“We try to adapt the curriculum to the realities of war”
Dialogue with Taras Dobko – Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University
Taras Dobko is the first lay person to lead the Ukrainian Catholic University. He was elected rector in 2023, just over a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a brief conversation with Uniservitate, he shared the reasons why he is enthusiastic about service-learning and the importance of teaching values so that young people can maintain control of their lives in the face of the various challenges they encounter.
– You have promoted SL training at the Ukrainian Catholic University for many years, even before Uniservitate was founded. How did you learn about SL, and what do you value most about this pedagogy, particularly in such challenging times for your country?
– From its inception, our university has had a clear and well-defined educational philosophy rooted in the concept of integral human development. As the Pope teaches, true education is not about filling the mind with concepts and facts, but about learning three languages: the language of mind, the language of heart, and the language of hands. In other words, a key part of this educational philosophy is a culture of service. From the very beginning, the Solidarity Service-Learning approach has been integrated into our educational process, even though we did not use this terminology at that time. We have always tried to convey to our students the importance of the common good, emphasizing that there are not only rights but also duties. Being a Catholic university, the social teaching of the Church is of great importance to us. We strive to be where solidarity and the common good play a central role. In this sense, we were prepared for the turbulence brought on by the war.
Volunteering has always been present in our university culture. Many of our alumni have become either founders or leaders of various non-governmental organizations. Our first formal acquaintance with Solidarity Service-Learning was through interaction with American universities, where community engagement is strongly developed. We began to turn it into a method. It is important to emphasize that during the war, Ukrainians of different social status, ethnic background, and religious affiliation are practicing the social teachings of the Church in their lives, even without realizing it. Focusing on community, agency, and the common good helps us be more resilient and overcome fear. It allows people to recover their spiritual strength and discover new sources of hope necessary to move forward.
Personally, I appreciate the fact that Solidarity Service-Learning helped to exert a special impact on our teachers. At the beginning of the full-scale war, students quickly became agents of change, but, I believe, there was not enough drive among the faculty. However, a socially oriented approach also encourages teachers to take on the role of social change agents. When designing a SSL course, the faculty must think in advance about what kind of transformation they aim to initiate – where it should happen, and with whom. This requires building relationships with specific public organizations or communities and immerse oneself in real-life contexts. Only then, knowledge being passed on to students gains the quality of lived experience. It becomes not just about theory, but also a meaningful process that shapes both the educator’s and the student’s character. What I value most is that the teacher becomes an agent of social change, knowledge takes on a lived experience dimension, and the educational process becomes more impactful, leaving a lasting mark on students’ hearts.
– You are a scholar of faith and also a promoter of integral education. If we understand correctly, you claim that values and principles are key sources of resilience. How has this been experienced by students, given the complex situation they are facing in your country?
– Values and principles are a source of strength because they provide a solid foundation on which to stand in times of turbulence, such as military, political, and social storms. When everything becomes very unstable, having principles allows getting rooted and standing firm during uncertainty. Values and principles encourage valuing something more than comfort, peace, security, and even your own life! From this comes the ability not to be too much preoccupied on questions of survival. Such a person wants the victory of values and its protection. For certain people, values allow them not to fear death and no longer be bound by fear or paralyzed by panic. Lyubov Kurtyak, a graduate of UCU, one year ago shared that her graduation class learned the lesson, how to live a life in a way so as not to succumb to the fear of death.
Human beings can withstand various trials and not break if they preserve a drop of dignity. A sense of self-dignity helps to remain resilient in inhumane circumstances. It is important for us that our students, facing the turbulence of war, politics, and world order, do not lose but maintain control over their lives and feel their agency. That they understand that a lot depends on them. That they become agents of social change. Community is also very important here. If they work together, their result will be greater. Since the beginning of the war, we tried to help our students to discover a field of activity where they could be useful and feel needed, so they would not feel lost but would know that what they do really matters. Accordingly, Solidarity Service-Learning allows transforming emotions into action. This is its greatest value. Therefore, we try to adapt the curriculum to the realities of war as much as possible to help our students find answers to the questions that life poses to them.
Editor’s note: The Ukrainian Catholic University leads the ServU project, which aims to enhance synergy between Ukrainian higher education institutions (HEIs) and local territorial communities to jointly contribute to the recovery of Ukraine through the implementation of service-learning education. ServU is funded by the European Union, and among the institutions that manage it are the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Germany), the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and LUMSA University (Italy), members of the Uniservitate network. The Latin American Center for Service-Learning (CLAYSS) supports this initiative by providing technical assistance.
