Friends UC’s Trip to the Villarrica Campus

The U.S.-based corporation had a full agenda at the regional campus on April 8th and 9th, participating in colloquiums, cultural activities, and visiting various facilities associated with the University.

Accompanied by Rector Ignacio Sánchez, a delegation of 14 members from Friends UC traveled to the Araucanía Region to visit the Villarrica Campus, the only regional campus of the Catholic University of Chile.

The visit, the first of its kind in the organization’s  history, was part of their annual meeting in Chile, aimed at discussing various topics and supporting the University. “Every year, in April, we hold a meeting in Chile and another in October in New York. This has been the tradition throughout my tenure, and it has been very productive, with significant fundraising for various projects, including the UC Endowment. This year, we decided to hold the meeting in Villarrica because the board members had not yet seen the campus, and we wanted to focus on two specific issues relevant to this location. We traveled to Villarrica on Monday with the Friends directors, including those who live in the United States, both Americans and Chileans, as well as the directors from our University who reside in Chile,” explained Rector Ignacio Sánchez.

Intercultural Colloquiums

The program included various sessions where academics, researchers, and collaborators presented aspects of the Campus’s work, focusing on two of its core themes: interculturality and sustainability.

On their first day, attendees participated in the colloquium “Interculturality, Education, and Indigenous Languages,” where panelists María Lara, Viktor Naqill, and Gabriela Llanquinao, moderated by Roberto González, director of the UC Intercultural Program, discussed the current status of Mapuzungun and how the Campus is promoting the revitalization of the language, particularly through dissemination projects and the training of new educators.

On Tuesday, the focus was on the colloquium “Conservation and Socio-Ecological Systems of the Southern Zone,” with presentations by UC academic and researcher Nicolás Gálvez; founder and director of Lodge KodKod, Jerry Laker, and executive director of the Nature Fund Chile, Eugenio Rengifo, moderated by the director of the UC Local Development Center,Laura Luna.

“Our trip to Villarrica was very successful. We found all the work that UC is doing there very interesting and important. Looking ahead, we hope to continue successfully raising funds in the United States for university projects, working more closely with faculties that have graduates living and working in that country, to whom we can offer a tax benefit when they donate to Friends UC to support programs at UC” said Sava Thomas, President of the Friends UC board.

In this regard, the director of the Villarrica Campus, Gonzalo Valdivieso, observed that this visit was a great opportunity to showcase the activities of the campus and the potential for long-term collaboration. “We were able to discuss the challenges we are working on in the areas of interculturality and revitalization of Mapuzungun, as well as sustainability, conservation, wildlife monitoring, and education for sustainable development. This opens up many possibilities for linking initiatives with the foundation in the future.”

Museum Visits

The directors of Friends UC also had the opportunity to tour the two museums on campus: the Leandro Penchulef Museum, which promotes the preservation and dissemination of Mapuche culture, and the Regional Interactive Museum of Agroecology and Sustainability (MIRAS La Araucanía), an outdoor facility showcasing practical agroecological alternatives around an educational garden by the lake. Additionally, the delegation visited El Copihual farm of the CAZ Foundation (Environmental Zoological Conservation), where native flora and fauna are showcased.

The closing of the second day revolved around music, with a grand concert at the Liquen Cultural Center. More than a hundred people enjoyed a concert featuring singing, piano, and flute performed by the Papageno Cultural Foundation, one of the main collaborators of the University in the lake area.

“I want to acknowledge and express my gratitude for the work done by all the directors of Friends because it’s very generous, they dedicate their time, they also contribute with personal resources, and they help us in the search for resources to finance new scholarships, to carry out new research projects, to fund university programs, and also to increase the Endowment Fund, which is in continuous construction and will be very important for the future development of the UC,” concluded Rector Sánchez.