Mississippi State University is expanding its international footprint by partnering with a university in Uruguay.
A memorandum of understanding has been reached between Mississippi State and Universidad ORT Uruguay, with an overarching goal of enhancing educational and research exchange opportunities for both students and faculty at each institution.
The partnership, per officials, will also serve to identify commonalities between the two schools to grow the relationship and develop cooperative endeavors, while promoting the exchange of educational and cultural materials. New study abroad opportunities will factor into this equation, as well.
Mississippi State’s Lourdes Cardozo Gaibisso has been heralded as the driving force behind this partnership. The assistant professor of Teaching English as a Second Language and linguistics had a program funded in 2025 to strengthen language instruction across Mississippi and Uruguay. The funding came from Mississippi State’s Global Development Seed Grant program.
“It is important to co-create solutions and opportunities that integrate different voices, levels of expertise and skills,” Cardozo Gaibisso said. “This partnership signifies the start of how our universities can build lasting relationships that can allow us to advance research, service and learning at a global scale.”
Cardozo Gaibisso provided a hybrid, seven-month in-service English for Speakers of Other Languages teacher professional development program in Uruguay and has co-authored two forthcoming publications, as well as a conference presentation, about her teaching strategies. Universidad ORT Uruguay Co-Principal Investigator Natalia Zambon Ferronato assisted in the professional development program.
Officials from both schools have since celebrated the new partnership.
