THE TIMING is right. Just a day after President Juan Carlos Varela talked up the importance of bi-lingual education for Panamanians, with the promise of 1000 teachers heading north to study English, a supplement in the subscriber edition of La Prensa carried an article about one of the many Panamanian students studying in Canada.

While the majority of Panama’s high school graduates seeking advanced education in other countries have, in the past, tended to head for US universities, a growing number are choosing Canada.
The La Prensa article  reads:
WITH the increased awareness of advanced education opportunities in Canada in quality universities with a wide band of courses, a growing number of Panamanian students are heading to the vast county in the north, and discovering that it is not just a snow belt, but a land of diverse climate, scenery, and people, and with an overall reputation for friendliness and multinational harmony.
Ana Ulloa, a recent graduate of the University Of British Columbia (UBC) is typical of those who have discovered the basic facts for themselves, along with the revelation that studying in a high level University in Canada costs dramatically less than at similar institutions in the neighboring United States.
Ana, 23, is the daughter of two Panama doctors but, like her two siblings, has chosen a different career path. She set her mind on working in the field of public health and, when researching psychology courses, discovered that UBC had an international reputation in the field, and was constantly ranked in the top 40 universities in the world.
When she visited the campus with its scores of hectares of forest land, access to beaches for relaxing or studying, a mild winter climate and stunning mountain scenery, she was sold. A public transit pass included in her admission fee was icing on the cake. More was to come.
“I felt Vancouver to be a city for the young and open to foreigners” said Ana
She began her psychology studies focusing on behavioural neuroscience in 2009, and quickly made friends with students of many countries, including eight from Panama. She discovered the joys of safe cycling in a city with dedicated bike paths, allowing her to explore sites like Stanley Park with its half a million cedar, fir and hemlock trees, beaches and exploration trails.
Outside of the classroom Ana was introduced to snowboarding and skiing at world famed Whistler Mountain where the university has its own lodge, and she played flag football for a local community team.
In the lecture halls she had few problems. While studying at Panama’s Oxford International School she had obtained a good command of the English language. “In fact” she laughed “my spelling was probably better than some of my Canadian friends.” And now her accent has modulated to the point that she would be hard to separate from a home grown “Canuck”.
As a graduate, Ana is following her career path gaining practical research experience with schizophrenia and schizophrenia like traits, and planning to return to do her master’s degree before moving into public health/epidemiology with a focus on mental disorders.