University shares student affairs exchange with Mexico's Tec de Monterrey university

Students and staff members from Tec de Monterrey university in Monterrey, Mexico, visited Virginia Tech Oct. 26-28 in what was the next chapter of the cooperative student affairs exchange between the two universities.

Five resident advisors (called prefectos), representatives from the student union and staff members from Tec de Monterrey visited campus in order to attend the Blue Ridge Summit Regional Leadership Conference at neighboring Radford University Oct. 27.

This year, Tec de Monterrey prefectos stayed in the residence halls with Virginia Tech resident advisors who volunteered to be hosts. They made presentations about their respective residence life programs and participated in a student affairs roundtable discussion to learn more about how student life functions in other countries.

In October 2006, 10 student leaders and several student affairs staff members from Virginia Tech traveled to Mexico to attend a student leadership conference and participate in a similar program hosted by the students at Tec de Monterrey. The visit was a success, and several of the Virginia Tech students who participated have returned to the Monterrey campus to further their studies at Tec de Monterrey.

The students visiting Virginia Tech and the host resident advisors celebrated their collaboration with a performance by women’s a capella group Soulstice followed by a dance in Squires Student Center. Last year, the students from Tec de Monterrey provided a salsa lesson for the visiting resident advisors, and this year’s group will have an introductory swing dance lesson before the dance to continue the tradition of cultural hospitality.

Monterrey Tech consists of 32 campuses stationed across Mexico. The main campus, located in Monterrey, enrolls more than 17,000 full-time students, 1,600 of which live on campus in the 19 residence halls. The university has a tradition of strong international and exchange programs and enjoys a large international student population, with nearly 3,500 of its total 95,000 students hailing from other countries.