Tag: knowledge

Cows can fly

Arantza Arruti Leave a comment

Last March 2024, the ZUR_EKIN project (which means “with you” in Basque) was presented in the auditorium of the Bilbao campus of the University of Deusto (UD). It is a mentoring program aimed at accompanying and developing gifted students in Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, in which professors from different faculties of the UD (Law, Engineering, Deusto Business School, Education and Sports, Social and Human Sciences) mentor the students.

It is run and managed by the Unit of Support for the Development of High Intellectual Abilities, which is part of the Faculty of Education and Sport of the UD, in collaboration with the Department of Education of the Basque Government. My “good luck” this year, among others, has been to have the privilege of being part of this Unit (in which we have worked, and a lot). Although I have not been in direct contact with the students and teachers of the project, as a Unit, we have developed several lines and tasks of research that we consider very necessary to provide a quality educational response to this type of students.

In this first edition of the pioneer project in the Basque Autonomous Community, around thirty students from different schools have participated. On June 12, 2024 they presented, in a closing session of this edition, the projects they have carried out accompanied by their mentors.

Unfortunately, I could not attend the first part of the event, but I was able to enjoy many of the presentations made by the students in the second part, as well as the round table in which students and teachers participated.

It is great that, finally, visibility is given and work is being done for and with this type of students!

We know that there are things to improve, because nobody is perfect, but today I want to focus on the positive aspects of the June 12 session (we will leave the improvements to work on them). This time, this post is for the gifted students. Their presentations have been very diverse, from projects based on cows that can fly or cows that listen to music to produce better quality milk, to entrepreneurial projects based on the interests of young people or companies that bet on social economy and integrated social value.

I would like to highlight some of the characteristics of this group of young people, who have had the courage to face an audience of students, teachers and families who are very proud of them and the opportunity they have seized:

  • Involvement
  • Effort
  • Collaboration
  • Peer learning
  • Listening
  • Trust
  • Very positive attitude
  • Appreciation
  • Desire for more (to know, to learn, to work, to learn about new topics)
  • Extra-curiosity
  • Enjoyment
  • Ability to communicate orally
  • Desire for freedom of expression and to ask questions to learn

The challenges they have worked on, besides satisfying many of their varied interests, have opened their minds even more, have allowed them to open up to new possibilities in an uncertain future for some of them, and have allowed them to demonstrate that they are very capable of solving problems in a creative way and even using totally unknown tools that, at the beginning, are used in very advanced educational courses compared to the ones they are in right now.

Congratulations for your achievements and thank you for teaching us. I am sure that what you showed us a few days ago is only the beginning of your path to success.

Enjoy July.

It’s the final countdown

Arantza Arruti Leave a comment

Yes, we have almost reached the end of the “EIPTE” (Entrepreneurship in Initial Primary Teacher Education) project (pronounced in very different ways) and here we are, oddly enough, wanting to do more.

It’s been almost three years (which will be complete by next July) and during those years we worked, fun, laughed (even cried), but we have also proven that:

  • entrepreneurship education is not just a dream,
  • we are worth more than we think,
  • we can also be teacherpreneurs (why not?),
  • before making our dreams come true, we have to set some goals,
  • we like our profession,
  • before being a team, we have to be a group,
  • it’s very difficult, but also possible, to work among professionals from countries of different rhythms and level of commitment; ultimately,
  • many other things, such as knowledge, abilities and, to sum up, competences we acquired, developed, and improved during this time.

Honestly, that’s what I thought we could do (and win) with this project.

A project created, as you already know, from international interaction and from good work and trust placed on people.

Well, next week, on Wednesday the 27th of May, will be the time to let everyone know what we’ve been doing these three years. I want to invite you personally to the event that, as it couldn’t be in any other way, will be online. This link is where you’d have to register to be able to enjoy this event with us. As always in this type of acts, there will be a quick opening, a presentation of the results (a little less quick, but hopefully not boring) of the project, a presentation of a resource made by two former students (teacherpreneurs, of course) of the Primary Education degree (one of those also EIPTE participant), and a round table with participants of the program. All of that in less than two hours (10:00 – 12:00 approximately), with a small break where we will present a summary video of our experience. Oh, and if you can’t, you don’t have to be there for the whole event, but we will appreciate it if you do.

Some of the results are already on the program’s website, so you can take a look if you want.

By the way, I also take this opportunity to tell you that last Thursday, the 21st of May,  I was invited to the Talento Juntos program to do an interview on their Instagram @talentojuntos. I want to thank my dear friend Diego Martos for this invitation. I met him thanks to entrepreneurship almost a decade ago and I haven’t seen in too long (but the distance doesn’t make us forget each other). You can see “the moment” in my Instagram profile, in Invitation section. I’ll be glad to share part of my passion with you.

Hope to see you next Wednesday or whenever you want. I’m always at your disposal.

Translated by María Ubierna Quintanilla and supervised by Arantza Arruti.

BilbaoFormArte: where the disability becomes art and wins by a landslide.

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I’ve owed you this post for more than a year and today, finally, and taking the advantage of the fact that this is the last one of this academic year, I think it’s one of the best moments to do so, like the end of “season”.

I invite you to know this project and some entrepreneurial women who, after many efforts, in 2013 launched BilbaoFormArte, a project that has something magical that engulfs you. (more…)

Rocío Sánchez, an entrepreneur by osmosis

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I think it’s normal when a person surrounds herself with entrepreneurs to end up soaking up the entrepreneurial spirit and attitude. That’s what I think happened to our protagonist of today, who gathers many of the characteristics of the entrepreneur. Maybe this is one of those occasions where the entrepreneurial vein has come up to our entrepreneur by osmosis; yes, I’ve said it right, by osmosis, because when there’s so much art surrounding you and its influence has an impact on you that it makes you take the plunge, we can say that you end up being an entrepreneur by osmosis more than by necessity or vocation. (more…)

CAMELIA RIOS: a new way of playing with architecture

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In September of 2002, Camelia, our protagonist of today’s post, took one of the most important decisions of her life: emigrate to another country. Some years later, in 2012, she was presented with another important change in her life, this time in the workplace and much less traumatic than the first one, but which also meant that she had to get out of her comfort zone again: quit a job where she had been working for 11 years on her own and make the leap to the world of entrepreneurship, creating her own company. Today I have the pleasure to present you Camelia Ríos, a jewel of a person, whom I had the pleasure to meet last November of 2017.  (more…)