The distance from Tegucigalpa, the capital city of the Republic of Honduras, to Saint Paul, the capital city of Minnesota, is approximately 2,200 miles by air or 3,033 miles if you choose to drive. But Cecia Flores Sanchez dreamed of studying for her master’s degree abroad long before receiving her BS in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras.
Located in Tegucigalpa, the Universidad is 142 miles south of El Progreso, where Cecia grew up. That's far, but not quite as far as the University of Minnesota (U of M) where Cecia is currently pursuing a master's in Food Science in the College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences.
There were stops in between. In 2022, Cecia moved to Miami to learn English, but didn’t feel she was making progress. That’s when a fellow Honduran recommended Minnesota—the state, the University, and the Minnesota English Language Program (MELP).
“When I visited the University that October, I fell in love with it,” Cecia says. “The high-quality education and everything I explored on the website made it a dream to study there. As I walked around the Food Science and Nutrition building, I could imagine myself as a graduate student.”
Her next step: improving her English language skills by participating in MELP’s Intensive English Language Program (IEP) during the spring and summer of 2023. That fall, Cecia became one of the inaugural recipients of the newly established MELP Scholarship, allowing her to continue her studies in the IEP an additional semester.
