Winners of the “Escuelas Solidarias” Presidential Award 2011

The Minister of Education, Alberto Sileoni, and the Subsecretary of Equity and Qaulity, Mara Brawer, presided over the “Escuelas Solidarias” Presidential Award ceremony which was organized by the “Educación Solidaria” National Program.

Institutions awarded with first place:
Technical School N°3 “María Sánchez de Thompson” (Buenos Aires City) – Part of CLAYSS School Support Program
Kindergaten N° 20 (Pampa del Infierno, Chaco)
School N° 4-004 “Mercedes Álvarez de Segura” (San Rafael, Mendoza) – Part of CLAYSS School Support Program
School N° 271 (Los Villagra, Tucumán) – Part of CLAYSS School Support Program

Other institutions awarded:
Bilingual Intercultural School “Tajy Poty” 1407 (Gobernador Roca, Misiones) – Part of CLAYSS School Support Program
High School “Don Jaime de Nevares” (Bariloche, Río Negro)
Integration and Development Center (Quilmes, Buenos Aires) – Part of CLAYSS School Support Program
High School N° 323 “San Antonio” (Provincia de Córdoba)
High School N° 11 "Hipólito Vieytes" (Pueblo Liebig, Entre Ríos)
High School N° 5 “María Ignacia Vela” (Tandil, Buenos Aires) – Part of CLAYSS School Support Program
Art School "Profesor Francisco A. de Santo" (La Plata, Buenos Aires)
Special Needs School "Juana Manso" (Villa Allende, Córdoba)
School N°44 "José Ignacio Gorriti" (León, Jujuy) – Part of CLAYSS School Support Program 

University students working on a community radio

Given the need of the neighbors of Villa 21-24 from Barracas (“to have our own voice in the media”), the faculty and students from the Catholic University’s Journalism, Publicity and Education Sciences careers have begun to work with a group of young people from the neighborhood. They have taught them techniques to produce radio messages through two workshops: “Anchoring and production for radio” and “How to operate edition software”. Thanks to the Irradiate Project, designed by the Catholic School, 25 young people will be able to communicate, through a community radio, the service practices developed in the neighborhood.

A serving optician and other service-learning initiatives in a technical school from Buenos Aires

In the last few years the Technical School Nº 3 “María Sánchez de Thompson” has developed service-learning projects which have been recognized nationwide.
The first project is “See Better”, a project which offers free or cheap glasses for patients with low resources who cannot afford health insurance. During the afternoon the students, assisted by their teachers, solve ophthalmology related issues of hundreds of people who come to the institution for assistance. In October, the “See Better” Project was awarded with the “Escuelas Solidarias” Presidential Award 2011.
Another project being developed by the institution is called “Harvesting Biogas from Bacteria”, a project aimed to make use of the anaerobic degradation of organic waste to generate biogas. Its goal is to take advantage of the waste generated by bio-digestor prototypes. A small vegetable garden was organized and its produce is sold to fund the project.
Finally, the project “H2O as fuel” won the “Best Technological Project” award at the Buenos Aires Science Fair 2011. The project, which has a very low cost, intends to promote the production and use of oxyhydrogen gas (oxygen and hydrogen) as fuel. The electrochemical devise is able to divide hydrogen and oxygen, injecting gas to fossil fuel and thus increasing its performance and diminishing gas emission significantly.

Workshop at the National University of Cuyo

On September 12th and 13th, in the city of Mendoza, Sebastián Puglisi conducted a workshop on service-learning for Deans, Academic and Extension Secretaries, and faculty from the National University of Cuyo. He also participated in a panel on Pedagogy for authorities, faculty and students from Teacher Training Institutions. To see more images you can go to CLAYSS site at Picassa.

Schools Support Program: new faculty professional development courses

On September CLAYSS carried out three onsite faculty professional development courses for schools participating in Natura’s “Believe to See” Program.
On September 8th, Irma Sosa conducted a service-learning course for 53 teachers and authorities from the School Nº4-004 “Mercedes Álvarez de Segura”, from San Rafael, Mendoza. On September 16th, Raquel Camperi conducted a course for 115 teachers and authorities at the School Nº 1304 “San Martín de Porres” in Santa Fe. On September 23rd, Martín Ierullo visited the School Nº27 from Lomas de Zamora, Buenos Aires and met with 20 teachers; on the afternoon the students from the institution presented the activities which are part of the Project “Permanent HIV-AIDS Prevention Campaign”.
To know more about the courses you can go to the “Believe to See” Programa Blog.

Schools Support Program: Natura EcoTalks

On Wednesday, October 19th, Martín Ierullo conducted a service-learning course to 12 sales representatives from the cosmetics company Natura in San Justo, Buenos Aires. During the course the participants discussed core service-learning concepts and learnt more about service projects being implemented by schools participating in the “Believe to See” Program.

