Southern Polytechnic State University students visited Mexico and Germany this summer as part of the school's ever-growing international exchange program.

For the first time, SPSU students visited the Universidad Iberoamericana Laguna in Torreon, Mexico. Students studied at the new modern university facility, and stayed in the homes of hosting families during the five-week program.

"This is the first exchange program between SPSU and the Universidad Iberoamericana. Our students earned core curriculum credit there, and also were able to do project work in American companies. The knowledge and contacts they bring back make the program such a powerful part of education," said SPSU professor Larry Haddock, one of the program's facilitators.

Additionally, the students visited old mining towns such as Zacatecas and Guanajuato and the world-class beach community of Mazatlan.

Nine students were selected to go: Jason Adamson, Tiffany Betts, Marketta Bledsoe, Al Kerr, Christina Plumley, Solanda Slaughter, Kelleen Williams, and Joseph Wyatt. They were accompanied by Haddock and SPSU professor Robert Fischer, who helped originate SPSU's International Exchange program.

As well this summer, SPSU students traveled to Merseburg, a town in the state of Sachsen-Anhalt, formerly East Germany. This is the fifth year of exchange between students and faculty of SPSU and the Fachhochschulen, a university of Applied Sciences, in Sachsen-Anhalt, according to Charlotte Janis, program director for the German program. The students who traveled to Germany were Doolittle Adcock, Brandon Joel Banks, Charles R. Bishop, Jr., Eric M. Carsten, Xenophon C. Cater, Ashley R. Farrow, Lee N. Frazier, Teresa Kho, Justin Little, Matthew S. Mikell, Robert L. Phillips, Jr., Yves Saint-Louis, and Roger B. Whitaker.

"The great thing about these programs is that most of these students never thought of going abroad," said Janis. "This really gives them the opportunity of a lifetime to learn about other cultures and supplement their education. " While at the Fachhochschulen, SPSU students studied German language, history, culture and humanities. Several also did a project in their major field, as well as visited the cities of Dresden, Berlin and Weimar.

Students from Germany will be on the SPSU campus fall and spring semester as part of the international exchange. Students from Mexico visited the SPSU campus in the spring.

International student population continues to increase at SPSU with more than 90 countries represented, comprising approximately 12 percent of the campus population.