Bowling Green, Ky. - The Gordon Ford College of Business at Western Kentucky University is sponsoring a student trade mission to Mexico Jan. 6 - 20, 2006.

The trade mission will visit Guadalajara, Mexico City and Queretaro. Student teams will prepare a presentation on various aspects of Kentucky’s businesses, and presentations will be made to chambers of commerce, and business leaders, along with students and faculty at schools with which the Ford College has exchange programs.

The trade mission will begin in Guadalajara. Students will arrive on Friday afternoon, and will spend the weekend touring and learning about the history, culture, and business of the state of Jalisco, including a performance of the University of Guadalajara Folkloric Ballet and a visit to a Tequila factory.

The delegation will meet with Marcos Castillo, director of the Mexico Representative Office for the Kentucky Departments of Agriculture and Economic Development in Guadalajara on Monday. The students and the Kentucky trade representatives in Mexico will participate in a discussion of trade between Kentucky and Mexico. The student teams will make presentations concerning Kentucky exports on Tuesday and Wednesday. The partner schools in Guadalajara are Universidad Panamericana (UP) and Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM).

Thursday they will travel from Guadalajara to Mexico City. On Friday, the students will visit the Mexico City campuses of UP and ITESM. The weekend will be spent on cultural and historic field trips, including the Pyramids of Teotihuacán, the Museum of Anthropology, and view some murals by Diego Rivera. Presentations will be made to businesses on Monday.

The group will travel to Queretaro on Tuesday, and make presentations at the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro and ITESM Campus Queretaro. While in Queretaro, the delegation will visit the Theatro de Estato, and the Chapel of the Bells, the sites of the signing of the Constitution of Mexico and the execution of Emperor Maximilian, respectively.

The program is being funded in part by the Ford College’s Business and International Education Grant from the U.S. Department of Education and from the Dean’s Fund for Excellence in the Ford College. Drs. Robert Jefferson, Dean, Daniel Myers, Associate Professor of Economics and College Internationalization Officer, and Dr. Harold Little, Associate Professor of Accounting, will be directing the program.

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For more information, contact Dan Myers, (270) 745-3684.