Spotlight on CIEE Mérida and Integrated Community Service
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CIEE President & CEO Jim Pellow met last week with dozens of study abroad students exploring Mexico’s rich history, language, and culture through CIEE Mérida.
CIEE Mérida hosts 14 college study abroad programs, including: CIEE Open Campus, CIEE Semester In, CIEE Semester and Summer Global Internships, CIEE Engineering Technology & Sciences, CIEE Ecology & Sustainability, Liberal Arts at Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, and more.
During his visit to Mérida, CIEE President & CEO Jim Pellow met with the leaders of Refettorio Mérida, one of CIEE’s trusted community service partners addressing environmental sustainability, climate change, and food insecurity in the local community.
The reason for visiting Mérida was to meet with Sister Rosario, Superior of the Servants of Mary, Ministers to the Sick. The Servants of Mary were founded in Madrid, Spain, in 1851, and have been serving the poor in Mérida, Mexico, since 1900. After 125 years of serving those most in need in Mérida, they are reassigning their sisters to other missions in Mexico and the US.
Sr. Rosario and Jim met to celebrate receiving approval last week from the Vatican for the sisters to sell their convent to CIEE. The convent will become CIEE’s new study abroad center in Mérida and the foundation for launching CIEE’s new integrated community service model designed to harness the power of community.
Our vision is to educate thousands of American students enrolled in study abroad programs while helping to improve the lives of thousands of Yucatan residents.
We will offer dozens of study abroad programs in scores of academic areas while we strive to keep the sisters’ 125-year legacy of service alive through integrated community service programs in public health (all Servants of Mary sisters are professional nurses who serve the local community, especially women and the elderly), early childhood education (via a gold standard daycare/learning center that will educate young children and allow single mothers to work to support their families), and culinary arts (to support a food pantry and mobile soup kitchen).