Volunteer student: the society-university interaction as a territory for the configuration of its professional profile

Abstract

Extension, together with research and teaching, constitutes one of the substantive functions of the university, which facilitates a continuous exchange of shared knowledge between the university and society. This has been revalued through the Student Social Commitment Program that opens the possibility for university students to insert themselves and interact with different sectors of society. In this way, our team developed projects that bring together in an interdisciplinary work, the educational community of the Curaca Lino Acevedo school in Córdoba and a team made up of volunteer teachers and students from different UNC faculties. The story of this experience is made by recovering the voices of one of its main protagonists, the student volunteers. The volunteer is above all an active, critical, co-responsible person, sensitive to social problems, both individual and collective, being a key piece to identify the demands of the environment and achieve an optimal combination between scientific-technical knowledge and the most contextualized (popular/social). Likewise, it plays a preponderant role so that the members of the community can recognize themselves as subjects of right, and to demand the conditions for a full exercise of health. In the extension activities that the volunteer students create and recreate, they find a different space to develop skills of exchange, dialogue, critical thinking, deployment of their creativity and respect for cultural diversity. The participation of students in interdisciplinary teams is also an opportunity for the development of social and civic communicative competence, and to experience values of respect, tolerance, commitment and solidarity, which are essential to perform in today's society. In this context, the volunteer student becomes a mediator between two realities, the university and society