UMC Hosts Meetings to Discuss Collaboration with Brazilian Professionals
Officials at the University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) are hosting two visiting professionals from Brazil this week for a series of meetings to discuss international educational collaborations. Vicente Nogueira Filho, president of Uniao Pioneira de Integracao Social (UPIS) and of Associacao Internaional de Deucacao Continuada (AIEC), and Eng. Agrônomo Paula Alonso, president of Conselho Regional de Engenharia, Arquitetura, e Agronomia (CREA), Sao Paulo, have been in Crookston since Saturday, September 6, and will continue their UMC visit through Tuesday, September 9.
(from left):
Jane Sims, UMC; Paula Alonso, President,
CREA Sao Paulo; Vicente Nogueira Filho, President, UPIS and AIEC; and
Richard Nelson, UMC
The visit by the Brazilian dignitaries builds on a partnership initiated between UMC and UPIS in 1998 and formalized in 2000. The original focus of the partnership was cooperative training in precision agriculture education. While that remains a principle objective, interests have recently expanded to include discussions of collaborative opportunities in online adult learning, most notably in the area of business administration, in the partnership.
These meetings expand on discussions with UMC officials held in Brazil this past July. During those discussions, two primary areas of opportunity for collaboration were identified: (1) customized, multi-modal training programs for working CREA professionals in specialized fields related to agronomy and precision agriculture, and (2) offering AEIC’s online baccalaureate degree in business administration jointly with UMC to approximately 600,000 Brazilians living in the United States.
UMC faculty and staff involved with this week’s Crookston visit include
Don Sargeant, chancellor emeritus; Aziz Rahman, assistant professor, agriculture and natural resources; Steven Shirley, assistant professor, marketing; Jane Sims, director, UMC Center for Adult Learning; and Richard Nelson, director, UMC Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources. Local farmer and UMC alum Gary Wagner, an expert in precision agriculture practices, is also involved with the meetings.Based in Brasilia, UPIS is a private, for-profit university with four campuses and an enrollment of about six-thousand undergraduate full-time and part-time students. The university offers programs in humanities, agriculture and veterinary science, law, and other specialization fields. UMC and UPIS collaborate on instructional technology applications for enhanced teaching and outreach, particularly in precision agriculture/agronomy.
Also based in Brazilia, AIEC is a distance education provider. Though administratively separate from UPIS, some physical and personnel resources are shared. AIEC primarily serves older-than-average working students seeking to earn baccalaureate credentials. An online program in business administration, with course work in over 40 subject areas, was launched last spring and will conclude its first full academic year in December.
CREA is a federally authorized, self-regulating professional Brazilian organization of engineers, agronomists, architects, geologists, and others. Its mission is to promote and advance its constituent professions and to set and maintain standards of quality for its membership. CREA operates in each state of Brazil. The Sao Paulo CREA is the largest, with 174, 951 professional members, of which 14,501 are agronomists. Eng. Paula Alonso, President of the Sao Paulo CREA, is an agronomist and is currently serving his second term in office.
Posted 09/08/2003
Contact: Andrew Svec,
218-281-8435