Democracy and Ecology High School: "A week that transformed us".

The Democracy and Ecology High School, a citizenship training initiative jointly promoted by the Millennium Institute for Research on Violence and Democracy (VioDemos) and the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, was held between January 13 and 17, 2025.

The intense program included 5 days in which 32 students from public and private schools from 14 districts of the Metropolitan Region shared in workshops and classes at the Faculty of Social Sciences UClocated in the San Joaquin Campus. Each day was oriented by one of the competencies for sustainable development (Unesco), while each student worked on the design of a social project to raise in their school or community. The participants arrived at the high school with a proposal that was enriched during the week and was eligible for funding at the end of the week. Thus, from all the projects, 6 of them will be chosen to be implemented in the first semester of 2025.

Agustina Dagnino, a student of the Arturo Alessandri Palma High School, gave a few words at the closing ceremony of the Secondary School and said: "Today we close a week that will be remembered by all of us, not only for what we learned, but for everything that transformed us. This first edition of the school has been a very profitable and much needed space."

And he emphasized: "We arrived with many ideas, concerns and questions, now we are leaving with tools that will always be useful to us and with much clearer and more concrete projects. These days gave us the opportunity to share with People of our age who are also interested and concerned about contingency issues, who want to generate a positive impact on society. We were able to get to know each other, perhaps many of us formed friendships and were able to collaborate with our peers".

Catalina Salazar, monitor of the Secondary School and student of pedagogy in history at USACH, explains that "during the school it was very important to foster the bond between the participants, the first days they were nervous, but at the end of the week we saw a transformation that makes us very happy because the children realize that the projects not only require economic resources, but that they also work as a network and that they are collaborating with each other".

Nélida Pohl, Director of Communications at IEB, comments that "this School could not have been possible with only one institution. It was vital that VioDemos and IEB got together, because from Ecology we cannot understand how politics is important to promote transformations and VioDemos wants to learn more about the environmental problems facing the planet". And he points out: "From science it was a challenge to work with high school students and we are very happy with the result, this is definitely something we want to do again to involve more and more students".

Gabriela Piña, VioDemos researcher and Academic Director of the High School, points out that "it was a very intense work and we are very happy with the result because the students were very motivated and available to learn. For us the task is not over because we have to finish the evaluation of the High School, a process that was carried out in parallel, and to finance and follow up on 6 student projects".

The Secondary School contemplated three blocks of content: "Democracy, ecology and citizenship, how do we organize ourselves?", "Crisis of the Common" and "Security in an uncertain future".

It also had several workshops for reflection and with tools: "Debates around Feminisms today", "Human Rights in the XXI Century", "The problem of disinformation and the superpower to combat it","Content in RRSS for social projects", "Climate change and activism: student performances in Chile", "Allies: citizenship, power and negotiation", "The price of nature: What are we willing to lose?", "From Imaginaries to Images: Poster Workshop", "Environmental Journalism and Democracy Workshop: Transform your voice into action" and "Who told me what? Keys to oral communication".

Rodrigo Mardones, professor of Political Science UC, María Paz Trebilcook, professor of Sociology UAH, Gabriela Piña, professor of Education at Universidad Mayor, Milena Grass, professor of Theater UC and Hugo Rojas, professor of Law UAH, all of them VioDemos researchers, participated as rapporteurs. Also Nélida Pohl, Director of Communications of the IEB, Matías Guerrero, researcher of the IEB and Sergio Toro professor at the School of Government of the Universidad Mayor and researcher at the Millennium Institute Fundamento de Datos (IMFD).

In charge of workshops were: Fabián PadillaD. student at IMFD and creator of the fastcheck.cl platform; Rosario Valenzuela, anthropologist at the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS); Tamara Vidaurrázaga, researcher at the Disonancias Ring, Community, University and Feminist Irruption; Maria José Cot, professor at UC History; Valentina Aravena, journalist at the Millennium Institute VioDemos; Paula Vivallos and Colores García, both graphic designers linked to the IEB and Scarlet Barra, journalist at the Darwin's Path.

During the week there were also "Breakfasts with activists", instances in which students talked with activists to learn about their experiences and dreams. Julieta Martínez, founder of Tremendas.cl, Marcos Muñoz, environmental activist and promoter of urban gardens, Lucha Venegas, activist for the human rights of children and adolescents and Catalina Silva, biology student, science communicator and environmental activist visited the school.

The Democracy and Ecology High School was organized by the Millennium Institute for Research on Violence and Democracy (VioDemos) and the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB), and was sponsored by the UNESCO Office in Santiago, the Ombudsman for Children, the Millennium Institute Fundamento de Datos (IMFD), the Faculty of Education of the Universidad Mayor and the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS). It also had the support of the Faculty of Social Sciences UC.

Source: Viodemos