| NEWS
| SEPTEMBER 22, 2005
International Lunch
Urban and Public Affairs students
revisit their experiences abroad in Europe and Mexico
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| The Shorthorn: Dominic Bracco |
| Provost Dana Dunn sits
in on the School of Urban and Public Affairs brown-bag
lunch where graduate students discussed their research.
The students traveled to various countries such as Barcelona,
Paris and Cuernavaca, Mexico, to try and gain experience
in a real-world environment. |
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By Patrick
Golightly
Contributor to The Shorthorn
Though roast beef sandwiches and potato chips don’t seem like
the most exotic of meals, the School of Urban and Public Affairs’
brown-bag lunch featured a distinctly international flavor.
Students and professors shared their experiences Wednesday in University
Hall from traveling and studying abroad last May. Three of the study-abroad
groups went to Barcelona, Paris and Cuernavaca, Mexico, and one
group visited Kharkiv, Ukraine, Kragujevac, Serbia, and Montenegro.
Lacy Teele, urban and public affairs graduate student, said she
toured Barcelona’s Olympic Complex, which has since become
a bustling community center.
“Kids can swim, and people can just hang out,” she said.
She said they also visited the Ciutat Villa, an ethnic neighborhood
which has since been the center of a private revitalization project.
“It’s incredible to see that the local government has
such a great focus on catering to the citizens,” she said.
Students met with officials from the Barcelona Regional Planning
Agency, where city officials discussed their urban planning strategies
and how major events like the 1992 Olympics modernized the urban
landscape.
Amber Mitchell’s trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico, a small community
of informal housing built on an old hacienda, was a humbling experience
because of the lack of public planning resources, said the Fort
Worth transportation manager and urban and public affairs doctoral
student.
“You start to be grateful for having the political system
here when you see a country without an outlet for people to go,”
she said.
In Mexico, students lived with non-English-speaking families for
two weeks and took morning language classes while developing and
presenting their individual proposals on issues such as public transportation.
There was a different focus held in the trip to eastern Europe.
Prospective urban development trainers from the Ukraine and Serbia
took training certificate classes at the university last year before
returning to their home countries and training their own personnel.
Trish Nickel, urban and public affairs doctoral student, and other
students got a look at the new public management program at the
University of Kragujevac, which was designed in part with a urban
and public affairs partnership.
“I have never seen a project as effective as this one,”
she said.
As far as Norma B. Cole, urban and public affairs professor, is
concerned, the trip was much more than just a two-week “vacation.”
“The trip had such an impact on all those who went,”
said Cole. “It was a life-altering experience.”
The school is planning an international symposium on public planning
Dec. 7. Trips for next spring are already in the works and, so far,
an exchange focusing entirely on urban development in Paris has
been discussed.
CORRECTION
In this story, Barcelona and Paris should have
been listed as cities.
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