Centro Escolar Mexico Junior College
Centro Escolar Mexico Junior College is a tertiary level institution located in San Roman Village in the Corozal District of Belize. It was funded by the Mexican government in the year 2007. This junior college functions mainly as a vocational institution. The programs of study include Tourism, Agriculture, Information Technology, Mathematics, Biology Natural Resource Management and Architecture.
Every year the school held their annual open day where every program display different skills and apply the knowledge they gain in theory. This they put it into practice and students, teachers, parents, siblings and organizations from different districts go to see the different activities and projects Centro's students have to display. This vocational technical college not only teaches their students the theory part of the courses that they take, but also the practical part where they engage in fun and exciting activities.
The agriculture students are involved in chicken rearing and crop production. Some years ago this program also did bee keeping and extracted honey from their bees, which were kept in the Ecological Park. The ecological park is a secondary forest adjacent to the Junior College; this is catered for the protection of the organisms that live in there. The ecological park is shared with Escuela Secundaria Tecnica Mexico, the high school that is also next to the Junior College. Students from E.S.T.M also take care of the ecological park by doing cleaning of the trails, they also engage in a program where they have what is called a butterfly sanctuary. The sanctuary is located in one part of the ecological park. For the Biology natural resource management every year the group work in collaboration with organizations such as the Belize Adubon Society and Blue Ventures where they perform research data collection in marine studies in different places like the Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve, Halfmoon Caye and Calabash Caye. In the end of the year they present their data to the head of their department along with members of the organizations.
The tourism students also partake on the re- enactment wedding ceremony as part of their curricular activities. Not only are they exposed to this experience but also on doing actual tour guiding in different Mayan sites. For the IT students it's no different. They get the opportunity to compete abroad with Central American counties, in fields such as programming and web design.
Architecture is one of the newest yet most interesting subjects in CEMJC. They are equipped with spacious classrooms, drafting tables and specialized program named, AutoCAD. As all other courses, Architecture students also get the opportunity to create sophisticated models. (Houses, hotels, bridges among other complex structures)
The mathematics group is normally small mostly made up of five students. This course has its level difficulty; therefore, not many students enroll in the subject. The mathematic students have the opportunity to share their knowledge with the adjacent high school, as they are invited to teach for a day at the institution.
This institution is newly born to the Corozal District; however, they have the intention of expanding the institution. Their aim is to hire more teachers and also add more courses to their curriculum. The institution counts with a storeroom for the agriculture department, a lab for the biology department, two labs for the IT, a food and beverage kitchen for the tourism department and the newly done conference room along with the expansion of the staff room and the construction of the auditorium.
References
External links
- Official site
- Centro Escolar Mexico Junior College, ( n.d.) Creating more access for higher education. Retrieved September 12, 2016 from http://cemjc.edu.bz/
- CTV 3 News. (2014). CEMJC holds annual expo. Retrieved September 12, 2016 from http://www.ctv3belizenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4542:cemjc-holds-annual-expo&catid=44:education&Itemid=112
- Foreign Credits, (2012). Centro Escolar Mexico Junior College. Retrieved September 12, 2016 from http://www.classbase.com/Countries/Belize/Universities/Centro-Escolar-Mexico-Junior-College-25104