Mexico City Education Fair Helps Locals Find Learning and Employment
Contributed By Jason Swensen, Church News associate editor
The Church-sponsored education fair in Mexico City offered about 1,000 people a rare opportunity to network with schools and employers all gathered under one roof.
Article Highlights
- About 1,000 people participated.
- There are more than one million Latter-day Saints in Mexico.
- Education encourages self-sufficiency and service to others.
“The Church believes strongly that if we educate ourselves in areas that can help us grow economically, we will become more self-sufficient and also be able to help our neighbors in better ways.” —Daniel Farrera Toledo, education manager of the Mexico Area
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Approximately 1,000 people from across Mexico City and neighboring regions participated in the 2018 Church-sponsored education fair. The event was hosted in the multistake center located next to the Mexico City Mexico Temple. It was designed to help people of all backgrounds network with local schools and discover new paths to learning, provident living, and employment.
Mexico—home to over a million Latter-day Saints and more than a dozen temples—is one of the key centers of the Church. Leaders there have long known that education can help that nation and the Church realize its vast potential. In the past, the Mexico Area has often been at the forefront of the Church’s Perpetual Education Fund program even while helping teens prepare for their essential high school entrance exams.
“Leaders of this Church have repeatedly emphasized the importance of education,” said then-Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in his October 1992 general conference address. “It is a vital component of wisdom. Not long after the pioneers began construction of their temple in Illinois, they established the University of the City of Nauvoo.
“The First Presidency proclaimed that this university ‘will enable us to teach our children wisdom, to instruct them in all the knowledge and learning, in the arts, sciences and learned professions’” (“Where Is Wisdom?”).
Daniel Farrera Toledo, education manager of the Mexico Area, told Mexico’s Mormon Newsroom that education and self-sufficiency is a guiding priority in a religious organization that is growing across the globe.
“The Church believes strongly that if we educate ourselves in areas that can help us grow economically, we will become more self-sufficient and also be able to help our neighbors in better ways,” he said.
First held a year ago, the Mexico City education fair is already becoming something of a tradition. According to Mormon Newsroom, this year’s fair participants included 56 educational institutions providing technical, professional, and postgraduate training. Other education fair exhibitors were looking to fill employment positions.
The Church’s education efforts in Mexico are not limited to the sprawling capital. Similar events have been hosted in Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Puebla. Additional education fairs are planned across the country in the future.
As President Nelson once counseled: “Continue your education wherever you are, whatever your interest and opportunity, however you determine you can best serve your family and society.”
Visitors and exhibitors at the fair discuss educational and employment opportunities available in Mexico City. Photo by Esli Dan Hernandez Gomez.
Dozens of Mexican educational institutions sent representatives to the annual gathering to share information about their schools and even fill employment needs. Photo by Esli Dan Hernandez Gomez.
