Virginia Tech Opens Caribbean Center for International Studies

The Blacksburg school from the U.S. has established a center in the Caribbean where a Virginia Tech faculty can teach students and conduct research on biodiversity, environmental sustainability and hotel and tourism management.

The Caribbean Center for Education and Research is in Punta Cana, on the eastern edge of the Dominican Republic.

In announcing the center, Tech officials hailed it as part of a larger strategy to build international centers of scholarship around the globe to give Tech students more international experience. Tech also operates the Center for European Studies and Architecture in Riva, Switzerland.

Tech plans to operate the center at the Punta Cana Resort and Club´s education facility and has established a partnership with the resort´s nonprofit Punta Cana Ecological Foundation. The foundation maintains a 2,000-acre natural forest reserve, miles of protected coral reef, freshwater lagoons and coastal mangroves.

Tech professors have already offered various courses at the resort´s education center, including tropical ornithology, biotech entrepreneurship, global issues in natural resources and introduction to travel and tourism management.