During the V Global Symposium Uniservitate, held in Rome on 7th-8th November, a workshop began to explore the links between character education and service-learning, areas of knowledge which, although they share many themes, have so far developed as separate fields of research.
Organised in collaboration between the Templeton World Charity Foundation and Porticus, the workshop “Character education, virtuous leadership and service-learning” was attended by faculty and leaders from Catholic higher education institutions from around the world participating in the V Global Symposium Uniservitate.
After an introduction by Fiona Gatty of Templeton World Charity Foundation and Richard Brosse of Porticus, Edward Brooks (Oxford University) presented the “Oxford Character Project”; Olivia Nuñez Orellana (Francisco de Vitoria University) spoke about the project “Leadership: Service through Virtues” project; María Cinque (LUMSA) shared her university’s service-learning actions and María Nieves Tapia (CLAYSS) described some case studies and research on the impact of solidarity service-learning on students.
Based on these presentations, the workshop participants exchanged views on the possible synergies, alliances and joint activities between the fields presented. In this dialogue, the variety of points in common that the solidarity service-learning proposal has with character education and virtuous leadership was recognised, and proposals were outlined to advance in the comparative study of the themes and in their joint promotion.
“The leadership that the world talks about is not the same leadership that we talk about”, said one of the participants, Brother Alejandro González, from Bethlehem University (Palestine). And Olivia Nuñez, for her part, affirmed: “Leadership is not to command but to serve, to walk together”.