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The College currently operates on a 24-building campus in Carmen Pampa, Bolivia that includes classrooms, dormitories, laboratories and offices. A highly committed, professional faculty, all of whose diplomas are granted through the Catholic University of Bolivia, provides instruction in the five fields of study. UAC-CP prepares incoming students through its one year pre-university program, giving them the foundation for college-level work. The following is a description of UAC-CP’s current enrollment:
UAC-CP Enrollment Summary – Fall Semester 2008 |
| Department |
No. Women |
No. Men |
Total Students |
Agronomy |
52 |
|
122 |
|
174 |
|
Nursing |
86 |
|
19 |
|
105 |
|
Veterinary Science |
32 |
|
60 |
|
92 |
|
Education |
54 |
|
49 |
|
103 |
|
Ecotourism |
31 |
|
22 |
|
53 |
|
Pre-University |
40 |
|
22 |
|
62 |
|
| |
|
|
589 |
students |
These enrollemnt numbers include students who are working on their theses in the following areas.
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Primary Education – The Education department provides Bachelors' Degrees in Primary Education to young aspiring teachers and to current, rural teachers in need of training. The goal of UAC-CP’s Primary Education Program is to successfully train students and teachers to become quality educators, who will go on to improve the standard of instruction at village primary schools in the Nor Yungas region of Bolivia. Most youth in Bolivia have no more than a high school education at best, and a truly excellent education is completely out of reach for most children of poor, rural families. The Primary Education Program’s mission is to help the children of the rural poor in Bolivia realize their full potential through excellent education.
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“The programs at the UAC really benefit so many people from the campo. I hope that when my wife and I graduate, we can go back and help the kids in our village of Incapucara de Coripata.”
–Valentin Jovito Ticona Mamani, Educational scholarship recipient. |
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Public Health Nursing – UAC-CP nursing students and staff are actively engaged with several community programs, including staffing rural health posts, training rural health staff, providing midwifery services, conducting research, making home visits, dispensing medications, honoring the use of natural medicines and teaching the components of sound family nutrition. In 1992, an analysis of the health care services of the Yungas region (North and South Yungas provinces) found that there were only 17 nurses and 65 nursing aids in the district trying to provide services for 165,000 residents. There are currently 137 students studying nursing at UAC-CP. All nursing graduates to date have been hired by hospitals or clinics that serve communities in the region.
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Agronomy — The UAC-CP Agronomy department's mission is to foster awareness about the needs and realities of rural areas and to provide graduates with practical skills and knowledge in sustainable agriculture, rural economics and environmental science. Additionally, the agronomy extension program provides outreach to farm families through technical assistance and workshops about sustainable farming practices such as crop rotation, crop-livestock integration and agroforestry. UAC-CP’s Agronomy Department bases all research, development and application of agricultural technologies on the socioeconomic need and environmental circumstances of resource-poor farmers. Current initiatives include model vegetable gardens, organic coffee production and processing, and the production of native trees for reforestation and agroforestry. |
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Veterinary Science –Like the Agronomy Program, the Veterinary Science program offers a full range of degree courses that include community projects, such as a special initiative to increase the size of the goat herds of the region, as well as a meat processing project that is generating much needed revenue for UAC-CP and area farmers. The Program’s community services focus on public health for animals and technical assistance in the production of small animals. Students and staff make periodic visits to the area’s rural communities to vaccinate animals, tend births, and offer much needed advice and technical assistance to farm families about the care of their animals. The veterinary science department also includes three production modules: chickens, hogs and meats (value added projects). In addition to their use for research and training purposes, these modules function as income generating micro-enterprises whose growth and future earning potential greatly enhance the College's work. |
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Claudia Cerruto, a UAC-CP graduate, has received a Fulbright Scholarship to earn a Master’s Degree in Food Technology. She plans to develop a center for the production of sausage, ham, cold cuts and bacon so that people in the Yungas can more easily produce products that improve their incomes. |
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Ecotourism – Nature tourism or Ecotourism represents an economic development alternative for the agrarian indigenous populations of the tropical and subtropical Amazon and Andean highlands of Bolivia. A central tenet of Ecotourism is that it should be an instrument for the protection of indigenous communities; a means of preserving biological diversity; and a tool for the alleviation of poverty. The Program prepares graduates for work in state or local government, national parks, travel agencies, international organizations, NGO's or other private sector positions. Graduates possess the skills necessary for promoting sustainable tourism in a number of careers and sectors, thus generating income for their families and communities. |
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