Onsite course for the Consortium of Universities from North Peru in the city of Huaraz, Peru

On September 5th and 6th, Carina Rossa offered the first onsite service-learning course for authorities and facilty from 9 universities, all members of the Consortium of Universities from North Peru. The activity was organized and conducted at the National University Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo, from the province of Huaraz, Peru.
Some of the universities present in the course are physically located in areas of the Jungle and have members of multiple ethnicities amongst their students to whom they provide an inclusive and intercultural education. Their faculty and authorities hold service-learning in high esteem, given that its didactic and methodological qualities allow for an education more adequate to the rhythm, codes, and ways processing information found in these cultures.

Second onsite course at the Catholic University of Argentina

As part of the Support for Social Engagement and Service-learning in Higher Education in Latin America Program, CLAYSS begun the second phase of onsite courses for 40 authorities, faculty members, student leaders and community associates from the Catholic University of Argentina. The course, carried out on September 12th and 13th, was conducted by Nieves Tapia and Enrique Ochoa with the collaboration of Hernán Amar.

Support for Social Engagement and Service-learning in Higher Education in Latin America Program: new faculty professional development course

On Thursday 20th and Friday 21st of October María Rosa Tapia and Sebastián Puglisi conducted a course at Autonomous University Ruiz Montoya in Lima, Peru. The course had 70 participants, which included authorities and faculty from the institution, and analyzed the pedagogy of service-learning and the development of service projects. To see some pictures, you can go to our Picassa site.

A new website for schools doing service-learning in Brasil

After the end of a new “Sello de escuelas solidarias”, Faça Parte presented a new website for the Network of Service Schools from Brazil, where they can upload, share and comment on “educative volunteering” projects. To this moment the Network has information from 23.688 schools. You can find the website here

The Catholic University Silva Henríquez (from Chile) launches pilot service-learning courses

On Friday, September 9th the UCSH launched their Pilot Service-Learning Courses, coordinated by the University Social Responsibility Area. This activity was meant to promote three initiatives intended to stimulate reflection and improve articulation between theory and practice. In promoting these practices the university wishes to forge students who are independent, responsible, democratic, and who commit to their education as well as with society. The three projects chosen for the occasion were “Children Vegetable Gardens: Sense Awakening”, “Human Geography” and “Musical Arts Didactics in Elementary Education”.

RUEF Congress at the Catholic University of Chile

From October 19th to 22nd, the Catholic University of Chile hosted the IV Fraternity Studies University Network Congress. Amongst the many panelists we can highlight the presence of María Antonieta Contreras and Chantal Jouannet, both members from the Center for Faculty Development at the Catholic University of Chile, who talked about the “Development of an active citizenship through service-learning at the UC”. The other members participating in the panel were María Guillermina Martínez, who coordinates the Cottolengo Don Orione project from the Catholic University of Córdoba (a multidisciplinary program that assists students with special needs to develop study, work and social skills).
CLAYSS was represented by Agustín Tonet.

The Talloires Network announced its new authorities

The new Steering Committee was announced on September 26th and will be integrated by:

• Mark Gearan, President, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (USA) (Chair)
• Janice Reid, Vice-Chancellor, University of Western Sydney (Australia) (Vice-Chair)
• Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, Founding President, Aga Khan University (Pakistan)
• Olive Mugenda, Vice-Chancellor, Kenyatta University (Kenya)
• Sharifah Hapsah Shahabudin, Vice-Chancellor, Universiti Kebangsaan (Malaysia)
• José María Sanz Martínez, Rector, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain)
• Scott Cowen, President, Tulane University (USA)
• Rafael Velasco, Rector, Universidad Católica de Córdoba (Argentina)
• Lisa Anderson, President, American University in Cairo (Egypt)
• John Wood, Secretary General, Association of Commonwealth Universities.
• Jerome Slamat, Director, South African Higher Education Community Engagement Forum.

We would like to congratúlate Rafael Velasco, the President of the Catholic University of Córdoba, who will represent Latin America in the Committee.
We would also like to thank the other three Latin American members who previously served the Network’s Steering Committee: Mónica Jiménez de la Jara, former President of the Catholic University of Temuco and former Ministry of Education from Chile; José Ignacio Moreno León, President of the Metropolitan University of Caracas; and Juan Ramón de la Fuente, President of the International Association of Universities and former President of the Autonomous University of Mexico.
More information regarding the new Steering Committee here.

November 22-25: Ibero-American Conference of University Extension, Santa Fe, Argentina

November 24-25: Service-Learning Congress "To Practice Citizenship", Portugalete, Basque Country, Spain.