In 1941 in Puerto Rico, Ana Gonzalez de Mendez made her mark on bilingual education by founding the Puerto Rico Junior College, which was later changed to her namesake. With sister universities sprouting in Texas, Washington, D.C., and even various areas in Florida, Ana G. Mendez University finally made its way to Miami Lakes and its new campus in a building in Business Park West specifically designed for the school.
AGMU has put priority on bilingual students through teaching multiple courses in both English and Spanish. The director of the local campus, Dr. Ramon Garcia, has 40 years of experience in education in both Latin America and The United Sates.
“The need for bilingual education at all levels has changed tremendously,” Garcia said.
Because of the large population of Hispanics and Latinos here in South Florida, the need to expand a curriculum’s language has increased. Through AGMU’s Discipline-Based Dual Language Immersion Model, students are able to study all programs and courses interchangeably in English and Spanish, switching off dialects every week.
"Studies have shown that learning two languages helps enhance brain function,” explained Garcia. “Studying a higher education degree simultaneously in two languages is a way to both become a bilingual professional, and have better opportunities in the job force, especially in South Florida.”
With over 1,000 students, AGMU was still able to make room for displaced students from Puerto Rico during this past year’s hurricane season. Additionally, the school donated over $72,000 in scholarships to those students who needed to move to the U.S. to continue their studies.
Miami Lakers and many other local residents flooded the campus and made it the “command center” for donations. Over 500 volunteers and thousands of South Florida residents came to the month-old campus to lend a hand in support of Puerto Rico.
Being Miami Lakes’s first-ever higher-education institution, AGMU will continue to be a strong presence not only in this community, but in the collective of South Florida.