Chad, Africa: The opportunities for curricular internationalization offered by UC Education

Starting in 2024, the Vice-Rector for International Affairs will finance a scholarship every year for the UC Faculty of Education student who decides to travel to Chad.

During 2023, two undergraduate students from the UC Faculty of Education They traveled to Chad, Africa, to carry out curricular activities within the framework of the program “Pallqa of cooperation and leadership in an international context”, which seeks to enable UC students to contribute to regional development in conjunction with non-governmental organizations inserted in local communities in different parts of the world.

Mariana Zeballos and Isidora Fernández They traveled in January and October 2023 respectively to Africa, to carry out their Professional Practice II and Research Seminar together with a merger of Professional Practice III.

The trips of the two students were contemplated in the pilot plan carried out by the Catholic University, and, starting in 2024, the Vice-Rector's Office for International Affairs will finance a scholarship every year for the student of the UC Faculty of Education who decides to travel to Chad. This 2024 will Bernadette Perez Santander, student of Pedagogy in Religion UCwho will live the international experience. 

Professionals with a broad outlook

Maili Ow, academic at the UC Faculty of Education, has been promoting reading development courses and supporting the implementation of a library in the kindergarten run by the Catholic congregation Missionaries of Christ Jesus in the city of Abéché, Chad. Ow is the one who has accompanied the Faculty students on both trips. 

The academic maintains that this opportunity allows students to develop global competencies, establishing links with community partners in other parts of the world. “This contributes to their professional training with a broader perspective, where internationalization is key, because it involves them speaking in other languages ​​and connecting with people from other cultures, dismantling their preconceptions,” says the academic. 

What the students have learned at the Faculty is put into practice, he continues, but in a challenging context. That requires flexibility to adjust to other times and spaces, other social relationships, foods, culture and religious beliefs. 

“I think that for the training of students, it is very powerful to have these experiences, and it has an impact. Not only are they going to cooperate and make a contribution, but they are also bringing back a series of learnings to share with others,” says Maili Ow. 

Grow professionally and humanly

Today, after her trip, says Isidora Fernández, she would not hesitate to recommend it to someone who lives the same experience. He describes it as a powerful and interesting experience, with a lot of construction in both his value and academic formation. 

“Not only did it give me tools as a person, to face myself in a completely different and socially very different context. It also gave me tools academically. It was a lot of growth to be able to realize what the Catholic University and the UC Faculty of Education have given me, and that I can put into practice without necessarily speaking the language,” says Isidora Fernández. 

“Without any problem we were able to transmit knowledge to the children, for example, of Western writing, numbers and initial writing. And that's without even being able to communicate directly with the children. It was signs, drawings. Using creativity where we didn't have it. It was seeing that one is really capable,” adds the student. 

Bernardita Pérez, a UC Religion Pedagogy student, who will travel to Chad in 2024, says that for her, more than expectations, there is hope. 

“I believe that this trip is going to mean, on an academic level and also on a personal level, the cultivation of a lot of hope, because I strongly believe that it is Jesus who has put this journey on my path, this new challenge, also approached from pedagogy in religion, education, theology. Very important elements come together for me. More than expectations, there is a great desire to be able to go and contribute, to be available and open to receive and also to give what I bring, but above all to let myself learn from everything that the people who live in Chad want to teach me," explains the student.