The 21st International Service-Learning Conference
The opening of the Conference was in charge of the Authority of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, Dr. Jorge San Martín, President of CLAYSS; Lic. Andrés Delich, Director of the Buenos Aires Office of the OEI and Prof. Sergio Rial, Coordinator of the National Solidary Education Program of the Ministry of Education of the Nation. The recently elected President of CLAYSS, Dr. Jorge San Martín, highlighted service-learning as a catalyst of "expanding views" where teachers and students involved in the development of community educational experiences undergo changes of tangible and profound impact, to then summarize the activities of CLAYSS in the last 16 years. After the opening, Mr. Delich, authority of UNTREF and Prof. María Nieves Tapia presented the Certificate in Service-Learning that will be offered through the virtual campus of CAEU (OEI Argentina) and will be certified by the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF). Mr. Delich highlighted the years of joint work with Prof. Tapia and CLAYSS, which led to the development of the Certificate, a milestone of maturity in the field of service-learning in our region. Prof. María Nieves Tapia lectured on "Solidarity service-learning projects: tradition and innovation for 21st century education", in which she developed, among other topics, the characteristics of solidarity service-learning projects within the framework of project-based learning. Morning activities continued with the presentations of the Plenary "Service-learning, project-based learning. Views from pedagogy, public policies and the experience of educational institutions" where two institutions shared their experience: School N° 4-084 "Libertador Simón Bolívar", Gral. San Martín, Mendoza and School N° 25 "Delia Medici de Chayep", Futalaufquen, Chubut. These were commented by Mariana Martínez Carlevaro of RIEDULAB, Uruguay and Mercedes Miguel of the Secretary of Innovation and Educational Quality of the Nation. The representative highlighted the great coincidence between what the secondary schools are putting into practice with institutional projects of service-learning and the proposal of "Secondary 2030" which is currently sponsored by educational policies. In the afternoon, in parallel to the general activities, public officials and members of organizations from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Spain and Uruguay related to Education met to debate in the "IV Forum of service-learning public policies". The activities of the first day ended with the panel "Academic excellence and social commitment of the University in the Centennial of the Reform: contributions of the solidarity service-learning", where Beatriz Castillo Escamilla, National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education of Mexico; Jorge Pasart, Coordinator of the Program of Educational Social Practices, University of Buenos Aires and Francisco Tamarit, Former Rector of the National University of Córdoba - Director of CONICET.
On the second day, as in previous years, the first panel was dedicated to the "Winning experiences of the Presidential "Solidarity Schools" Award 2017 of Argentina and the "Solidarity Education" Competition of Uruguay", in a space moderated by Prof. Sergio Rial, Coordinator of the National Solidarity Education Program of the Ministry of Education of the Nation. This was followed by the plenary "Service-learning around the world" with the participation of Philip Tuano, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines; Aitziber Mugarra-Elorriaga, Zerbikas Foundation/University of Deusto, Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain; Sofia Vassallo, National University of Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Kaku Sagary Nokoe, Catholic University of East Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. Panel moderated by Enrique Ochoa, Executive Director of CLAYSS.
Both days had simultaneous sessions on different disciplines and topics associated to solidarity educational projects and the last one included a "Solidarity Students Meeting", who shared with their peers the projects they develop in their institutions and then read the conclusions to the participants of the Conference before the closing of the activities led by Lic. Ignacio Hernaiz, Director of the MERCOSUR-Uruguay Office of the OEI; Alice Halstead, founder and former director of the National Helpers Network, USA, who participated in the first International Conference in 1997, and Prof. Tapia, Director of CLAYSS.
