Last April, representatives of the four Latin American universities shared their actions geared towards strengthening and disseminating service-learning, and its institutionalization in their universities and the challenges they face in different contexts.
Chantal Jouannet, Rocío Fontana and José Sepúlveda, from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, a Hub representative institution with two decades of service-learning this year, led the team that organized the First Regional Meeting of Latin America and the Caribbean 2024. Participants also included Daniel Fassa Evangelista, representing Porticus; María Rosa Tapia and Candelaria Ferrara, from the Uniservitate coordination team; and the coordinators of the partner universities.
The news includes the following highlights: a first meeting of community partners to be held at the Universidad Católica de Pernambuco; sixty-six chairs at the Catholic University of Argentina have already adopted the service-learning approach; the Provost Department of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador announced upcoming funding to strengthen service-learning projects; and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá is planning a strategy to ensure the sustainability of the service-learning implementation in the coming years.
The Latin American and Caribbean Hub coordination team was pleased to announce 119 submissions for this year’s Uniservitate Award —103 have already passed the first evaluation stage. They also expressed their appreciation for the commitment of each university involved.
In addition, the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile has recently held a training session on evaluating courses implementing service-learning. Rocío Fontana and Juan García, from the University’s Teaching Development Centre, facilitated the dialogue and discussion at this event, focusing on the key elements in the evaluation of this type of course. They also emphasized the importance of viewing evaluation as a strategy aligned with the learning outcomes and the service project itself. Twenty professors from across Latin America participated, representing institutions including the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá and the Universidad Católica de Argentina.