Finalist

Engaged University of the Year Award

UNIMINUTO

Finalist of the Engaged University of the Year Award

Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO - Colombia

"Social responsibility, a training bet for the transformation of territories"


Engage on social media

https://www.facebook.com/UNIMINUTOCOLOMBIA
(UNIMINUTO institutional account)
https://www.instagram.com/uniminutocol/
(UNIMINUTO institutional account)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UNIMINUTOColombia
(UNIMINUTO institutional account)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iRUXteD_Kg&list=PLKyZSpyM7CX5p9hFHRVnEIksI-QvBviQu
(CED – Internship in Social Responsibility Institutional video What is the IRS about?)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqK_x9TPuBo
(PRS Presentation CED Bucaramanga city)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0cB56IhA_U
(UNIMINUTO Social Responsibility Practices)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLGjcvR_R7g
(Presentation Project "Socially and environmentally responsible citizens with the care of life")
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGhKFgVuBd4
(Volunteering in prisons)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePs1905lnvk
(Community garden project)
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=165926709597893&ref=sharing
(Population of Cundinamarca benefits from digital literacy course)
https://co.linkedin.com/school/uniminutocol/
(Link of the LinkedIn accounts of UNIMINUTO)

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The Award Ceremony for this entry (award category "Engaged University of the Year ") will take place on 27 June 2023, 18:45 to 19:45 CEST.

Summary

UNIMINUTO, Colombia's largest private higher education institution, is committed to training competent professionals who are ethically oriented and committed to social transformation. Its mission, principles, institutional educational project, and educational model propose and materialize social responsibility training, allowing 174,791 graduates and 90,393 students to learn by doing, living, feeling, and serving as active agents in the transformation of the communities to which they belong. to the 499 social and community organizations in Colombia that take part in this process on an annual basis.

The work in the territory at the service of the communities recognizes the deep social, environmental, and educational problems that challenge and enrich the social vision that each UNIMINUTO student possesses as a distinguishing mark. Similarly, social research processes are developed to enable the institution to recognize reality and make use of local and academic knowledge in order to nurture theoretical bets that seek to be more relevant to serve the communities.

The university has a structure that seeks to develop social responsibility training; its educational project and social projection policy guide the work in the territory developed by the 19 Development Education Centers (CED), with more than 260 teachers and 27,559 students who annually work around projects with a change perspective, allowing UNIMINUTO to be recognized nationally and internationally for the contributions it makes on a daily basis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iRUXteD_Kg&list=PLKyZSpyM7CX5p9hFHRVnEIksI-QvBviQu

Key People


Father Harold de Jesús Castilla Devoz
General Rector
General Rectory,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Stephanie Lavaux
General Vice-rector for Academics and Student Affairs
UNIMINUTO General Academic Vice-Rectory,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Margarita Rosa Pérez Carvajal
General Director of Social Projection
UNIMINUTO General Academic Vice-Rectory,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Claudia Andrea Betancur Rojas
Deputy Director General of the Development Education Centers
UNIMINUTO General Academic Vice-Rectory,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Elidio Alexander Londoño Uriza
CED Director Antioquia-Chocó Campus
Antioquia-Chocó Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Andrea del Pilar Castaño Becerra
CED Coordinator Girardot University Center
Cundinamarca Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



María Cristina Chamucero Murcia
CED Coordinator Zipaquirá University Center
Cundinamarca Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



José Valerio Torres Roncancio
CED Coordinator Madrid University Center
Cundinamarca Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Jhon Jairo Valencia Sánchez
CED Coordinator Soacha University Center
Cundinamarca Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Diana Sofía Moreno Rojas
Orinoquía Campus CED Coordinator
Orinoquía Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



María Victoria Latorre Sánchez
Lead teacher CED Chinchiná University Center
Eje Cafetero Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Maycol Yessee Pupo Zapata
Lead teacher CED Pereira University Center
Eje Cafetero Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Yuly Paola Mususú Baquero
Director of the Bogota Rector's CED
Bogota Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Tatiana Barona Mendoza
CED Coordinator Cali University Center
Sur Occidente Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Gabriela Sthefanny Vargas Guzmán
Pasto University Center CED Coordinator
Sur Occidente Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Luisa Fernanda Reina Lopez
Coordinator CED Buenaventura University Center
Sur Occidente Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Martha Cecilia Badiel Bedoya
CED Coordinator Buga University Center
Sur Occidente Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Vyela Manjarrés Jiménez
Social Projection Coordinator
Caribe Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Maria del Pilar Cárdenas Palomo
Lead professor CED Cúcuta University Center
Santander Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Ruben Dario Torres
CED Coordinator Bucaramanga University Center
Santander Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Mariana Andrea Cardozo
CED Coordinator Tolima and Magdalena Medio Rector
Tolima and Magdalena Medio Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Yina Marcela Trujillo Artunduaga
Sur Campus CED Coordinator
Sur Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO



Luis Alfonso Aya Velandia
Bogotá Virtual University Center CED Coordinator
Bogotá Virtual Campus,  Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO


Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the national Social Projection team, particularly the members of the 19 Development Education Centers (CED), the unit in charge of social responsibility training at UNIMINUTO, who design and develop social training projects to strengthen social organizations and communities while also providing job opportunities to our students. These CEDs also look into social realities in order to feed our theoretical and methodological commitments.

