Ag student Timothy Silberg milked a cow as part of his Mexican agriculture experience.

While study-abroad trips routinely help students develop traveling expertise, worldly knowledge and independence, 11 Penn State students on a recent trip to Mexico also broadened their understanding of international agriculture.

The group of students from the College of Agricultural Sciences, accompanied by professors, traveled to Cuernavaca and Buenavista de Cuellar, Mexico, for three weeks as part of a newly developed Spanish immersion course. The class is the last in a three-course sequence designed and created in collaboration with Penn State's College of Liberal Arts to meet the needs of students who will work in various agricultural industries.

"To the best of my knowledge, no other university in the United States has developed such a comprehensive agricultural Spanish program like the one we have in our college," said Alex Borys, professor of Spanish in the College of Agricultural Sciences. "There are universities where one-semester Spanish courses are offered to address the needs of specific agricultural industries, but none that offer a three-course sequence with a three-week embedded immersion experience."

In Mexico, the students attended intensive language classes for four hours each day for three weeks. For two of those weeks, the classes were held in Cuernavaca at the Cemanahuac Educational Community. During the third and final week, classes were held in the small rural town of Buenavista de Cuellar.

While the students enjoyed a typical study-abroad experience that included living with host families, attending class and visiting major historical and cultural sites, a unique aspect of the trip was their participation in several cross-cultural experiences related to the agricultural industry.

The students met with the secretary of agriculture of the state of Morelos; attended lectures on agricultural topics; visited and spoke with owners of small, family-run businesses such as a dairy farm, a fish farm and a rabbit farm; and visited a major poultry farm, a large horticulture corporation, a tannery, fruit orchards, tomato greenhouses and a local slaughter market.

"It was completely ag-focused to meet the students' needs and their academic interests," Borys said.

On trips to ancient cities, such as Xochicalco and Teotihuacan, junior Timothy Silberg of Doylestown learned more about past agricultural techniques. An agricultural sciences major, Silberg was fascinated by the "chinampas," the floating gardens or man-made islands the indigenous people of Mexico created to be able to farm in swampy areas.

"The Aztecs and Mayans rotated these fields for different crops and were very knowledgeable about effective agricultural methods," he said. "What they knew is still helping us with present-day agriculture. They realized the Mexican climate was perfect for this technique."

Despite this being junior Michel Woods' first time out of the country, he especially enjoyed his stay in Buenavista de Cuellar, where he felt like he was at home. "I come from a farming background so I enjoyed being in a small rural community," the agricultural and extension education major from Mechanicsburg said. "I was able to horseback ride and milk a cow."

For recent alumna Raechel Kilgore, the interactions with Mexican people and the ability to ask agricultural questions in Spanish enhanced her trip.

Kilgore, an Airville native, noted that she reviewed some basic Spanish vocabulary before the trip but realized that being immersed in foreign cultural situations added a new dimension to simple tasks of ordering lunch and buying a bus ticket. "The improvements made in my Spanish-speaking abilities, as well as my exposure to another culture, were truly priceless," she said.

Junior Alex Lauffer of Narvon says she started from nothing, and this program made her Spanish language communication skills reasonably functional for agricultural and survival purposes in just eight months.

"It is probably the best decision I have made so far in college," said Lauffer, an agricultural and extension education major. "Any Penn State student who has a passion for people and helping others in the United States through agriculture would benefit from these classes and the immersion experience."