A Discussion with Gastón Ortega, Coordinator of the Social Service Program, Central American University, Managua, Nicaragua
With: Gastón Ortega Berkley Center Profile
July 7, 2014
Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice
Project, in July 2014 undergraduate student Gianna Maita interviewed Gastón
Ortega, coordinator of the Servicio Social Service Program at Central American University (Universidad Centroamericana, UCA). In this interview, he
discusses the university’s Social Service program and student attitudes towards
it. He also discusses Nicaragua’s providentialist culture, social justice, the
dynamics of power, and the social responsibility of the university.
Can
you describe the Servicio Social (Social Service) program?
Servicio Social is a young program at the university. Students accomplish educational activities with two objectives: learning and service. Servicio Social is implemented in all of the study plans of the UCA’s 19 undergraduate degrees. It involves around 8,000 students.
What are your roles and responsibilities in the program?
I am the coordinator for the Servicio Social program. Servicio Social is implemented in each of the three academic trimesters we have in the university. I coordinate the different majors in the university, deciding which students from each major are going to do social service in which of those trimesters. Each major establishes which courses are going to have students participate in social service beforehand… So the coordinator of each major says, “We are going to do Servicio Social [in this class].” And when they inform me I say, “Okay.” So I support the capacities of the faculty.
Social service takes place when a professor applies the service-learning methodology in their class. Service-learning is a pedagogical methodology that is well-known in the United States. But it is also known in Latin America, and some countries like Argentina have made it into a national education policy.
La Responsabilidad Social Universitaria [Social Responsibility of the University] is a buzzword that the UCA frequently uses. What is social responsibility?
The Servicio Social program is an expression of the university’s social responsibility. The UCA aims, through social service, to involve students in the needs of the country and it wants to do so during the process of academic and professional formation… Servicio Social hopes that students will be sensitive to Nicaragua’s problems, especially towards the most vulnerable areas of the country.
…In this way, the educational project of the UCA connects to the social interior. The UCA does not want to be an educational project that is not interested in Nicaragua or its problems—the UCA wants to be a university interested in forming citizens who care about their country. Therefore, the formation that a student receives at this university also implies that they will be involved with the poor and their needs.
And for you, personally, what does social responsibility mean?
It is a theme that I like very much because I am always fascinated by the social dimension of a person. I do not think that happiness is merely personal. Happiness is also social. And I like this concept very much because one cannot be a happy citizen in a failed and frustrated city; this is not possible… My way of living has always been associated with the needs of the poor. Yes, I want to grow, support myself, study, live well—but I also am concerned about how what I do can contribute to whether or not others live well, eat well, and are educated well.
How do you define social justice?
My idea of social justice is contributing to something to create less social injustice because, in reality, social justice is a utopia. It is an ideal that we want to build in countries like Nicaragua, countries in development where there is much social, cultural, economic, and moral inequality. …But we must criticize a system that produces injustice. Injustices are not natural. Injustices are products of a system and a way in which people are organized—and not only people in Nicaragua but all people in the world. There are social classes that are more affluent, more powerful; there are countries that are more powerful than others. It is very unjust that these powerful people use resources that are for the common good for their own benefit… Injustice has to do with the way power is used.
How is social justice connected to social responsibility, especially with those connotations of power?
The way power is used is very complex, and the UCA also participates in the management of this power. I really like this quote from Padre Ugalde, ex-president of the Association of Jesuit Universities of Latin America (AUSJAL), that says, “Students have power; professors have power.” because we live in a society where information and knowledge are power… I believe that the university, in this sense, has a responsibility to educate students on the use of power. The university is producing citizens with greater power than before, with knowledge and a title that allows them to do certain professional activities that have to do with one or another field of scientific knowledge. So the question is, what kind of conscience will this professional have? How will they exercise the power that they have? Will they be a professional who is only interested in building their own personal well-being? Or will they also be concerned with the needs of the country? And the power they have—will they put it into service for the most needy? ...We are creating power in these people; and we are responsible, in a way, for [making sure] that these professionals use their power in a just way, not an authoritarian way, that serves the common good by solving the problems of the country and of the poor.
