SOLIDARIS Literary Competition “Con-texto”
In the first semester of the year 2020, the Universidad Viña del Mar, Chile, held the I SOLIDARIS UVM Literary Competition “Con-Texto”, organized within the framework of the Oral and Written Expression subject of Initial Training and the Erasmus+ SOLIDARIS Project. This contest was convened with the purpose of encouraging reflection and conscious criticism within the framework of art and culture and to disseminate the works of students with literary aptitudes and abilities; fulfilling the essential objectives of the verbal and written communication competence of the Erasmus+ SOLIDARIS Project. In this competition, the first year students from the UVM participated by presenting stories or tales related to contemporary urban life, social themes on a regional, country or world level, based on the following: “The world, the changes and us”.
The closing ceremony of the contest was held on June 2 and three winning stories were selected. Thirdly, the story by the student Ariel Soza, entitled “Volver a vivir”, was selected. “Otra oportunidad” is the name of the story chosen in second place, written by the author Estela Custodio. The story selected in first place is entitled “Juanito, todo un soñador” by the author Paula Navarro Silva.
The authors of the winning stories recorded a video of the reading of their stories in order to spread their literature, we invite you to see them in the following links:
“Juanito, todo un soñador” by the author Paula Navarro Silva, selected as the winner
“Otra oportunidad” by the author Estela Custodio, story selected as second finalist
“Volver a vivir” by the author Ariel Soza, story selected as the third finalist
Collaborative research between Latin American universities; Universidad del Salvador (Campus Corrientes) and Universidad Austral de Chile (Campus Patagonia)
Within the framework of the SOLIDARIS Project and with the interest of continuing to deepen the line of development of transversal competencies in university students, the Universidad del Salvador, Campus Corrientes, Argentina and the Universidad Austral de Chile, Campus Patagonia, Chile, designed a joint research proposal given the characteristics that both institutions share in those locations. Among them, the small community of students and few courses taught are geographically distant from the university headquarters, their students coming from rural areas or from economically disadvantaged sectors. It is also remarkable that many of these students are the first university students in their families. For this reason, there is interest in collaborative research between both institutions.
The objective of this research is to analyse the impact of training in transversal competences on students in the first years of degree courses on these university campuses that share the aforementioned characteristics. As a result, it is expected that the objectives of the training proposed for students by the SOLIDARIS Project will be satisfactorily achieved, favoured by the particularities of the two campuses addressed. Likewise, the involvement of non-traditional collaborators in research both at the Corrientes Campus and at the Patagonia Campus, such as administrative and library personnel, will allow for the inclusion of a new perspective given the proximity they have to the student body. It is well known that non-academic staff are usually the first line of questioning for students. Therefore, involving these actors in the SOLIDARIS Project has been enriching, as the results so far show. It is believed that the result will be similar when participating as collaborators in a research team.
Recognizing the common issues between the Corrientes and Patagonia Campuses, it is hoped that an international action-research team can be formed and strengthened that can scientifically address common problems and generate didactic strategies of continuous academic improvement with a view to university inclusion and the development of active citizenship in these contexts. At the same time, we expect to develop extended activities that go beyond the results of the SOLIDARIS Project. In this sense, we seek to know the responses that each institution presents to the problematic situations that they face – many times similar – and perhaps they can be shared in order to respond to their own or to think about the possibility of generating common strategies.
SOLIDARIS begins the final stretch of its activities |
The effects of the pandemic have also had an impact on the development of the activities of the SOLIDARIS project, however, the capacity for adaptation and resilience shown by the project partners has been put in practice and the activities continue as expected, but with modifications.
Thus, the pilot trainings with students have been carried out in each of the partner Universities and, although at first some of them chose to wait until the pandemic situation was normalized, finally all of them have developed online trainings trying to bridge the digital gap existing in their students. The pilot training courses have been developed between March (UVM) and October 2020 (UPE and UEPB). Thanks to the previous activities developed in digital format and the creativity of the partners, these trainings were adapted to the online format, constituting a success among the beneficiaries both for their reception and for the number of students who participated, exceeding by far the half thousand participants.
| SOLIDARIS 585762-EPP-1-2017-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP |
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.