Category: Projects

Collaboration for a Transformative Education

Posted on by Nate Radomski

One of the many collective challenges we have faced as a society throughout the pandemic has been keeping schools open, kids in school, and delivering quality education. What is important to note, though, is that even before the pandemic more than 260 million children and youth were out of school. This was (and continues to be) largely due to a lack of access to quality and inclusive education. Ensuring all children, especially those at the margins, have an opportunity to become the protagonists of their own future is a challenge that one organization cannot face alone.

In September 2011, IBM, the New York City Department of Education, and The City University of New York designed and launched the P-TECH school model, with its first school in Brooklyn, New York. The P-TECH schools model was developed to provide a holistic approach to education and workforce development.

The model focuses on providing high school students from underserved backgrounds with an opportunity to dream of a different future for themselves. Through academic, technical, and professional skills training, students earn the credentials they need for competitive STEM jobs. Students who participate earn both their high school diploma and a two–year associate degree linked to growing, competitive STEM fields.

Through public-private partnerships, each P–TECH school is the center of a relationship between a high school, a community college, and an industry partner or partners, who work together to ensure students have the support required to graduate high school and college–and be career-ready. The model combines rigorous coursework with workplace experiences that include industry mentoring, worksite visits, paid internships, and first–in–line for job considerations with a school’s company partner.

In 2019, this model was expanded to Latin America as Federación Internacional de Fe y Alegría (“FIFyA“), the Asociación de Universidades Confiadas a la Compañía de Jesús en América Latina (“AUSJAL“), Magis Americas (“MA“) and IBM Corporation (“IBM/P-TECH“) joined forces to bring P-TECH to Fe y Alegría schools in five countries: Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru. This partnership was a natural fit, as all four institutions share a common perspective on human dignity, education, and workforce development in the 21st Century.

“Fe y Alegría has worked in education with community groups for many years, and P-TECH is a great initiative that promotes social inclusion through STEM learning,” said Carlos Fritzen, S.J., FIFyA General Coordinator, when the partnership was first announced. “Allowing equal educational opportunities is key.”

FIFyA is a popular education and social transformation movement, operating in 22 countries around the world, 17 of which are in Latin America and the Caribbean. Working “where the asphalt stops”, FIFyA is committed to social justice through guaranteeing a public, quality, and inclusive education for all.

The implementation of this collaboration has been structured into a project with three main phases:

  1. Preparation Phase – In this phase all partnering organizations set up the bases for the monitoring and success of the collaboration. We conduct an assessment of the participating schools to understand demographics, existing learning pathways, the curriculum, location, and leadership. We also review status of existing technology, equipment, and materials and then work to ensure alignment among the participating high schools, universities, and companies. Finally, we implement professional development training sessions for teachers.
  2. Opening Phase – This is the phase in which schools have established formal agreements with their industry partner and universities.
  3. Implementation Phase – The final phase is that in which schools start implementing training to gain critical workplace skills and higher education credentials that lead to career and university opportunities. At the beginning of this phase, investments are made, based on the most critical needs identified in the initial assessment.

As of 2021, 13 centers in Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador were in the opening phase. Additionally, agreements with seven industry partners and six higher technical education centers have been formalized. In 2022, these 13 centers will enter into the implementation phase and 15 new schools across Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Peru will enter into the opening phase

As we celebrate this year’s International Day of Education, and its theme “Changing Course, Transforming Education”, our joint project with IBM, FIFyA, and AUSJAL is a perfect example of how public-private partnerships can leverage resources to ensure quality and inclusive public education that truly transforms. From first-hand experience, we can attest to how the P-TECH model is changing how education is delivered and opportunities are made accessible, especially in the context of a global pandemic, to some of the most vulnerable populations in the LAC region.

Classrooms and schools are essential, but they need to be constructed and experienced differently in the future. These spaces must build the skills needed in 21st Century workplaces. Transforming the future requires us to rebalance our relationships, as individuals and as organizations. We must continue to find opportunities to enact change, focusing on equity, inclusion, and justice for all.

Hospitality as a Response to the Different Modes of Expression of Hostility to Migration

Posted on by Nate Radomski

This article makes three key points on the dire reality of the US-Mexican border. Firstly, we examine the migratory phenomenon in general and with regard to what is currently taking place on the U.S.-Mexico border, as a sign of the times. There is no better adjective than hostility to describe that reality, marked as it is by exploitation and death. Secondly, based on Catholic Social Teaching, we present the virtue of hospitality as an appropriate response to these patterns. Finally, in a pastoral perspective, we suggest how hostility can be replaced by hospitality.

