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Rice’s
Matherly (center) visits with Tec de Monterrey and Iowa
State faculty at Nuevo Vallarta’s Mayan Resort. |
Rice faculty planning to integrate international communication
assignments into their regular engineering assignments or to change
their internship programs joined Dr. Cheryl Matherly, Director of International
Opportunities, and Dr. Linda Driskill as Rice representatives at the
Mayan Resorts Academic Conference in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico on July
8, 9, and 10. Dr. Pedro Alvarez of the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering and Mr. Gordon Wittenberg of the School of Architecture
attended. Dr. Phil Bedient visited with the Mayan Resort managers and
engineers in advance of the conference sessions.
This year’s conference brought business managers and interns
together with university faculty who can prepare students for working
abroad. Sessions explored what businesses need
student interns to know international communication
to participate successfully in internship |
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opportunities. Managers
from Hewlett Packard
(HP) Mexico, including Ms. Ana Luz Morales,
head of Staffing-Human Resources, and
Mr. Luis Miguel Tenorio, theC.P.
Program Manager, presented their views on international and intercultural
communication and how
universities can prepare their students to be intercultural leaders.
Rice student interns Jordana Mosten, Jacob Lopez, Haley Kim Fletcher and Thomas
Willis collaborated on a talk that Jordana gave. Other students from Iowa State
University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Alberta in Canada,
and the Paul Couse Institute (Culinary Arts) also gave presentations. The Mayan
Resorts was the host for the conference, providing transportation, lodging, and
meals for the participants.
Fanny Trevino of the Mayan Resorts directs the project, which involves many of
the resort’s managers. Next year’s internships will again be held
at Nuevo Vallarta, but in the future additional Mayan Resorts company at several
major destinations such as Cancun and Acapulco will be involved. Engineering
students interested in 2005 Mayan Resorts internships should study their Spanish
and contact Career Services. |
 Jamie
Cluff conducted the North American Pronun-ciation of Technical Vocabulary
course this summer. She holds a Master’s degree and certifications
in teaching pronunciation to non-native speakers. She also serves as
one of the Rice School of Continuing Studies’ English instructors.
Graduate students praised her approach to building their confidence
and changing their speaking habits.
Jamie is acting as a consultant for the Cain Project on the development of a
web site with resources on technical vocabulary pronunciation that will be available
worldwide. Her work extends an earlier pilot project conducted by her friend
and colleague at SCS, Amy Bargfrede. |
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Bob Cunningham’s students in MECH
407/408 hold the trophy they brought back from the SAE Aero Design
Challenge in Deland, Florida, where they won the Award for Engineering
Design Excellence for the best oral presentation. The award went to
our Rice University team, which scored 29.36 out of a possible 30 points.
Presentation points mattered a great deal in the overall competition,
where three top teams’ totals varied by less than one point.
The team practiced with the Cain Project before competing against
teams from the US, Brazil, and Canada. A broken element grounded
their plane
in later trials, but their talk was the BEST!
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