A guide for Interdisciplinary Service Learning

technology, with new challenges and problems that we did not know about. Student generations currently attending university will have the opportunity to design and use new tools and methodologies still not available, to face global problems with less physical, cultural and disciplinary boundaries than those faced by their predecessors. They will have the opportunity to create a new world, with new forms of artistic expression, where the barriers between art and technology, humanities and sciences, social sciences and natural sciences, will no longer be the same. The mission of College UC is providing a multidisciplinary education based on collaboration with other academic units and must contribute to the integral development of its undergraduate students according to the principles and values contained in the University’s Declaration of Principles. Interdisciplinarity is intrinsic to our program, where each student chooses one of the three areas of knowledge available in their degree (Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Social Sciences, or Arts and Humanities) to then specialize and study one or more disciplines in depth, having the possibility to generate a more extensive and diverse curriculum, adapted to the demands of the current world. The formation provided by College includes the development of a set of competencies that allow students to face very different intercultural, international and global realities. In the future, it is expected that there will be the possibility of generating more attractive formative experiences for the students, with professors who support the program through the development of courses with a multidisciplinary focus and, in some cases, with an increased tutoring character, also promoting interdisciplinary research and generating strategic alliances with foreign universities, taking advantage of the already existing network.

Currently, College has a pilot project of interdisciplinary internships with the Foundation Teatro del Lago and Huilo Foundation, which promotes the exploration of various areas of professional development for insertion in interdisciplinary labor fields and, and, at the same time, the application of acquired knowledge in their undergraduate studies, promoting the students’ capacity of taking on a team project, contributing from their different points of view. Like these initiatives, there are many interdisciplinary examples in the university. However, interdiscipline is not simply the sum or superposition of disciplines. The presence of different areas working together is necessary, but not sufficient. It is necessary to work intersectionally by developing a common language among the disciplines, which allows to solve complex problems that would not be possible to solve from a single perspective, separately, or only by adding disciplinary contributions in a successive way. As it was said in the Jornada del Honorable Consejo Superior (2020): “The atomization of knowledge slows down research”. At the university, this poses us with a very important challenge, in teaching and in research. It is key the way we define, the way we teach and the way we promote interdiscipline.

Student generations currently attending university will have the opportunity to design and use new tools and methodologies still not available, to face global problems with less physical, cultural and disciplinary boundaries than those faced by their predecessors. They will have the opportunity to create a new world, with new forms of artistic expression, where the barriers between art and technology, humanities and sciences, social sciences and natural sciences, will no longer be the same. Loreto Valenzuela Roediger, College UC Director, June 8, 2021 Reflections for interdiscipline at UC

Interdiscipline is the conjunction of various disciplines in pursuing a common goal, which cannot be achieved in an isolated or separate manner. As stated in UC Dialoga (2020): “Today’s problems are getting more and more complex and require interdiscipline”. Current challenges such as climate change, social crisis, pandemics, cybersecurity, among others, need people and professionals with integrity and expertise in various areas, but who are also capable of interacting and being a bridge between them. Today this is more relevant than ever, the world we are facing, and especially the post-pandemic world, is and will be very different. It will be a world much more digital, more linked through