Accompaniment and Effective Access to Higher Education Program: PACE highlights its first generation who are today professionals in Los Ríos

Carlos Ross Rojas, Journalist UACh.- Katiushka Sanhueza Ramírez came from the Alberto Blest Gana High School in Los Lagos to the Austral University of Chile (UACh) to study a Bachelor of Science with a major in Biology. This after participating in her educational establishment from the third year of the Accompaniment and Effective Access to Higher Education Program (PACE). Program that since its inception has helped more than 1,700 young people enter higher education from 2017 to date, having a total of 389 direct access slots for 2023 admission in 73 careers at the headquarters: Valdivia, Puerto Montt and Patagonia Coyhaique Campus.

The current graduate in science, professor of biology and natural sciences, is studying for a Doctorate in Medical Sciences from the Institute of Anatomy, Histology and Pathology, belonging to the Faculty of Medicine of the UACh. Her desire is to develop as a researcher in the clinical area to be able to understand and contribute knowledge to deal with health problems at a national and international level.

“These are evoked to be able to give back to society because at the end of the day, when you’re doing science, it’s easy to lose focus on why we’re doing what we’re doing. A doctor or a post-doctoral fellow may be very expert in his area, but if we are not aware that behind the knowledge we generate in a laboratory there are families waiting for cures for diseases, being an expert in a subject is of no use to us. My objective is to take science out of laboratories and take it to communities, which is why I would like to develop myself in scientific dissemination in order to make a link between academia and the community, ”he said.

PACE program

Regarding her opinion of the PACE program, Kastiushka maintains that it fulfills an important social role in the educational community. “PACE somehow gives us equal opportunities to create a more equitable society where our high school students have the chance to develop their full potential and do not see their dreams cut short in the face of such random moments in our lives. as are the entrance exams to higher education”, he said.

“For my part, I participated in various interventions that the program carried out in my educational establishment, such as vocational and self-knowledge talks. When I won the PACE quota, I participated both in the academic tutorials offered by the program, as well as in the stress management workshops, organization of study times, among others, ”she commented.

“And the fourth year of University I began to participate as a tutor directly in the program. That type of support, which is somewhat invisible at the University, is very important and powerful to stay in it. And in this sense I think the PACE program really seeks to be that support for its students, ”she added.

Regarding her current professional and academic situation, Katiushka considers being an example of the fruit of years of work by the PACE program team. “I am an example of the spitting image that tells the new students of the program that it is possible, that there is hope and that deep down the results of an evaluation cannot define your future, if not that you build it based on to your effort and your perseverance. Therefore, we must never doubt our abilities to access higher education because, after all, the University is not made for intelligent people, it is made for hard-working people who do not give up at the first adversity”, she concluded.