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Nora Fernandez Fernandez
Last 2021, during the month of September, several Madrid universities constituted what is today the Madrid Network of University Service Learning Offices (ApS).
In December of the same year, the Network began to work as an organization, holding periodic meetings, activities and conferences to promote and promote activities related to Service Learning in the universities of the CAM.
During its last meeting, held on January 17, the representatives of the Network were elected to serve as interlocutors with other public entities, such as the City Council or the Madri+d Foundation.
After proposing several candidates, two representatives were elected who will hold the position for two years, until it is time to rotate the position. The spokespersons chosen by the Network have been Rocío Samino, director of the URJC University Service Learning Office and Juan García, delegate of the ApS project at UNED.
The reason for the choice was that both the URJC and the UNED were in charge of organizing, last year, the first conference for researchers in Network Service Learning, which was also held in a hybrid format.
As Rocío Samino, director of the ApS Office (Vice Rectorate for Quality and Strategy of the URJC) points out, “those first conferences were much more successful than we expected, and this year we want to organize the second seminar for researchers. On this occasion, the Autonomous University and the Polytechnic University, both from Madrid, will be in charge of organizing it”.
Another of the projects that the Network has prepared for this course, “is to hold a day at the ApS Offices where the projects of each university are exhibited. The objective is for the students themselves to present the proposals”, Samino pointed out. Another activity programmed for this course "is a session on Legal Clinics and on Aps ethics, led by the UNED". In addition, "we continue our collaboration with the Madrid City Council and we want to establish another with Madri+d", added the spokesperson for the Network.
Samino also wanted to emphasize the progress that has meant for the Network "creating working groups to delve into the different areas that interest us, and distribute the tasks more among all the universities."
The initiative to create this organization came from the Madrid City Council and the representatives of the ApS offices of many Madrid universities. Currently, the activity of the Network has been separated from the City Council and it has been the universities themselves who have continued to promote the ApS initiatives from this organization.
The universities that are part of the Madrid Network of University Service-Learning Offices, and those who promoted its creation, are the following: Autonomous University of Madrid, Carlos III University, Complutense University, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Alcalá de Henares University, UNED, Comillas Pontifical University and the URJC. The University of Villanueva and the CEU San Pablo are the latest additions.
