A&M-Texarkana Awarded $34,000 Grant by Partners of the Americas Foundation

TEXARKANA, Texas – Texas A&M University-Texarkana was recently awarded a $34,000 grant by the Partners of the Americas Foundation as a part of their 100k Strong in the Americas program. Funded by the U.S. State Department, CAF: Development Bank if Latin America, and MinCiencias (Colombia’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation), these new 100K Strong partnerships will support innovative, inclusive training and exchange programs for students and faculty in strategic areas, including climate solutions, sustainable energy, digital transformation, health, creative industries, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), among others. 

Students from Texas A&M University-Texarkana are among those from 23 universities in 17 states to participate in the partnerships with 31 regional higher education institutions from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. A&M-Texarkana’s partnership is with Universidad Pedagógica and Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC) in Bogotá, Colombia.

Five students from Colombia are residing on the A&M-Texarkana campus during the fall 2023 semester and are enrolled in a biology class, an immersive English class, and participating in research focused on the Impact of Anthropic Activity on a Texas Urban Ecosystem. The Colombian students will propose and identify restoration strategies for the habitat of two tributaries of the City of Texarkana’s Days Creek Aquatic System that have been impacted by urbanization and the release of hazardous substances.

During the spring 2024 semester three A&M-Texarkana biology students will travel to UPTC and will spend two weeks working in the El Malmo, a protected Andean Forest and paramo ecosystem affected by agriculture, livestock farming, and human movement through the region. The students will be working within existing ecosystem projects and seeing the real-world application of their studies.

“Partnerships like the one between A&M-Texarkana and the UPTC in Colombia present an amazing opportunity for students at both institutions,” said A&M-Texarkana President Dr. Ross Alexander. “This type of hands-on, experiential learning gives students an additional level of expertise that can distinguish them from others in advancing their career or continuing in higher education or research. A&M-Texarkana will continue to forge these valuable partnerships across multiple academic disciplines in the future.”