‘Education’ bridge from Izmir to Guatemala

Jairo David Estrada Barrios, the Ambassador of Guatemala, one of the Central American countries, in Republic of Turkey, and Stephanie Garcia H. de Elbay, the Commercial Counsellor at the Embassy of Guatemala visited Izmir University of Economics (IUE). At the meeting hosted by Rector Prof. Dr. Yusuf Hakan Abacıoğlu, parties decided to take new steps with the aim of improving cooperation in education, especially student exchanges.

Izmir University of Economics, which offers its students the opportunity to expand abroad by making international agreements with 188 universities, has taken action to increase its influence in the Americas.

TOURED THE CAMPUS, MET WITH STUDENTS

IUE, which has recently hosted events reflecting the social and cultural characteristics of countries such as Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica, and currently has 4 students from the Americas, hosted two high-profile people from Guatemala on its campus. Jairo David Estrada Barrios, the Ambassador of Guatemala to Ankara, and Commercial Counsellor Stephanie Garcia H. de Elbay toured the IUE campus, tasted the meals prepared by the students of the Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts and chatted with the young people. In the meetings, possible collaborations and cultural events with universities in Guatemala were also addressed.

LIKE TO SEE THEM ON IUE CAMPUS

IUE Rector Prof. Dr. Yusuf Hakan Abacıoğlu thanked Ambassador Barrios and Commercial Counsellor Elbay for their visit. Stating that they attach great importance to developing cooperation with universities from different continents and cultures, Prof. Dr. Abacıoğlu said, “One of the most important criteria of success for us is ‘global career’. We cannot just provide quality education to young people. We must offer new opportunities for our students to go abroad, help them develop their social and professional network and gain experience. One of the best ways to do this is to develop cooperation with universities abroad. There are many world-famous universities in the American continent. We can increase interaction with universities in Guatemala or regional countries. During the visit, we discussed what ca be done, especially in terms of student exchange. We would be happy to see students from Central America and Guatemala on our campus. We would also want our students to go to that region. We will continue necessary efforts in this regard.”

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS

Prof. Dr. Abacıoğlu continued as follows: “Recently, we have organized events at the University that reflect the cultural characteristics of other countries in the Americas. For example, we hosted the photography exhibition called ‘Life Chronicles’, which is about the diaries of Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Again, the screening of Mexico's world-famous movie ‘Los Olvidados’ was held on our campus. Mehmet Şenbağcı, ​​International Relations Representative of IUE School of Foreign Languages and 3 of our students accompanied Gustavo Campos Fallas, Ambassador of Costa Rica to Turkey, who attended the ‘1^st Coffee Festival’ as a guest of honor, throughout the event. We can organize such events with Guatemala as well. We also discussed these during the meeting. As a university, we stated that we are open to cooperation with all universities in the Americas.”