Transformational Education in Chile

Adviser: Steve Reifenberg

Organization: Fundación de Menores Domingo Savio

Final Report:

I returned to Chile in the summer of 2023 after having been there previously for 6 months through a very structured study abroad program with a built-in group of Notre Dame students. This time I was returning on my own to a completely different and much more immersive experience of Chile. I was driven to return to Chile because I had transformative experiences at the end of my program through service projects, and I wanted to learn more about leadership, empathy and working for social justice through the incredible people that worked there. One such person was Olga Díaz, the director and founder of the youth organization Domingo Savio that I worked with over the summer. Others were the young people and leaders of the Jueves Solidario project, a group of likeminded people that deliver food and share in conversation with people experiencing homelessness every Thursday. Through research with the Catholic University of Chile, I hoped to uncover pedagogical practices that impacted human development by interviewing and surveying students in an interdisciplinary first-year program.

I confronted my first challenge pretty immediately upon arriving, when my research required a lot more logistical work and paperwork than expected. Although I was not able to get the amount of research done that I had hoped, I was able to meet many people that supported the project and lay a solid in-person foundation so that I could continue research online. I learned to be patient and to adapt to the challenges as they came. The situation also taught me how well my education prepared me for the challenges because I did not experience high levels of stress about the changes in my project, but rather I immediately found opportunities in the challenges as I had been trained to do. For example, I reached out to professors in other departments who gave me interesting insights into their pedagogical practices, and I used the extra time I had to dedicate myself more fully to Domingo Savio in a way I wouldn’t have been able to do if my research did not start slowly.

In my fieldwork with Domingo Savio and Jueves Solidario, I feel confident that I completed my goal of learning more about how to lead well, work with people and gain insights into different ways of doing social justice work. The leadership of both Domingo Savio and Jueves Solidario demonstrated a holistic and personal approach to confronting large and complex social issues. Those who work with children in Domingo Savio are involved in their academic lives through tutoring sessions, their cultural development through workshops on Chilean culture and emotional development by intentionally choosing activities that build confidence, morals, and social skills. They are also in constant communication with the children’s families and deeply understand the home context that each child is living in. This holistic approach translated to Domingo Savio feeling like a home to the children and to any visitor. I could learn about the importance and theory of holistic interventions in an academic setting, but Domingo Savio taught me what that approach actually feels like. The physical space of the organization was designed to invoke feelings of peace and comfort through bright colors, inspiring decorations such as one that said “here we cook positive emotions” and maintaining the layout of a home. An approach like that of Domingo Savio blurs the line between the personal life of the students and their academic lives, so they felt comfortable bringing up their problems with those who worked there. Coming from the very professionalized culture of America, this approach was new to me, and I came to appreciate how making a situation informal can often be more valuable than following the laws of professionalism.

The work of Domingo Savio and Jueves Solidario also gave me very good examples of accompaniment. Like holistic interventions, accompaniment is something that I can learn about in a classroom setting, but it is not something that I can fully understand until I have felt it. Accompanying people who lived in the streets by developing friendships with them as I returned every Thursday to listen to their stories and share updates on our lives showed me the importance of human connection. Sharing with the children’s lives, celebrating their successes, feeling bad with them when they had bad days and worrying about their wellbeing was the most beautiful part of accompanying the children’s journeys. I understood, for the first time, how much accompaniment involves feeling with the other person and the true emotional aspects of sharing in the life of another person.

My experience in Chile gave me a wealth of knowledge, experiences, role models and friendships that will inform my work and the way I want to live my life. I learned a lot about what it takes to be a good teacher and leader and what it takes to truly accompany someone through a difficult time in their life. I will draw on these experiences when I face a big decision, when I work with people and when I start something new. I plan to return to Chile and keep ties with the friends and mentors I met there.