A proposal for the integral training of university students
Herrán Gascón (2003: 3) postulates that “the university should favour the personal maturity of the professionals who study there, from a formation centred on conscience and the overcoming of personal and collective egocentrism, because only in this way will it contribute to a society capable of evolving as it progresses”.
In line with this reflection, the Pastoral Team of the Cardenal Cisneros University Centre (Alcalá de Henares, Spain) presents the course “Interiority: living from the depths” as a significant proposal for today’s university students. Its aim is to provide a space where students can enhance and experience their personal development in an integrated way.
The experience, conceived as a full weekend, aims to be a meeting point between theory and practice. It seeks to immerse participants in the fundamentals of interiority, starting from the importance of body awareness, emotional integration and openness to transcendence. The intention is that students not only understand these concepts on a theoretical level, but also learn to apply them in a practical way in their daily lives.
The proposed pedagogical approach encourages shared metacognition, where participants, finding themselves in similar life situations, share their reflections and learning.
As a Marist school, we propose an understanding of interiority inhabited by the One who loves us madly. An interiority that, by fostering the question of meaning, goes out to meet the reality that surrounds it, and helps the student to take charge of it in order to transform it.
This is why we give students the opportunity to participate in a second module of the course. Once we have discovered who we are, we go out to meet those people who live on the margins of our society, fostering bonds of fraternity and mutual knowledge. The idea is to promote the creation of a fairer and more equitable society.
In conclusion, this course becomes a concrete step towards an education that goes beyond the purely academic, fostering the integral formation of our students.
Bibliography: Herrán Gascón, A. de la (2003). Autoconocimiento y Formación: Más Allá de la Educación en Valores. Tendencias Pedagógicas (8), 13-42.
Carlos Sánchez – Head of Pastoral Care at the Centro Universitario Cardenal Cisneros