Building upon our four year record of success in producing innovative, interactive APEC education programs, the new @APEC 2002 Series was officially launched December 12th, 2001 in Monterrey, Mexico.

The @APEC 2002 Mexico Series will include three interactive multimedia learning programs produced over the next 11 months by VTM APEC Learning Teams. Each program will feature a large representative group of Mexican students and educators working in concert with their counterparts from the United States, Brunei, New Zealand, Korea, China and Singapore. The content will include special presentations on key APEC sectors and interviews/discussions with APEC Leaders from Mexico, the U.S. and other Member Economies.

The "series" concept allows the VTM and its Sponsors and Strategic Partners to take full advantage of Mexico’s proximity to the United States, the rich range of curriculum subjects provided by Mexico’s APEC Agenda, and the expanded classroom and public audience opportunities created by the increased Latin focus of APEC (Mexico 2002 and Chile 2004).
The @APEC 2002 Mexico December program was co-produced by the VTM Foundation and the Jesse Helms Center Foundation in cooperation with Monterrey TEC Virtual University and Santa Catarina Campus. Our Sponsors and Strategic Partners include General Motors, Apple, Cemex, Grupo Vitro, the U.S. Department of Commerce and President’s Export Council, Continental Airlines, asia-inc. magazine, and Mexico’s APEC and ABAC Secretariats. The three-day inaugural program was co-hosted by Mexico’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator Fernando Margain and U.S. Senator Jesse Helms as a follow up to the historic bilateral committee meeting co-chaired by both in Mexico earlier this year.

The December program introduced the participants to the APEC process and explored the importance of commercial, civic and cultural interdependence between the U.S., Mexico and other APEC Member Economies. The student-produced multimedia program focused on the key APEC sectors leading Asia-Latin trade. Through the @APEC 2002 Series theme of "Know How, Know Where, Know Why," the students and teachers explored the driving forces of the Latin-Asian future of APEC’s trade, investment and capacity building processes and the resulting benefits to all Member Economies and their citizens.

The first ever U.S.-Mexico joint multimedia classroom on Asia Pacific trade and education connected 100 Mexican and U.S. students and teachers to schools around the Pacific Rim. Through video-conferencing and Monterrey TEC video-net, the U.S. and Mexican students in Monterrey were able to work with and learn from students and teachers at the Auckland University of Technology and King’s College in Auckland, New Zealand and the University of Brunei Darussalam in Brunei.

The @APEC students and teachers worked 12 hour days in small teams from a mix of APEC Economies developing real world strategies for connecting businesses and communities around the Pacific Rim. This included interactive classroom discussions with leading APEC government, trade and education officials: Our special APEC guests included Senator Fernando Margain, Chairman of the Mexico Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Jose Luis Paz Vega, Advisor to the Mexican Chairmanship of ABAC 2002; Francisco Gutierrez, ABAC Executive Director; Eduardo Ramos Gomez, Former Ambassador of Mexico to Singapore and Brunei; Flavia Farinetti, Director for ECOTECH issues of the APEC Mexico Office; Christina Ward, APEC Education Officer for New Zealand; Brenda Fisher, APEC Affairs Coordinator for the U.S. Department of Commerce; Marc Chittum, Director of the President’s Export Council; and Pam Lindberg, National VTM Educator.

The U.S. Delegation Included: