Universidad de Diego Portales

One of the Universities I can pick classes from is Diego Portales University. It is a small private college in the heart of Santiago. It has many different specialties including health, economics, political science, geography, engineering, literature, education, architecture, art, law, history, etc. This university also has a requirement for its students to take classes included in the formacion general, or General Formation. This formation includes classes from many areas and serves as an opportunity to broaden their horizons and take classes in other areas that will help them understand their area better... think liberal arts education in the United States.

These general formation classes are usually easier, feature more group work, and serve more as introduction courses. This interested me, so I was recommended to go to International Economic Relations by Carmen Gloria one of the academic advisers COPA-IFSA (my program) has on staff.

The class is taught by a chief deputy in the Chilean Foreign Ministry, which is really neat. He has a lot of experience considering he has also been a diplomat and ambassador for Chile over his extensive career. He has a specialized, post graduate degree which is focused on the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which is extremely fascinating to me, because our Model United Nations group has been to conferences where we have represented countries on UNCTAD.

I am hoping to get this class to count as my Country and Area Studies in Economics class at St. Thomas. The approval has not gone through yet, so I am hoping. If not, it will still be an interesting class and I can take Economics of China when I get back to UST, which is a good alternative. You may be saying to yourself, International Economic Relations doesn't really sound like a Chilean Economics class, but the syllabus indicates that we are studying the Chilean economy through the lens of its economic relations with other countries. My group must research the relationship between Chile and Japan and give a 25 minute presentation on the topic and lead the class discussion for that day. We also have to submit a paper at the end of the class that goes over our research. The only other grade we have in this class is our final exam. So its only a little work, but I think I can handle it. I really like when we only have one exam because it means I can work on my spanish the entire time I am here and then hopefully do very well on the mostly essay tests. Right now, tests would be difficult because my grammar, especially on the spot, would be pretty difficult to understand. In a couple months, it will be different, but, its gonna take some time. :)

Diego Portales, like the other universities here in Chile have many campuses, but different from the other universities in Santiago, its campuses are all situation in the same general vicinity. Which is nice. They also have the best cafeteria specials from my understanding... which is more important then you know!

This is my second favorite school, just because I like its buildings and its environment. The students are interesting because it seems like most of the students are non-traditional. This could be because I am taking this class in the evening, but it does lend a very different environment to the classroom, which I have enjoyed so far.