Can you share your thoughts on power and the resigned providentialism of Nicaraguans?
Nicaraguans have a great concept of divine providence, that God can do all and why worry about yourself? This is very good; the problem is that we are resigned to this providence… We nullify our own responsibility and capacity to transform things that we can change: “Does it matter what I do? Some think not, because what God wants to happen will happen.” At the social level, this way of thinking means that there are people who are above others because they can be and others that cannot be. Generally, these are the people with power: political power, economic power, etc.
…Ignatian spirituality says that we have to abandon our desires to God in the grace of God, but at the same time we must search for ways to work so that all depends on ourselves. We must maintain a balance… The spirituality of Saint Ignatius makes you an active child of God—not passive, contemplative in action. It makes you responsible before God, before yourself, and before others. I believe in divine providence and in the grace of God, but not in a resigned way.
…The Servicio Social program has to do with social justice, power, and the Ignatian spirit because students are gaining power through knowledge and a profession. They are connecting with the needs of others in such a way that they see that [the program] is not only for their benefit but also for the needs of the poor. For example, a student of Social Communication learns from their first year that they can use the technical skills of their profession to contribute to social well-being by running a campaign against harassment and school violence. Social service becomes a method of educating the power a student gains, putting their scientific knowledge to service for social solutions. And in this way the future professional learns to be responsible with their context, with their nation.
What is the attitude of students toward service-learning?
One of the things that I like most about Servicio Social is that it forms attitudes. For example, a group of students said, “No, we will not do social service because we pay to go to the UCA and we pay for professors to give classes. We don’t pay to be sent into the streets with the poor.” The rest of the class did not say anything; they stayed quiet. The professor left the classroom crying, because she did not know what to say. But after, the students who had stayed quiet spoke to the three boys who had said those words. After a discussion, they apologized to the professor. The changed their way of acting, participated in the project, and realized that they would have missed out on a great opportunity. One of the things that students value most about Servicio Social is that they are put in contact with real problems in their field… Servicio Social changes attitudes, and it contributes to forming a more just vision of power.
Servicio Social is a young program at the university. Students accomplish educational activities with two objectives: learning and service. Servicio Social is implemented in all of the study plans of the UCA’s 19 undergraduate degrees. It involves around 8,000 students.
What are your roles and responsibilities in the program?
I am the coordinator for the Servicio Social program. Servicio Social is implemented in each of the three academic trimesters we have in the university. I coordinate the different majors in the university, deciding which students from each major are going to do social service in which of those trimesters. Each major establishes which courses are going to have students participate in social service beforehand… So the coordinator of each major says, “We are going to do Servicio Social [in this class].” And when they inform me I say, “Okay.” So I support the capacities of the faculty.
Social service takes place when a professor applies the service-learning methodology in their class. Service-learning is a pedagogical methodology that is well-known in the United States. But it is also known in Latin America, and some countries like Argentina have made it into a national education policy.
La Responsabilidad Social Universitaria [Social Responsibility of the University] is a buzzword that the UCA frequently uses. What is social responsibility?
The Servicio Social program is an expression of the university’s social responsibility. The UCA aims, through social service, to involve students in the needs of the country and it wants to do so during the process of academic and professional formation… Servicio Social hopes that students will be sensitive to Nicaragua’s problems, especially towards the most vulnerable areas of the country.
…In this way, the educational project of the UCA connects to the social interior. The UCA does not want to be an educational project that is not interested in Nicaragua or its problems—the UCA wants to be a university interested in forming citizens who care about their country. Therefore, the formation that a student receives at this university also implies that they will be involved with the poor and their needs.
And for you, personally, what does social responsibility mean?
