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BorderLinks has developed cooperative relationships with several colleges and universities enabling us to offer a 15 credit semester program on the US-Mexico border. The BorderLinks Semester on the Border Program offers students a unique opportunity for academic studies, experiential learning, and community living along the U.S./Mexico border in Tucson, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. BorderLinks is committed to providing a challenging and transformative educational experience though a variety of interdisciplinary approaches focusing on border studies and the impact of globalization. Emphasis is also placed on intercultural relationship-building, critical reflection, and strengthening Spanish language skills. We seek to equip our students with the necessary skills to observe, analyze and respond to the challenges of the world community as socially cognizant and responsible global citizens.

Our commitment is to build bridges across borders – national, religious, and ideological borders – and to test our perceptions against the reality of what we experience. BorderLinks’ faith-based position, which evolved from a movement offering sanctuary to Central Americans fleeing war in their home countries, inspires our work today. It also requires us to work respectfully with those who express a sincere interest in learning more about the people and issues of the borderlands. Where appropriate, we encourage people to analyze and respond to the border reality through the lens of their own belief system.

The fall semester begins around Labor Day and finishes up in mid-December. The spring semester begins the last week of January and wraps up in mid-May. Exact dates for the program are yet to be announced.

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BorderLinks has two facilities: Our Tucson-based facility is located just south of the downtown business district and approximately one mile from the University of Arizona. Our Mexico facility is located in the colonia of Bella Vista in Nogales, Sonora, situated approximately 2 miles from the city center.

While in Tucson, students are housed in the BorderLinks dormitory facility located in the back of the BorderLinks office building. With accommodation for up to 50 people, the dorms are at times a bustling residence. Two to three semester students are placed in each dorm room. Students can expect to share the dormitory common space with Delegation Program participants when trips are running.

In Nogales, the program revolves around life at the BorderLinks Community Center called "Casa de la Misericordia “or the "House of Mercy.” Students reside in the Casa dorm facilities for the first week of their stay in Mexico. Students then transfer to a homestay for the remaining 4 weeks in Mexico.

Two week-long Travel Seminars are programmed into the Semester on the Border experience. During the seminars, students will stay in community centers, churches, or motels in various cities along the border. While in most circumstances students will stay in beds, some sites require students to sleep in sleeping bags on floor mats.

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Students should also note that in addition to regular classroom lectures and discussions there will be two one-week Travel Seminars, a number of community Site Visits and field trips, a series of Economics Seminars, as well as a four week home stay with Mexican families in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. These “additional” program components are deemed as invaluable aspects of the Semester on the Border experience and considerably complement the academic course work.

Due to the dynamic nature of the U.S./Mexico border, a number of important global trends and issues emerge in sharp focus in the borderlands. Some of the core themes analyzed in the Semester on the Border program are as follows:

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At BorderLinks, we distinguish between what Paulo Freire (1986) calls the banking model of education and education for positive social transformation. The banking model is a linear learning model that begins with teachers/experts who hold all the knowledge and serve as role models for students. Success in such a learning system means conforming to the model of the expert, which supports the status quo. Conversely, education for positive social transformation is an integrated learning model that embraces and works with the tension between theory and practice, reflection and action, teacher/learner knowledge, and new information.

In all of BorderLinks’ work, whether it is with Semester program students, U.S. delegation participants, or residents of border colonias, our educational philosophy is grounded in the belief that education at its best combines academic study and reflection with direct personal experience, respects all people as potential teachers, acknowledges complexity and refuses to be satisfied by oversimplification, is enriched by learning in community, and encourages each participant to act on what he or she has learned.

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Visits with various community activists, humanitarians, non-profit workers, government representatives, and social service organizations of Tucson and Nogales serve as crucial educational components of the Semester on the Border program. Serving as a window into the heart of the communities of Nogales and Tucson, these visits are interwoven into the program curriculum, offering students the opportunity to apply theoretical, textual knowledge to observed and shared stories and experiences within the real context of the borderlands.

Students will participate in two travel seminars during the course of the semester. The travel seminars are one-week delegations designed specifically for semester students. During the seminars, students are afforded the opportunity to hear first hand accounts from various community members along the border, providing students with an array of perspectives to broaden their view of the border reality. The seminars include visits with governmental officials such as U.S. customs and border patrol agents, academics, humanitarian groups, local activists, social service organizations, and migrant shelters. For more information and a sample schedule of a delegation trip, visit our webpage entitled Overview of a Trip.

One of the three key points in our organizational mission statement is to encourage a shared analysis of the implications of the global economy. We at BorderLinks know that in order to gain an understanding of the current conditions of the U.S./Mexico border, whether dealing with issues of poverty, immigration, migration, labor conditions, environmental desecration, health concerns, trade agreements, etc., one must factor in the question of economics. The economics seminars cover issues of foreign debt, international financial institutions, maquiladoras (foreign owned assembly plants set up along the Mexican side of the U.S./Mexico border), labor conditions, and free trade (i.e. NAFTA.) Though not heavily addressed during the economics seminars, alternative economic models (such as fair trade, cooperatives, micro-credit organizations, etc.) are frequently explored throughout the duration of the semester.

Community living is an integral part of the semester experience. During orientation week, students will be asked to contribute collectively to creating community and dorm norms. This consensus-based process will help ensure that all students have voice in agreed upon norms related to respectful living, eating, studying/learning and discussion standards to be put in place. It has been our experience that this practice builds an early foundation of trust in students and program staff which assists in establishing a safe and open environment where jointly, the minds and hearts of all can grow.

A professional educational support staff member, known as the On-site Semester Program Coordinator, will live and work very closely with semester students during the duration of the semester. He/She lives with the students at the Tucson BorderLinks facility and in Nogales when the program transfers. In addition to orchestrating the day-to-day logistical program planning and living arrangements such as shopping, booking and carrying out site visits, etc., he/she will hold group workshops on community building, social identity, intercultural communication, community orientations, and re-entry. He/she also helps plan and lead both semester travel seminars, as well as facilitate frequent group and individual reflections.

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Many of our cooperating colleges and universities award direct credit upon completion of the Semester Program. In such cases, the home college or university will assign course names and numbers that correspond with courses in the respective institution’s departments. If students attend a college or university that will not permit students to directly enroll, students should contact Amara Lauren, BorderLinks Academic Coordinator, (520-628-8263) for details on how to enroll through one of our cooperating schools. If you wish to participate on a non-credit basis you may enroll directly with BorderLinks.

In addition to registering with a college and university through which a student would receive academic credit, each student must apply and register with BorderLinks as well. We ask for a $300 non-refundable registration fee which is due by May 1st for the fall semester and by November 1st for the spring semester.

Transfer of student financial aid packages, including federal, college and private aid, varies depending on the kind of awards and school restrictions. For questions regarding what financial aid monies can be applied to our program, please contact Amara Lauren and your financial aid advisor at your home institution. In some cases, a student's financial aid package can be transferred to another school.

If you are interested in applying to the Semester on the Border program, please take the time to download and complete our application form. Before submitting the application, we strongly suggest that you check with an advisor at your home institution regarding the transfer status of your credits and financial aid. Please mail all completed application packets to BorderLinks at 620 S. 6th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85701.

If you are interested in the program, or know of someone who might be interested, we encourage you to email us at semester@borderlinks.org, or call the BorderLinks office at 520-628-8263 for further information.