HR4RS stamp
Nora Fernandez Fernandez
The Simulation of the Congress of Deputies (SICODI) is an event that each year brings hundreds of young people closer to the operation of public institutions. This year it took place between January 24 and 27, at the Pontificia de Comillas-ICADE and CEU San Pablo Universities, and was attended by more than twenty URJC students.
Among them, Leyre Puyuelo Vidal, student of the Double Degree in Journalism and International Relations, won the Best Journalist Award, "Pilar Cernuda", present at the event.
Puyuelo, who is in the fourth year of his career, highlights this experience as “nice, fun and great learning. It is a good way to see how the deputies work, what their day-to-day life is like… In addition, we have direct contact with some of them, we can interview them and they tell us first-hand what their work is like”.
For the second consecutive year, Leyre Puyuelo has been part of the SICODI press team, “where I met and got closer to the journalist's work; editing daily news, writing news, interviewing people... and since I had already been in the same position last year, this time I took it upon myself to guide the newcomers a bit”.
Receiving the award was for her "a recognition, it made me very excited and I am very happy with the work I did, but it would not have been possible without the work of all my colleagues, because we were a very collaborative team and we helped each other a lot" . Looking to the future, the student confesses that she would like to dedicate herself to the field of communication, which is very broad, "but participating in SICODI has made me more interested in political communication."
President of the URJC Debate Club, Puyuelo believes that "all the academic activities that take place outside the university, but are still linked to the academic part, contribute a lot to everyone who participates, not only at the level of experience and meet people, but learning and development, both personal and academic. I have discovered my most communicative facet here and I think that will mark my future”.
Lastly, the student wanted to highlight that “this type of initiative is possible thanks to all the people behind the organization, who have already had the experience as participants and now want to help it move forward. Thanks to all those people we can enjoy SICODI and take advantage of this great opportunity”.
On the other hand, the URJC Criminology student, Jorge Blázquez, also received recognition for his work; the Press Honorable Mention "José Ignacio Gabilondo".
His role in this sixth edition of SICODI, the first time for him, was that of a photographer. “It is not the first time that I have been in a press team for a simulation, but it was the first time that I was in SICODI and the truth is that they had spoken to me very well about it, that it was different from the others and that people appreciated it. I took it more seriously."
As part of the photography team, “we are dedicated to ensuring that everyone can take home a beautiful memory of their time at SICODI, trying to capture the best moments and summarizing the experience with photographs. I was also able to put into practice the entire process of passing the information on to the media, selecting the photos, running edits, etc.”, says Blázquez.
Receiving an honorable mention in the press caught him by surprise, since the student was taking the photos of the awards ceremony; “It was a huge surprise, I put the camera down in a moment, picked up the award and went back to taking photos,” he says. “The truth is that as a photographer all the spaces we have had have been great for me, because they were very open and had very good lighting, I think that is why everyone was happy with the photos. In addition, since I study a lot of anthropology and sociology in my career, that look at the social sciences defines my photographic style quite a bit”, he explains.
When asked about the value of these types of simulations, Blázquez says that “they provide incredible value, both for the experience and for the knowledge that you take with you. The students' speaking ability improves a lot and, from the more communicative part, you can see how a team really works from within”.
“The last thing I would like to highlight is that as a photographer all the delegates have been very grateful and that has given me a very great feeling of satisfaction; Seeing that on the last day everyone shared their photo on social networks and tagged me has been to see that I have done my job well”, says Blázquez. Next, a photo of him with his partner, Leyre Puyuelo:
