Minority Care International (MCI), in partnership with Texas A&M University-Commerce and the University of Mindanao (UM), is pleased to announce the first two MCI scholars to embark on a Student Exchange Program in what promises to be the first of many. Solaica Derendegen and Sarah Sultan will leave on August 27, 2009, for the United States to begin taking cross-cultural courses and participating in an internship program. Solaica will forge her cross-cultural experience working twenty hours a week in the nursing internship program at the Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville (near A&M-Commerce). Sarah, a business major, will intern twenty-hours a week in the Financial Trust Service office of Dee Hilton to learn American business practices and share those used in the Philippines.

The President of the University of Mindanao, Dr. Willie Torres, said of the exchange, "This is a unique international experience for our two students involving a semester of Cross-Cultural Studies in conjunction with a business or professional internship." Through the Cross-Cultural Studies Exchange, students will gain knowledge, skills for working in a global environment, and a greater understanding of organizational ethics.

The cross-cultural Student Exchange Program will help students understand the new culture of their host country and provide an opportunity to earn college credit. In exchange, their hosts will likewise have an international experience inside their own American classrooms. Through the coursework and overall experience students will learn to negotiate the differences between cultures as well as to demonstrate diplomacy in evaluating competing claims and in advocating a peaceful solution to societal issues. Negotiation strategies teach students to see similarities and to cultivate understanding, so that they can return to benefit their society. American students at Texas A&M University-Commerce will likewise benefit from having exchange students from the rich cultural heritage and traditions of the southern Philippines.

Education has become a prerequisite for success in the twenty-first century; but, education needs meaning. This program-by cultural exchange-will also emphasize the basic civic principles of love, integrity, idealism, and civic responsibility. Along with preparation for work in a global environment and familiarity with other cultures' practices, the program also provides opportunities to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills while engaged in real life work situations. This strengthens students' transition from academia to the world of work after graduation.

"Education is the best diplomacy," said Dr. Dan Jones, President of Texas A&M - Commerce. When considering the partnership, Dr Jones believes both sets of students will be citizen diplomats. Home-hosting opportunities show that citizens can have a great impact on America's image overseas when visitors learn the compassionate, loving, and caring side of America and take this view back to their homeland. Likewise, American students will learn of the strengths of the Filipino students with their rich heritage.

While the MCI students study in the USA, they will stay with the MCI benefactors. Some of those MCI benefactors have been to the Philippines and know most of the students and their families and have developed good relations with them, so when the scholars go to the USA, they will be met by friends. And, significantly, the students' families will know where their youth will stay. By opening their home to an international student, MCI ‘s contributors involve the whole family in learning about other cultures and developing a wonderful mutual understanding which often leads to life-long friendships. MCI host families break down the barriers of misunderstanding and enable others to experience the common bonds that we share. In addition, this kind of exchange program could open the door for people to become more involved in a noble cause for humanity because human hearts do not need the distance between the giver and the needy.

MCI's partner institutions share the belief that such an exchange program creates a positive and personal opportunity to bring two cultures closer together. Such experiences influence individual's outlook on the world and on different cultures, especially, in this case, the Muslim and indigenous cultures of the southern Philippines. This exchange program hopes to bring people together and discover common ground.

There are several great challenges the world faces, but especially the Mindanao region of the Philippines: poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, corruption, and religious hatred. The prescription for these challenges is education. It is MCI's position that when students attain an education, they are much more likely to get a good job, thus defeating poverty; that helps create the opportunity for replacing internal hatred with civilized dialogues and integration. Increasingly the civilized world is growing ever smaller, so that every type of disagreement should be solved in a civilized manner. Some man-made problems ultimately depend on human beings to solve them. So, that is why education is the most effective vehicle to deal with all these specific problems.

Our increasingly interconnected world is becoming a global village. As countries come together to create unions, universal objectives attract people from all corners of the world. Today corruption and moral erosion are another danger threatening the existence of our communities; moral erosion impacts all communities, weakening the principles that keep a society on its feet. Well-educated people are more likely to replace traditional bigotries with reason. As a result of thinking rationally, an educated person is more likely to ask what kind of God will approve of wrongdoing and the creation of chaos, fear and disorder? Wouldn't all believers in and worshipers of God expect to live in peace and harmony?

The President of the University of Mindanao, Dr. Willie Torres, said that the exchange program is extremely important for the mutual understanding between the Filipinos and the Americans. In particular, the student exchange program helps promote friendship and goodwill with Texas A&M University- Commerce and the University of Mindanao. It also will drive the University of Mindanao to internationalize and foster experiences for its students reflecting its higher standards and role as a leading institution.

Students are expected to use their experiences to play active roles in their community. They serve as a valuable bridge between the Muslim culture and the American culture; they contribute to the deepening of the understanding toward two cultures. Therefore, we should prioritize our efforts, so that through education we bring about a generation that will rely equally on reason and experience as well as conscience and inspiration. They will think, investigate, and take advantage of modern high tech facilities, while also not neglecting moral and spiritual values. MCI and its partners are dedicated to teach our students never to be content with what they know, but to be always hungry for new things; they should continuously search for knowledge, and equipped with good morals and virtues, be altruistic as they embrace humanity with love-- ready to sacrifice themselves for the good of others when it is necessary. MCI does not just give but also teaches the scholars how to give. The role of schools should be to equip students with the skills and knowledge for their future careers; however if it is shortsighted and the school becomes more of a business with money-making goals, the institution's students lose in the long-run. Knowledge is the province that provides students with the intellectual abilities to benefit others. Education, thus, becoms the most effective and common tongue for relations with others.