Several engineering undergrads are planning to be the first students from Wayne State University to study in Puerto Rico next fall as part of a new student exchange program between the WSU College of Engineering and Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico in San Juan. The five-year agreement also facilitates the studies of up to five Puerto Rican students and faculty members a year at Wayne State.

"Our students are excited about the opportunity to broaden their experience studying engineering in a different country, and we look forward to the enrichments that will stem from the cultural exchange between our schools," said Ralph Kummler, dean of WSU College of Engineering.

The first group of Puerto Rican students to participate in the program will be one or two graduating seniors who plan to take graduate classes at Wayne State, as well as a faculty member who is expected this summer to pursue a PhD and teach, said Carlos Gonzalez, the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico dean of engineering. "Our students are excited about studying and living in the United States. Although we are American citizens and used to the American way of doing business, we have a strong Spanish heritage."

Wayne State junior classmen and above with a 3.5 GPA or higher, and with good Spanish language skills, will be eligible for the program, said Gerald Thompkins, associate dean of student affairs and lead architect of the agreement. At Polytechnic University, all textbooks are in English, but most of the teachers instruct in Spanish. English is the second language in Puerto Rico and part of the school curriculum beginning in the first grade.

Polytechnic University is located in San Juan, the capital and an active metropolitan area. It is the largest of Puerto Rico's private colleges with more than 4,000 engineering students. Besides engineering, it offers degrees in architecture and business. Established in 1966 as a technical college in land surveying and mapping, it began offering undergraduate engineering degree programs in 1974, and graduate degrees in 1992.

Puerto Rico was an obvious opportunity in waiting, said Thompkins, who traveled to San Juan in October to pave the way for the agreement. While border security policies since 9/11 have caused Asian and Middle Eastern student enrollment at the College of Engineering to plummet, travel to and from Puerto Rico, a territory of the U.S., is not an issue.

At the College of Engineering where the Latino student group, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), is very active, the Latino-American students are excited about the possibility of studying in Puerto Rico, said Corina Rodriguez, president of the SHPE Wayne State chapter.

Rodriguez, currently a sophomore in mechanical engineering, and Mary Savalle, a mechanical engineering junior, plan to be the first Wayne State exchange students in the program. A third student who has been approved has yet to make a final decision. The WSU students will leave in July or August and reside at the guesthouse on the Polytechnic University campus.

Rodriguez, a native Californian with Mexican-born parents, traveled to San Juan with Thompkins where they met with Polytechnic University students and Gonzalez. Rodriguez served as Thompkins' translator when needed, although Gonzalez speaks English fluently.

In December, Gonzalez visited the College of Engineering and the Wayne State campus, meeting with Kummler, Thompkins, and Provost Nancy Barrett in her office where the agreement was signed.

Like Wayne State, many of the classes at Polytechnic University are in the evening. More than 50 percent of the engineering faculty members are practicing engineers, said Gonzalez, and most of its labs and research are for undergraduates. "We have lots of hands-on experience I'm sure Wayne State students will find attractive," he added. "San Juan is a very active metropolitan area, just like Detroit. They (Wayne State students) will come to a city which is very active, day and night."

Besides the Puerto Rico program, the College of Engineering, together with the College of Science, has offered for the past 15 years a work and study exchange program with the Technical University of Dresden, Germany.