Centro Universitário Facens, Brazil

Transformative sustainable learning – Our garden, our future

Considering the challenges that the 21st century brings us, our students will need more than just knowledge related to their future professional activity. We urge new leaders who are not satisfied with social injustices and the climate crisis. We need changemakers! At Facens Social Innovation Laboratory (LIS), we believe that we can only transform reality when we actually know it. That is why this project brings the exercise of applying and sharing knowledge with a hands-on approach along with the demand of a social organisation.

Agronomic Engineering students have the annual mission of presenting themselves to na NGO, understanding their demands and specificities to generate an impact project for a vegetable garden that will be implemented together with a discipline taught on the course. To perpetuate the gains for the NGO, Facens’ students teach the NGO employees how to care for the garden and continue to cultivate the plants. This project is currently in its second garden delivery cycle, but the gains go beyond the number of institutions served.

Top 3 Learnings

1. Dedication to essential theoretical training improves when connected to positive social impact.
2. A more engaged and collaborative relationship of the undergraduate students with the process.
3. Performance improvement of the students with relationship handicaps, after interaction with children.