For the second consecutive year, Wayne State is hosting 25 Mexican students who are arriving this week for a month of intensive studies through the English Language Institute.

They are sponsored by Proyecta 100,000, an initiative of the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation and Development. The student mobility program provides educational opportunities for students from Mexico. The goal of the program is to send 100,000 students from Mexico to the United States and 50,000 U.S. students to Mexico by 2018.

Student Senate President William Alexander III worked with the first group of Proyecta students and is looking forward to welcoming the new class.

"I truly enjoy working with many of our international students on campus," says Alexander. "I was an exchange student once, which is why I work so hard to make sure international students have the access to a wonderful and meaningful experience."

Still friends with many of last year's Proyecta participants, Alexander is planning several activities over the next month to help the newcomers during their brief stay to see and learn as much as they can about the university and its unique location in a major U.S. city.

Alexander, a resident advisor in Atchison Hall, says it can be frustrating to speak a different language and even more difficult to live in another country on your own. The best exchange experience, he says, is one that includes sensitivity and patience from the host and the visitor.

"I think we all should make time to get to know international students because it truly can help us gain a different lens in which we view the world around us," he says.