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El Salvador’s Universidad Evangélica Joins OAS Consortium of Universities

The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) and El Salvador’s Universidad Evangélica today signed a Cooperation Agreement through which they seek to strengthen education and human development, adopting strategies such as co-sponsorship for scholarships recipients, the use of long-distance teaching and learning approaches, and the dissemination of the Leo Rowe Pan American Fund, which offers loans to students from Latin America and the Caribbean.

At the event, held via videoconference between Washington and San Salvador, the Rector of the Universidad Evangélica, Dr. Victor Edgardo Segura, explained the commitment of the university with higher education, describing it as “a maximum and principal source for development.” He also thanked the OAS for “allowing us, as an institution, to contribute part of who we are to this development process at a regional level in the educational field that is within our scope.”

From OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, the Organization’s Executive Secretary of Integral Development, Ambassador Mauricio Eduardo Cortes Costa, said that for over fifty years the Organization has awarded more than 21,000 scholarships to students in the region through agreements and collaborations similar to the one being signed today. “The entrance of Universidad Evangélica to this consortium is a motive of joy and satisfaction, as we are contributing to educational improvement in the hemisphere,” he affirmed.

Ambassador Luis Menendez-Castro, the Alternative Representative of El Salvador to the OAS, was present during the signing of the Agreement, in representation of his government. He alluded to the celebration of the 41st OAS General Assembly in June 2011 in the capital of El Salvador, and asserted that agreements like this one “generate a multiplying effect that encourages other universities to follow the example.” The representative of El Salvador stated that upon joining the OAS consortium of universities, Universidad Evangélica “is gathering prestige for the work of the university and is opening the doors for potential ties with other higher education institutions, to become connected through the development of joint programs, the establishment of synergies, or the identification of new specialties.”

The Universidad Evangélica is the third educational institution from El Salvador to join the OAS consortium of universities. More than 100 universities from all over the hemisphere are currently participating in the consortium. Further information about the OAS scholarship program is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-418/10