Students worldwide participating in solidarity service-learning projects agree that this pedagogy transcends the academic realm and touches the core of the human condition. When asked about their experiences participating in initiatives that received the 2024 Uniservitate Award, a group of young people highlighted aspects that mirror others who also carried out solidarity service-learning initiatives across diverse cultural and social contexts. We provide their testimonials below:
- “SSL is about recognizing in others the skills that can complement each other and applying what we have learned during our studies to a project in which we can work together as a community to find solutions. The project changed my life because I ‘ve realized that we all live in very different realities, regardless of the country or place where we live It meant that we can all learn from each other, and I learned the power of community work, “ Andrea Venegas, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara (Mexico).
- “SSL is not a specific project but a way of living. Our project focuses on migrant women, and we provide education on pelvic health, which completely changed my life because I’ve learned how to share this knowledge with people who didn’t know what pelvic health was, and I felt very proud to see how quickly they learned,” Naomi Aperuta Lecam, Universidad de Nebrija (Spain).
- “The SSL project changed my life because now I see people differently. I’ve learned to see things differently: supporting, learning and serving the community; a service that the community gave you first,” Elías Hernandez, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara (Mexico).
- “It was a unique opportunity to reconcile theory with practice. This project has completely changed my life. This hasn’t just been a project as it has inspired me to build a career in this field,” Tatiana Ferreyra, Universidad Católica Portuguesa (Portugal).
- “I think service-learning is about connecting with others for the well-being of communities,” Anna Bilokinna, Pontifical University of John Paul II (Poland)