,i., or
Mark Thurner, Program Director, at Inril,,,, i r..I) ,' l dJi

Partnership in Global Learning
The UF Partnership in Global Learning (PGL) was established by the Center for Latin American Studies with a grant from the Lucent Foundation in
1999. PGL is an international e-learning consortium that has the mission to build and sustain public-private partnerships between universities,
schools, government agencies and companies for the production and distribution of e-learning solutions and infrastructure in the areas of teacher
training, research and corporate training. PGL is comprised of five charter universities, including UF, the Universidad Tecnol6gico de Monterrey,
Mexico; Pontificia Universidade Cat6lica do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil; and the Fundacao Getulio Vargas in
Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In October 2007, PGL sponsored a panel at the International Conference on Technology and Educational
Innovation at the Unversidad Technol6gico de Monterrey with presentations on the PGL instructional design module, the Aymara on the Internet
project, the Chiapas Online Learning Project, Ontology-Driven Interoperability of Learning Objects, and Rapid Prototyping of Learning Objects.
Participants from UF included PGL Director Elizabeth Lowe (LAS), PGL Research Director Sue Legg (LAS), and Fedro Zazueta (Academic
Technology). Howard Beck (Agricultural & Biological Engineering) participated by videoconferencing. More information on PGL can be found at:
http://www.pgl.ufl.edu.


16 THE LATINAMERICANIST