U-M/UPR Annual Curriculum Development Program

The collaboration between the University of Michigan (U-M) and the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) began in 2014 as a result of professional and personal relationships between Lenny Ureña Valerio, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) coordinator and former UPR student, and Juan Hernandez, assistant professor of the Department of History of the Faculty of Humanities. We conducted our pilot workshop organized in Río Piedras in 2014, with K-12 curriculum workshops focused on topics that cross multiple disciplines and allow for the integration of area studies content.

In 2018, the U-M International Institute (II) began a collaboration with the Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research (CEDER), a highly skilled team within the U-M Marsal Family School of Education devoted exclusively to offering exceptional-quality designs, evaluations, and research on teaching, learning, leadership, and policy at multiple levels of education. Specifically, CEDER supports the design and development of education curricula, programs, technology tools, and software for other units on campus and for K-12 and informal learning settings in surrounding communities. The II-CEDER collaboration was established to professionalize the development of the teacher resources that are created at each annual U-M/UPR symposium. 

As part of the effort to create sustainable links with institutions serving underrepresented populations, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) at the University of Michigan built a partnership with the Colleges of Education, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico. There are no Title VI National Resources Centers on the island of Puerto Rico; there are also no Hispanic-serving institutions in the State of Michigan. Thanks to deep existing ties between our institutions, we are able to expand access to the area studies and language resources at UM to the faculty and students at the UPR, to in-service teachers in the region around UPR, and to their K-12 students. Our collaboration has included not just LACS but also other National Resource Centers and Area studies programs within the International Institute. Our partnership now includes three major dimensions centered around area studies: K-12 Professional Teacher Development, UPR Faculty Professional Development, and Library Support Services.

This project includes participation from the following U-M National Resource Centers (NRCs):

• African Studies Center
• Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
• Center for South Asian Studies
• Center for Southeast Asian Studies
• Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies
• Nam Center for Korean Studies
• Lieberthal and Rogel Center for Chinese Studies
• Japanese Studies

And the following departments at the University of Puerto Rico:

• College of Humanities
• College of Social Sciences
• College of Education
• School of Graduate Studies and Research
• The University of Puerto Rico High School

The University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras (UPR-RP) is a public research university that serves more than 15,000 students, 20% of them graduate students. Founded in 1903, UPR-RP is the oldest university and the main campus within the University of Puerto Rico System. Its academic offerings include 70 undergraduate and 39 graduate degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and professional fields. The university holds a Title V grant from the US/Department of Education and has consistently granted the largest number of doctoral degrees to Hispanics in the US. The College of Education has the largest number of students and offers degrees at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. levels. It also administers the university's elementary and secondary schools.