UC Service Learning, Yearbook 2020

“True, a worldwide tragedy like the Covid-19 pandemic momentarily revived the sense that we are a global community, all in the same boat, where one person’s problems are the problems of all. Once more we realized that no one is saved alone; we can only be saved together.” (Fratelli Tutti 32).

We have lived in a year that we never imagined; we remained indoors, we learned in front of a screen, we got sick, we were vulnerable, we did not have control of everything, technology was not enough to prevent deaths, poverty entered homes, we felt loneliness and we missed hugs, friendships, and family celebrations. However, we can rise from crises with new strengths, seek new routes and learning. In our university, a great challenge was to continue courses using Service Learning methodology in a remote format in the pandemic, because the needs of our communities continued and even increased and because, as Pope Francis told us during his visit to Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, “It is urgent to teach to think what one feels anddoes; to feel what one thinks anddoes; todowhat one thinks and feels. A dynamism of capabilities at the service of the person and society ”. Therefore, we are becoming more flexible and have created remote SL teachingmanuals, wehave looked for newways of working with the community and ways to advise our teaching staffs.

In the following pages, you will find real stories of learning where teaching staffs, assistants, students and community partners learned from the experience of other people. You will find stories that allow us to know the importance of having a teaching staff connected to the current challenges and in which students from the curriculum understand that, with the practice of their disciplines, they contribute to people dignity and search for justice, common good and social peace. We hope that the stories will move you to act from their different outlooks and invite teaching staffs to develop new courses where students will learn with their classmates, in contact with other people and communities, and reflect on ethical considerations and usefulness of the curricular content for society. We hope that these storieswillmove students to reflect on the impact of their professional training for a better country and make clear to the community that this university wishes to invite them to participate in the integral formation of the students.

Prologue UC Service Learning Yearbook 2020

Prologue UC Service Learning Yearbook 2020

Chantal Jouannet Valderrama Director of Center of Faculty Development (CDDoc)

8

9