The Horitzons Project: five years of making university more accessible to young people from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds
The Horitzons Project: five years of making university more accessible to young people from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds
The Horitzons Project: five years of making university more accessible to young people from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds
The Ciutadella campus hosted the closing ceremony of the fifth edition of this initiative together with various teachers, PAS members and UPF students. Horitzons is a social transference project and this year around 250 students participated from the first year of the batxillerat (final two years of high school education) from five high schools in Ciutat Vella and one in Mataró.
The Horitzons project is an initiative in collaboration with various members of the university’s teaching and research staff, the admin staff and the UPF students and which has just completed its fifth edition in this 2018-2019 academic year, with the participation of six high schools – five from Barcelona and one from Mataró. This has all been carried out as a result of the desire to continue making university more accessible to children who are students of the batxillerat (final two years of high school education) and who live in vulnerable socio-economic contexts with few university reference points.
“The project is based on a social mentoring system which raises new expectations for the future through the development of skills and encourages the sharing of university experiences necessary for higher education, in an accessible way, through a system of volunteer students”, states Carme Hernández, a teacher, member of the UPF’s Centre for Learning Innovation and Knowledge (CLIK) and the coordinator of the project.
The six specialised high schools that have taken part in this year’s programme, which involved the participation of 251 students from the first year of the batxillerat (final two years of high school education), were five public centres from the Ciutat Vella district in Barcelona (Milà i Fontanals High School, Pau Claris High School, Joan Salvat Papasseit High School, Miquel Tarradell High School and Verdaguer High School) and one from Mataró (Miquel Biada High School).
This 2018-2019 academic year marks the first time that Verdaguer High School from Ciutat Vella and Miquel Biada High School from Mataró took part in the project, which relied on the collaboration of the volunteer students from the TecnoCampus centre attached to the UPF. The total number of volunteer degree students who collaborated, between the UPF and the Tecnocampus, was seventeen.
Closing ceremony at the Ciutadella campus and delivery of the Horitzons prize
To close the fifth edition of the project, Ciutadella campus hosted a closing ceremony on the 15th of May which was attended by around 220 students from the six participating high schools. The institutional inauguration was presided over by Mònica Figueras, the vice-rector for social engagement and equality projects.
She was accompanied by Manel Jiménez, the academic director of the CLIK, and Montserrat Vilalta, the director of University Services and Projects from the Mataró-Maresme Tecnocampus.
During the closing ceremony, the programme’s five years of activities were reviewed. The project team and the participating volunteers were also present, such as Georgiana Mozer, a UPF Political Sciences student who was invited to attend as one of last year’s volunteer students.
During the closing ceremony, the children from the high schools, in groups guided by their university references, completed the six challenges posed to them through various activities which involved the University Community Assistance Service (SACU) (Art Track circuit in the Tàpies Room and an activity with UPF students), the library (document searching and identification of services) and the teachers Àngel Gil, Pilar Medina, Carme Bach and Carolina Llorente who are representatives of the university’s different departments.
Following the structure of the closing ceremony, the first Horitzons prize was delivered which was awarded to Milà i Fontanals High School for being the first high school to get involved with the project and to host a pilot test for the initiative, and to Joan Miralles, a teacher from the Department of Economics and Business, for having established the link between the university and this high school.
Furthermore, the sponsor of the 2018-2019 Horitzons project, Montserrat Espinós, the director of the UPF library who has been closely involved with the project from the beginning, made the closing announcement.
An innovative and cooperative project that has grown over the time
TheHoritzons projectis pedagogically coordinated from theCLIK,together with the guidance of the Migration Studies Master’s Degree from the Department of Political and Social Sciences, the Secondary Education Master’s Degree, the Department of Economics and Business, the library/CRAI, the SACU and in line with the teaching teams from the various participating institutions.
The teaching model of this social transference initiative is centred on the adaptation to the background of the students of the batxillerat (final two years of high school education) who live in vulnerable environments where there is a low percentage of university graduates. This is done through the use of strategies aimed at decreasing the risk of social exclusion and abandonment of studies.
The project, which predicts the evaluation of its impact with the collection and analysis of data before and after the event, started in the 2014-2015 academic year, with a single participating institute and four volunteers. It has grown over time and has seen the addition of new centres each year as well as the collaboration of more students.
In its first year, the project was the winner of the first edition of the solidary social responsibility projects competition from the Social Council and the UPF Vice-rector of Social Responsibility and Promotion. A few years later, in the 2017-2018 academic year, the project was recognised as a social mentoring project by the Department of Work, Social Affairs and Families for which it received a subsidy which has been used to pay for the last two editions of the project.
“Looking ahead to next year, the priority will be consolidating the project with Tecnocampus, regarding the application of the project in Mataró, and revising the activities to include new materials and resources that are adapted to the new interests of the children”, states Carme Hernández.