The classes included stories in Kreole explained in Spanish, Chilean idioms, songs and various performances.
Happy and grateful with the University of La Serena and their community were the Haitian citizens residing in the Tierras Blancas sector who participated in the workshops Intercultural Literacy, taught by students of the career of Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education from the ULS, with the support of their teachers.
The pedagogical proposal was based on the Freirian methodology (Paulo Freire), which consists of learning through dialogue and didactics. “We had 10 very diverse, dynamic and dialogue classes, we read stories in Kreole for them to explain in Spanish, we saw Chilean idioms, we did skits, we sang songs from their country and Chile, etc.,” explained Fernanda Ramírez, a student at the career that was part of the group of young people in charge of the workshops that were given at the ULS Education Department and at the Tierras Blancas sports center.
“We do not have enough words to express the happiness and satisfaction we feel. We don't know how to describe the importance of this workshop in our lives here in Chile. It brings us many new things such as knowledge, friendship, animation, technique and others,” said Santo Accade, who participated in the workshops with Carmène Jn Exumé, Alix Colot, Donald Nelson, Youdeline Derival and Gary Pierre.
During the closing ceremony of the program, the Haitian citizen also thanked those who supported them and were always there to help them and shared the Chilean culture, “especially Clara Tirado, Carlos Calvo and Silvia López de Maturana and the students of Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education, who were always available and willing to support us with dedication.”
For academic Clara Tirado, coordinator of the Community Pedagogy Project of the same degree and within which this initiative was framed, she stated that it was “a milestone within the University, it is a tremendously important instance. It is the closing of a workshop, but it is also a new beginning. And this is what corresponds to a State university, which has a fundamental role in social inclusion and in the training of committed citizens.”
The academic also congratulated the students, “future teachers, protagonists of this process, for participating committedly as Cultural Literacy Teachers, from an intercultural perspective.”
Written by Gonzalo Lozano and Claudia Farías, DirCom
The objective of the PACE ULS Academy is to prepare young people in 3rd and 4th grade for the first years of Higher Education, seeking to enhance the development of their transversal skills, with emphasis on those related to their areas of interest and also allowing them to an early approach to university life.
María Isabel Amenábar, coordinator of the PEM PACE ULS area, said that “the operation of the PACE ULS Academy allows students from the different establishments assigned to the Program to interact with each other. We carry out modules on different subjects, such as language and communication, biology, to name a few, in which students face different teachers. Some students have told me that they are pleased and, at the same time, a little afraid to be able to work almost immediately on the content they see in their classes, and that is what the University of La Serena aims to achieve, through the PACE program, that this instance serves as a link between students and university campuses, being able to prepare students for the university contexts that they will soon face.”
At the ceremony, the Director of Services, Mg. Marcos Sepúlveda, highlighted that "the authority, aware of the need to improve university spaces, has been carrying out various projects for several years, which include the improvement of the officials' dining room located on the Isabel Bongard Campus, the reconstruction of the dining room, bathrooms, dressing room and office for drivers of the Department of Mobilization and Transportation, the renovation of bathrooms for officials of the Enrique Molina Garmendia Campus Casino, the renovation of the bathrooms for the officials of the Andrés Bello Campus Casino, the renovation of the bathrooms for the officials of the Casino del Limarí Campus, the container module with two bathroom batteries and showers for assistants of the Andrés Bello Campus, the improvement of bathrooms and showers for officials in the multi-court sector of the Isabel Bongard Campus, among other initiatives.
The initiative also incorporates an automated gate, with biometric access control for people who work or pass through the place, and the beautification of the place.