It is a theme that I like very much because I am always fascinated by the social dimension of a person. I do not think that happiness is merely personal. Happiness is also social. And I like this concept very much because one cannot be a happy citizen in a failed and frustrated city; this is not possible… My way of living has always been associated with the needs of the poor. Yes, I want to grow, support myself, study, live well—but I also am concerned about how what I do can contribute to whether or not others live well, eat well, and are educated well.
How do you define social justice?
My idea of social justice is contributing to something to create less social injustice because, in reality, social justice is a utopia. It is an ideal that we want to build in countries like Nicaragua, countries in development where there is much social, cultural, economic, and moral inequality. …But we must criticize a system that produces injustice. Injustices are not natural. Injustices are products of a system and a way in which people are organized—and not only people in Nicaragua but all people in the world. There are social classes that are more affluent, more powerful; there are countries that are more powerful than others. It is very unjust that these powerful people use resources that are for the common good for their own benefit… Injustice has to do with the way power is used.
How is social justice connected to social responsibility, especially with those connotations of power?
The way power is used is very complex, and the UCA also participates in the management of this power. I really like this quote from Padre Ugalde, ex-president of the Association of Jesuit Universities of Latin America (AUSJAL), that says, “Students have power; professors have power.” because we live in a society where information and knowledge are power… I believe that the university, in this sense, has a responsibility to educate students on the use of power. The university is producing citizens with greater power than before, with knowledge and a title that allows them to do certain professional activities that have to do with one or another field of scientific knowledge. So the question is, what kind of conscience will this professional have? How will they exercise the power that they have? Will they be a professional who is only interested in building their own personal well-being? Or will they also be concerned with the needs of the country? And the power they have—will they put it into service for the most needy? ...We are creating power in these people; and we are responsible, in a way, for [making sure] that these professionals use their power in a just way, not an authoritarian way, that serves the common good by solving the problems of the country and of the poor.
Can you share your thoughts on power and the resigned providentialism of Nicaraguans?
Nicaraguans have a great concept of divine providence, that God can do all and why worry about yourself? This is very good; the problem is that we are resigned to this providence… We nullify our own responsibility and capacity to transform things that we can change: “Does it matter what I do? Some think not, because what God wants to happen will happen.” At the social level, this way of thinking means that there are people who are above others because they can be and others that cannot be. Generally, these are the people with power: political power, economic power, etc.
…Ignatian spirituality says that we have to abandon our desires to God in the grace of God, but at the same time we must search for ways to work so that all depends on ourselves. We must maintain a balance… The spirituality of Saint Ignatius makes you an active child of God—not passive, contemplative in action. It makes you responsible before God, before yourself, and before others. I believe in divine providence and in the grace of God, but not in a resigned way.
…The Servicio Social program has to do with social justice, power, and the Ignatian spirit because students are gaining power through knowledge and a profession. They are connecting with the needs of others in such a way that they see that [the program] is not only for their benefit but also for the needs of the poor. For example, a student of Social Communication learns from their first year that they can use the technical skills of their profession to contribute to social well-being by running a campaign against harassment and school violence. Social service becomes a method of educating the power a student gains, putting their scientific knowledge to service for social solutions. And in this way the future professional learns to be responsible with their context, with their nation.
What is the attitude of students toward service-learning?
One of the things that I like most about Servicio Social is that it forms attitudes. For example, a group of students said, “No, we will not do social service because we pay to go to the UCA and we pay for professors to give classes. We don’t pay to be sent into the streets with the poor.” The rest of the class did not say anything; they stayed quiet. The professor left the classroom crying, because she did not know what to say. But after, the students who had stayed quiet spoke to the three boys who had said those words. After a discussion, they apologized to the professor. The changed their way of acting, participated in the project, and realized that they would have missed out on a great opportunity. One of the things that students value most about Servicio Social is that they are put in contact with real problems in their field… Servicio Social changes attitudes, and it contributes to forming a more just vision of power.
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