Within the framework of this recognition, UNIMINUTO expresses special gratitude to the leaders and members of social and community organizations such as community action boards, foundations, collectives, schools, and rural schools for opening the doors to enable the training of our students of various careers who will be the social leaders who will transform the country.
To each of the professors who work in our Development Education Centers, thank you for working hard to ensure that Social Responsibility training is an experience that transforms the lives of students, for being a bridge between UNIMINUTO and the communities, for researching and writing about communities; you are what make our social commitment possible.

Images

Working with migrant population -Cúcuta city

Working with women victims

Sowing life with children and youth people

Reading and writing processes with vulnerable children Neiva city

Community pot in Ciudad Bolivar project educating without barriers Bogotá city

Support for children with cognitive disabilities Bucaramanga city

Aging with dignity work with the elderly Chinchiná city

Wetlands conservation - Soacha city

TiNi methodology with children

Strengthening of community leaders - Bogotá city

IMPACT STORY

Impacting lifes

The 752 social and community organizations and their communities that are affiliated with UNIMINUTO become living classrooms that give meaning to our students' social learning. There are thousands of children and young people affected by the armed conflict who have access to quality education through innovative methodologies implemented by UNIMINUTO students; hundreds of older adults who participate in activities and spaces that allow them to develop an active old age; young people who avoid drugs and instead participate in cultural and sports activities for a healthy coexistence; migrants who receive psychosocial support; children with disabilities who develop their talents; and people deprived of liberty who learn an art or trade for their resocialization processes are the best results of this social commitment to transform.

Thousands of trees planted, forests in the process of restoration, rescued wetlands, and over 14,000 meters of land where it is planted to eat, share, and respect other forms of life allow us to generate processes of appropriation and sustainability in communities. These experiences have a significant impact on the lives of our students, with many becoming volunteers to continue contributing to their communities and others deciding to establish social organizations to serve from their professions. They represent a social legacy that transforms structural elements of poverty, inequality, migration, and the global environmental crisis.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=653608415929011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqK_x9TPuBo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0cB56IhA_U
https://repository.uniminuto.edu/handle/10656/13727

LEARNINGS

Lessons learned

Involving community actors in educational processes is critical because it makes education more relevant and contextualized in service of society. Leaders of social organizations, women's groups, migrants, those deprived of liberty, teachers from the most vulnerable neighborhoods, and peasants are the ones who teach us the most; they are the ones who share ancestral, local knowledge from life itself, so that we do not forget that academic knowledge makes sense when theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge dialogue.

Over the last five years, over 60 social research processes have emerged from the Social Responsibility training process, allowing us to enter territories using participatory methodologies to understand social phenomena that nourish the academy. We have books, academic articles, presentations, and educational materials that make our educational commitment relevant and allow for social appropriation of knowledge processes.

Educational processes can change people's lives, help those in need, and help students make sense of real-world problems. This process is only possible if we do it in territories, acknowledging that their problems are structural and necessitate multiple perspectives to address, including the local knowledge of their inhabitants.

Each community and organization that opens its doors to us as living classrooms allows us to propose social projects that become roadmaps for each action undertaken in the territory, allowing us to observe changes in the communities and experience learning that transforms the lives of each student. Universities' social commitment must necessarily be one of transformation, not assistance.

FUTURE PLANS

What's coming?

UNIMINUTO's commitment to social responsibility will continue to build cross-cutting and interdisciplinary social projects that allow it to contribute to the deep problems that humanity is experiencing and new ones that may emerge, always from a perspective of transformation and strengthening of organizations in order to develop capabilities in the long term.

Every three years, we conduct an impact assessment to determine whether the results of the work done by students, supported by social leaders and professors, are long-term and generate genuine contributions to people and communities.

The advancement of technology provides us with new communication tools and new ways of forming communities all over the world; the existence of social collectives that work on global problems and unite knowledge, experience, and actions in the territories will allow us to begin developing Social Projects with communities.

KEY STATISTICS

156116

Students who completed an Internship in Social Responsibility, contributing to social transformation processes through educational, social, and environmental projects in more than 65 municipalities where UNIMINUTO is present.

615000

Children, youth, adults, people with disabilities, people detained, adults, migrants, and communities affected by armed conflict have benefited from projects and actions that energize and accompany students as they complete their Practice in Social Respon

752

Social and community organizations that have allied with UNIMINUTO over the last five years and have been strengthened through processes that accompany students, contributing to their mission and work with the community.

120

Social Training Projects that have guided the development of work actions and strategies in the territories over the last five years. These projects strengthen the bets of social organizations and allow for the measurement of medium and long-term impacts.

8780

Volunteers who contribute to social transformation processes by donating their time and knowledge. A significant number of these volunteers are students and graduates who decide to continue serving those in need after completing the Practice in Social Res

Triple E Awards

The Triple E Awards are a global recognition of efforts toward the quest for entrepreneurship and engagement in higher education. It is the first award to focus specifically on different dimensions of the universities' third mission. Implemented regionally, the Triple E Awards aim to foster change in universities and to emphasize their role in their communities and ecosystems.

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