Voices of the CENMA: "An experience of university extension"

Abstract

This work seeks to describe the outreach experience shared by high school and university students within the framework of the "Construyendo Trayectorias" Project (Creating Trajectories), financed by the Secretaria de Politicas Universitarias (University Policy Secretariat) as part of the  university volunteer program, called "Compromiso Social Universitario" (University Social Commitment), and organized in conjunction with the Programa Compromiso Social Estudiantil (Student Social Commitment Program) from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC) (Córdoba National University), which is developed to better the training of UNC students by allowing them to get involved in actions, tasks or projects related to university outreach consisting of socially relevant actions.

During the 2018 school year, the magazine "Voces de los CENMA" (Voices from CENMA) was produced with 1^st and 3^rd year students from three institutions belonging to the category Centro Educativo de Nivel Medio para Adultos (CENMA is the acronym in Spanish) (High School Level Education Center for Adults), in the capital city of Córdoba: CENMA SALUD, CENMA Nº 135 and CENMA Periféricos de Argüello, anexo Villa Cornú. The objective of the project was to gather students’ opinions and to learn about their interests and projects at the end of high school, while also giving them an opportunity to recount their experiences throughout the project.

This process allowed us to reflect on the importance of both training students who are committed to their social reality and promoting their active participation in joint work together with other students, something which strengthens the training and the educational trajectories of not only university students but also high school students.