Migration has always been part of human history. There are many factors that pushed and still push people to move from one place to another. In recent times, migration has become more and more complicated, but this does not prevent people from migrating. The end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century have seen an unprecedented wave of mass migrations. In order to migrate, people either have to go through daunting bureaucratic gymnastics to get a visa or are simply denied access to the land of their dreams for no good reason. But who can hold back a determined soul from migrating? This is a question that must be considered.

More often than not, people migrate because their lives are threatened. Those who flee the misery of their region or their country and wish to find a better life elsewhere set off with a destination in mind, but without any certainty that they will reach it. In this quest for a better life, they are often met with hostility. This is not to say that every attempt to migrate to another region or country always entails an experience of hostility, nor is hostility intrinsic to migration. However, many places can indeed be considered to be hostile environments for migrants; the US-Mexico border is certainly one of them.

Migrants at that border are faced with hostility on many levels. The means of travel and security checks, far from leading to a safe port, place migrants in extremely dangerous conditions. As a result, they are exploited, and worse, many have disappeared without a trace. Paradoxically, they lose their lives while looking for a better life. Life is lost in the search of it!
As an answer to hostility, the virtue of hospitality, in principle, is capable of creating conditions where migrants can be considered as full subjects, as children of God. In this sense, the virtue of hospitality can inform a theoretical framework to sustain a common ground based on equality, where the welcomed and the hospitable can enrich each other. In this light, the suffering of the migrant becomes a challenge and an invitation to action, to translate hospitality into practice. Practicing hospitality means listening, in order to be able to create bonds of trust. True hospitality is never neutral, it entails standing up for others. This can be a hard task, but the way of hospitality leads us there, on the way to communion.

Read the full piece here.

My Experience in the Casa de las Américas Program

Posted on by Nate Radomski

El Salvador is a country that has suffered a lot over the years. It has a past full of inequality and violence, including corruption in public institutions. It is important that as citizens we do not sit idly by. We must not only focus on academic training, but on a more comprehensive education. This is where Centro Ignacio Ellacuría (CIE) plays a very important role.

My name is Kevin Cea and I am a third-year computer engineering student at UCA and a current student at CIE (Casa de Las Américas). The center has undoubtedly had a great impact on my life and the way I see things, through accompanying communities in rural areas, living with other students, and immersing myself totally in the experience of community work, such as:

  • Accompanying the community of San Bartolo through praxis with Marianita and Ana Lilian, two women leaders with a lot of experience and service to this community.
  • Spirituality and community nights, the latter being one of my favorites because it has allowed me to understand the reality of my colleagues, knowing how history has led them to be the people they are now.
  • Learning from Lolo his experience at the Sumpul River, being a survivor of the armed conflict, which was a very difficult time in El Salvador. It has made me see this historic event differently, to want justice.
  • Hearing the testimonies of Kevin and Trena, as well as the legacy of Father Dean, leaving his comforts and coming to serve, committing to change, was without a doubt something transformative for me.
  • National reality class, taught by the center, was important in my formation as we debated and learned about social, political, and cultural realities, as well as issues of leadership and discernment.
  • The day-to-day life with my fellow students, singing and giving thanks before each meal, the simplicity, and listening has made me appreciate them and love them as brothers and sisters.

The virtual modality of praxis could have been an impediment to getting the most out of the experience, however, this did not prevent us from sharing and connecting with our praxis coordinators. The fact that we worked virtually during this experience made the three face-to-face visits to the communities of San Bartolo and San Miguel Tepezontes that much more impactful. Talking and playing with the boys and girls was one of my favorite parts, as was cooking.

Now I know I have the power to start transforming the world and I have the initiative to start with my community in Sonsonate in the municipality of San Antonio del Monte, teaching mathematics to boys and girls and accompanying other communities. I feel more aligned with the Jesuit vision, changing lives through education seems to me to be the solution. Making people aware of action, and not resignation, being aware of socio-political problems and speeding up to find solutions, following the legacy of the Martyrs of the UCA.

Learn about other’s experience:

Maria Alejandra Pineda Cruz

Karen Rocío Platero Ramírez

[Webinar] Next Gen Leaders: the critical role of CIE in El Salvador’s Future