ASHGABAT (TCA) — A delegation of three American professors from New Mexico visited Turkmenistan between March 14 and 16 to seek opportunities for future partnerships between colleges and universities in Albuquerque and Ashgabat, the U.S. Embassy in Ashgabat said.
The delegation consisted of Dr. Yu-Lin Shen, Director of Graduate Programs, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Mexico; Russ Fisher-Ives, Director of RoboRAVE International and President of Inquiry Facilitators, Inc.; and Amy Christensen, Associate Dean, English, School of Adult and General Education, Central New Mexico Community College.
The delegation members sought to expand the Albuquerque-Ashgabat Sister Cities cooperation to include partnerships between universities in the two cities. They met with their counterparts at the International University for the Humanities and Development and the Turkmen State Institute for Transport and Communications and conducted an introductory meeting at the Ministry of Education to discuss ideas for future cooperation.
The American educators also gave presentations for the public at the Embassy’s Information Resource Center, on topics such as “The Community College System in the USA” with Amy Christensen, “The University of New Mexico” with Dr. Yu-Lin Shen, and “Robotics Education and Competition” with Russ Fisher-Ives.
Since the establishment of the Ashgabat-Albuquerque Sister Cities program in 1990, the U.S. Government has supported several exchange programs between the two cities.
