Global Innovation Scholars analyze and offer advice to four local nonprofit businesses; club holds its first Amigo Mingle

By Kernan Turner

Nine University of Guanajuato students joined Southern Oregon University students in Ashland in May to complete a joint project of analyzing and advising four of the town’s small businesses.

Students from the two universities spent a week together in April in Ashland’s sister city, Guanajuato, where they worked with three Mexican small businesses, including a bakery, a coffee shop and a private student residence hall.

In Ashland the students presented their findings to four nonprofit enterprises: the Ashland Independent Film Festival, Talent Maker City, the Institute for Applied Sustainability and Film Southern Oregon.

The students are participants in the Global Innovation Scholars Program, a collaboration between UG and SOU, co-founded in 2022 by UG professor Martin Pantoja and Dee Carreon (formerly Fretwell), senior SOU business school instructor and its director of professional development and global initiatives.

Supported by Amigo Club

Ashland Amigo Club-endowed scholarship funds administered by the SOU Foundation are supporting this year’s program

“The program aligns strongly with the Amigo Club’s mission to deepen cross-cultural people-to-people understanding and strengthen ties between our universities,” Ashland Amigo Club President Jay Tapp said in an email exchange. “Supporting this program for one academic cycle will ensure the scholarship funding is put to its best use, maintaining the integrity of supporting student exchanges.”

Program founder Carreon said in an interview that by the time they completed this year’s project by making formal reports to the business owners, the students would have spent four months online working together remotely. She said, “The experience immerses them in real world solutions and at the same time they make long-term friendships with students of another culture.”

Amigo Mingle

Forty Amigo Club members and friends attended the club’s first “Amigo Mingle” one Saturday afternoon in March at the Paschal Winery in the foothills northwest of Ashland.

While two swans glided across the winery’s pond down below and alpacas munched tender spring grass in a nearby pasture, guests gathered in the winery’s cellar room, visiting old and new friends while sampling Paschal wines and prepared snacks.

Amigo Club Vice President Karen Tapp introduced Jordan Saturn, leader of the regional Trebled Souls band and a registered nurse at the Asante Ashland Community Hospital who lives in Ashland with his wife, Maythé. Saturen and his guitar accompanied everyone as they sang familiar Mexican ballads in Spanish, reading from printed lyrics provided to attendees.

Club President Jay Tapp welcomed everyone and urged members to pay their dues and invited nonmembers to join.

“Your dues help pay for gatherings like this and for when we entertain visitors in town from our sister city, Guanajuato,” he said in greeting.

SOU professor Rene Ordoñez came to the mingle with two Guanajuato students he is hosting this year, Niko Rojas, 16, and Sebastian Rojas, 17. Both are attending Ashland High School, where Sebastian received his diploma this year and will start classes at SOU in the fall.

The Rojas brothers are the children of Gaston Rojas Rivas and Patricia Romero Hicks, the sister of their uncle, Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, a well-known civic, political and educational figure in Guanajuato as well as in Ashland and at SOU, where he earned two master’s degrees.

Guanajuato exchange student at SOU

The Ashland Amigo Club’s most recent scholarship recipient is Maria Libia Salazar of Guanajuato, who enrolled for this year’s spring term at SOU.

Jay Tapp said the award recognizes outstanding students participating in the Amistad exchange student program between SOU and the University of Guanajuato.

The scholarship intends to help cover housing, meals and other personal costs.

Amigo Club’s Entre Amigos (Between Friends) column about Ashland ties to its sister city Guanajuato, Mexico, appears regularly. Longtime AP reporter and bureau chief Kernan Turner is an Ashland resident and Amigo Club member.