The ERASMUS+ project which promotes service learning has designated its winners at the University of Bucharest

Tuesday, March 5^th 2024, the ERASMUS+ project team that promotes service learning, Service-Learning: Intersectoral Collaboration Practices for the development of students´ soft skills and socially engaged universities organized the second local event, which designated the winning projects.

The event took place starting 9.30 AM in the Administrative Council Hall at the Rectorate of the University of Bucharest (90 Panduri Str.).

The project is implemented by the University of Bucharest in partnership with four other member universities of the CIVIS Alliance (Autonomous University in Madrid, Aix-Marseille University, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Sapienza University in Rome).

During the event, the Reading Caravan project received the prize for Best Service-Learning Project at the University of Bucharest Based on the Audience’s Vote. Coordinated by professor Otniel Bunaciu, PhD, and lecturer Mihai Ciopașiu, PhD, from the UB Faculty of Baptist Theology, the project aimed to improve literacy among children in rural areas, using an app dedicated to testing learning competencies, but also to reward those pupils who get good scores on the digital platform dedicated to the project.

At the same time, the prize for Best Service-Learning Project at the University of Bucharest Based on the Jury’s Vote went to the team of the project titled Chemistry Goes Outdoors, coordinated by lecturer Delia-Laura Popescu, PhD, teaching staff at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Bucharest. This project allowed pupils in secondary school and high school, and also the students involved in the project, to acquire and develop specific transverse competencies.

Projects that combine learning and practice make the world a better place. I was happy to see initiatives whose aim is to improve literacy abilities, which promote a healthy lifestyle, sustainability, the passion for chemistry, or innovation and the social integration of children with special needs. As we evaluated your projects, we felt we were taking a step forward towards a positive progress. These activities represent much more than the academic sphere; these are things that influence our daily life . By involving the community, we are offered an unitary and harmonious perspective on education. You have all put in your heart in these initiatives and have made the world a better place. Let’s learn from one another and let ourselves be inspired by what surrounds us, concluded associate professor Constantin Vică, PhD, vice rector for Internationalization and Public Relations of the University of Bucharest and teaching staff at the UB Faculty of Philosophy.

Among the projects unreeled within Service-Learning: Intersectoral Collaboration Practices for the development of students´ soft skills and socially engaged universities program, we can mention: SDG Awareness and Behavioral Changes. Case of Sustainable Consumption Acronym: SDG-ABC, Therapeutic Garden: The Green Outing Experience, Support services for the assessment of students with special educational needs.

More details on the event are available here.

The UB project team comprises several members of the UB academic staff, among which professor Magdalena Iordache Platis, PhD, lecturer Delia-Laura Popescu, PhD, associate professor Marilena Bratu, PhD, and also Raluca Amza, responsible for the Erasmus program.

The coordinating institution of the Service-Learning program is Eurasia Net, an organization promoting non-formal education and cultural cooperation in the European space and between Europe and Asia.