The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso is an institution that values the daily contribution made by its faculty members, who transform the life of people through teaching with excellence, research, and community relations. An award ceremony took place this week at the renovated gymnasium at our Central Headquarters, where the rector acknowledged the contribution and dedication of more than 115 scholars in these three categories.
Rector Nelson Vásquez highlighted the fact that the PUCV is the biggest university in the region and one of the top five in our country. He also mentioned that the future of the University is planned through the Institutional Strategic Development Plan, where a core element is the excellence of its faculty.
“Through this 96 years of existence, nine generations of professors have contributed with their work to elevate this institution. A university of this kind is built step by step, generation through generation, by those who have given of their lives to this work of the Church that has been built by laymen. Therefore, all conditions have been created so that professors have a comprehensive development. We thank all of them for their effort and commitment to have a university of excellence”, he added.
At the ceremony, awards were presented for excellence in Outstanding Teaching, Research, and for the first time, Community Relations, in addition to acknowledging professors by Faculty and the categories of Fundamental Education, English and Foreign Language Program and the Mathematics Teaching for the Engineering Faculty Program.
In Outstanding Teaching, the Physics Institute professor, Germán Ahumada, thanked the University. “We face the great challenge of teaching a variety of audiences such as future engineers, student teachers, kinesiologists, and the need to adequate the rhythms and strategies to attend to their differences is key to contribute to education in this day. This leads us to modify our teaching proposals so that students are not only trained, and our work is valued, just like is happening today in these awards”, he mentioned.
Professor Francisco Isla from the School of Business and Economy also received the Outstanding Teaching award. “This is an unexpected recognition, but it is interesting that it is coming from those that work with you in the classroom, from students that share our daily work. The teaching work makes sense to them because they evaluate our performance and this encourages us to continue to contribute to the University”, he added.
Katherine Exxs from the School of Architecture and Design was also presented with the
Outstanding Teaching award. “It is a great honor for me to receive this award. The PUCV does well by recognizing professors that are constantly concerned with teaching and receiving feedback from their students. Teaching is one of the main activities of our university”, she indicated.
In Research, Leticia Arancibia, professor at the School of Social Work, highlighted the value of this award. “It’s a recognition of collective work where researchers and undergraduate students take part. This makes us happy because although our work is invisible and done with very small steps, it shows when we can see results and we will share this with our School. I thank the Vicerectorate of Research, Creation, and Innovation, who have supported us for a long time now”, she added.
Víctor Leiva, professor at the Industrial Engineering School, was also awarded in Research. “It is an honor for me and represents all research groups from the University. There is a great team behind, so it’s a recognition that represents my colleagues and the students that work in different groups. It proposes a challenge to continue to improve and develop knowledge in order to train people and advanced human capital”, he explained.
In the Community Relations field, professor from the History Institute, Paula Soto, highlighted that the universities cannot be understood without a close relationship with its surroundings. “This is a chance to connect theory and practice and bring research and the knowledge developed at the University closer to the community. It also allows us to learn from the communities around us, and in this way the relations with the communities have a great potential to develop research that will contribute to real problems, facilitating knowledge transfer”.
The Psychology School scholar, Luisa Cataldi, also received the award in the Community
Relations category. “This award is especially relevant to me because the work we carry out at the Psychological Clinic has been developed for the last 25 years and is of great value, since it is related to our connection to people in need and also the values of our university, with people that have more difficulties to access mental health care. It’s a great honor, because it also considers the effort of students and interns”, she pointed out.
At the end of the ceremony, a musical intervention was offered, with a selection of the Aranjuez Concert, performed by a Chamber Octet conducted by Jesús Rodríguez, with the participation of Esteban Espinoza, soloist, and scholar of the IMUS.
By Juan Paulo Roldán
Strategic Communications Department
