Cross Cultural Collaboration: UTEC and Purdue worked together for social change

The Cross Cultural Collaboration for Social Change Program was an initiative carried out by the Directorate of Creativity and Humanities of the University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) and the Department of Transdisciplinary Studies of the Polytechnic of Purdue University. It was a two-week academic program in which 27 students from both universities participated. The objective was to develop workshops and field trips in Lima and Cuzco, in order to recognize public spaces and propose an intervention from an intercultural perspective.

"The best thing about this program is having a change in the focus of the courses in the middle of the semester, and what better than looking for an intervention together with people from different cultures reinforcing our english and our empathy with different environments," says Sebastián Ruiz de Castilla, student participant of the program.

Thank to this program, the students were able to approach the design process, adding their abilities to understand and collaborate with people from other cultures facing a common goal. In addition, the program was 100% in english, therefore our students could practice and improve their language skills. 

The result of the project has been completely satisfactory, since the students of both universities worked from their different cultural codes, and also they could learn from the social and cultural environment that Cuzco offered during the 4 days they were there.

"This holistic academic perspective clearly reflects UTEC's DNA. It is not only about taking learning beyond the classroom, but about exposing and confronting our students with the social, cultural and human vision that all engineering projects require. We seek to understand and empathize with the social and human world that surrounds them. For that, you have to leave where the problems are. Only then can they propose solutions that are sustainable in the social, cultural and environmental", says Antuané De La Flor, Coordinator of Ethics and Competencies at UTEC.

Thus, the program has proved valuable from several perspectives: the possibility of working on design issues, exercising intercultural understanding, the active practice of English, as well as the strong bonds of friendship between students of both universities.