Today we are launching a newsletter for Rectors of the global Uniservitate network (CLAYSS-Porticus) that seeks to connect those who, through their leadership, promote the institutionalization of Service-Learning (SL) in Catholic Higher Education as a means of fulfilling the mission of their universities.
We aim to share information about the development of SL institutionalization in the universities that make up Uniservitate in order to learn from the experience in each of the regions of this global polyhedral network.
We aspire to promote mutual understanding and facilitate dialogue among peers in which we can put our hearts and the hearts of others at the forefront because, as Pope Francis reminded us last November when he received those of us who participated in the V Global Uniservitate Symposium in private audience, “it is only by starting from the heart that our communities will succeed in uniting and reconciling differing minds and wills, so that the Spirit can guide us in unity as brothers and sisters”.
To this end, in this first Newsletter we provide you with information emerging from the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) processes we are carrying out within the framework of Uniservitate. This information allows us to visualize lessons learned and identify possibilities for improving the processes of institutionalizing SL in Catholic Higher Education Institutions (CHEIs).
We also bring you the voices of two leading figures in the field of SL: Taras Dobko from Ukraine and Brother Bernard Oca from the Philippines. In their own words and in different ways, they share with you how they adapted the SL institutionalization processes to their culture and current context. In the case of De La Salle University in Manila, this was done through the “Bibingka Approach” to “cook up” institutionalization, and at the Ukrainian Catholic University, by adapting the curriculum to the realities of war and the reconstruction of their country through SL.
We conclude this newsletter with information about upcoming Uniservitate activities, where we hope to count on your valuable participation and thus respond to the call made by Pope Leo XIV in his first video message as Pope to the 200 rectors attending a meeting of the Network of Universities for the Care of the Common Home in Rio de Janeiro in May, when he encouraged them to be builders of bridges of integration, working for ecological, social, and environmental justice.
Fraternal greetings to all of you,
María Nieves Tapia, director of CLAYSS
María Rosa Tapia, general coordinator of Uniservitate
Andrés Peregalli, general vice coordinator of Uniservitate
