Two UNLV education professors have been chosen to participate in a group study exchange being sponsored by local Rotary District 5300.

Kelly Coker, assistant professor of educational psychology, and Cecilia Maldonado, assistant professor of workforce education and development, were selected to be part of two four-person teams that will travel this spring to South Africa and Mexico, respectively.

During the month-long trips, Coker and Maldonado will visit educational, business, industrial, health, and cultural sites while participating in Rotary visits and home stays with prominent local Rotarians. The exchanges, which are educational and cultural in nature, are intended to enrich the experiences of each participant and to provide them opportunities to act as informal "ambassadors of goodwill" for the United States.

For Coker, who will visit South Africa April 15 to May 15, the trip is a chance to see how the end of apartheid in that country has affected its people and the work of her professional counterparts.

"As someone who studies how cultural and environmental factors affect human development, I see this trip as an opportunity to broaden my own perspective on how the cultural diversity of South Africa has helped shape the country it has become," Coker said. "I think this experience will not only inform my own research, but will help me better impart the subject matter to my students here at UNLV."

Coker's trip is being sponsored by the Green Valley Rotary Club of Henderson.

Maldonado will visit Rotary District 4110 in Northern Mexico, which includes the cities of Durango, Juarez, Aguacalientes, and Chihuahua, between March 20 and April 17. Her trip is being sponsored by the Rotary Club of Las Vegas West.

Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. In 166 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 30,000 Rotary clubs.