UCN welcomes 230 high school students who will participate in school linkage programs

Universidad Católica del Norte, through its Academic Success Department, received 230 students from different municipalities in the Antofagasta Region, who will be part of UCN’s school linkage programs. These initiatives seek to boost students’ knowledge and specific skills to bring them up to speed, while also helping them enter higher education.

During the opening day for these programs, UCN Rector Dr. Rodrigo Alda emphasized the significant increase in students. “It is very satisfying to look back 10 years at the 13 students we started with in 2013, and see that today we have more than 200 young people. Added to this is ongoing support from companies like Antofagasta Minerals and SQM that get involved with the territory and show their commitment to local school communities,” he said.

Likewise, Rosa Salas, Head of Institutional Relations at Antofagasta Minerales, highlighted the collaboration agreement with the university that dates back many years. Among the different actions and initiatives they work on is training and support for access programs, specifically “supporting the preparatory program in the territories where we operate, along with the “Enlace Escolar” program, which undoubtedly makes a tremendous contribution. Through these programs, we believe we can help close access gaps for students in the Antofagasta Region, especially in the districts where our operations are located, so that they can access higher education and better opportunities”.

Similarly, Manuel Ossandón, SQM’s Head of Community Relations, valued the good results, as young people take greater advantage of this benefit. “We believe it is very important, especially in our districts of María Elena and Tocopilla, where students sense an opportunity in this type of program and pass it on from generation to generation, which is a powerful driver for young people to want to apply and be part of this program. As a company we are very pleased that Universidad Católica del Norte is developing this type of program and that the benefit is open to the region,” he emphasized.

School Linkage

Starting this year, the “Enlace Escolar, Yo sigo mi vocación” and “Propedéutico UCN” programs will be run by the Academic Success Department. “It seemed to us that it was time to generate synergies, to collaborate to improve the outcomes of programs working with talented students still in high school,” said Dr. Nelson Fernandez, Academic Vice Chancellor at UCN.

Formerly the two programs were run by different departments, but “today we have centralized them under the Academic Success Department in Antofagasta and Coquimbo. This creates an institutional structure that responds better to the challenges we face today with these new generations. It also generates shared learning from our experiences with the various access programs,” said Fernández.