The project "The Neighborhood Goes to the University" aims to promote access to higher education for low-income populations. An investigation found that many children and youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods had little knowledge of university careers and options. Over 60 children and 27 youth did not know about university careers. The project brings groups from 10 nonprofit organizations to visit the National University of La Plata to learn about opportunities and develop informational materials to share in their communities. The goal is to help more vulnerable sectors of society envision university as a path for training and a better future.

1. University project:
The marginalized neighborhood goes to
University
EXPERIENCES IN THE FACULTY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
AUTHORS: B.S. F. Javier Diaz, B.S. Viviana Harari, B.S. Ivana Harari

2. UNLP briefing
Created in 1897, National since 1905. Since the creation
integrated scientific research groups:
• Natural Science Museum
• Santa Catalina Experimental Farm
• Astronomical Observatory
UNLP numbers (www.unlp.edu.ar)
• Over 100.000 university students
• Over 150 undergraduate programmes
• Over 220 postgraduate programmes
• 17 Faculties

3. Motivations
The preamble to the statute of the National University of La
Plata says:
► … “The UNLP, as a free public institution of higher
education, is offered, open and inclusive, for society and
establishes as a main objective promoting access to its
classrooms to the entire Argentine people and bringing
every corner of the country the fruits of their labor”…“
► … “Inspired in reformist principles, ensuring complete
academic freedom, without discrimination, limitations or
impositions...will establish policies designed to facilitate
the entry, permanence and graduation of the most
vulnerable sectors of society”...

4. Some studies
Unfortunately, surveys on educational reality of the country
indicate that most of the most vulnerable and needy in our
society fail to access higher education.
The report of the Permanent Household Survey (EPH) of
the INDEC (National Institute of Statistics and Census),
states:
► Among the 20% of households with the highest incomes,
43% of the young people assist to the university while
less than 5% do not study or work, or are seeking work.
► In contrast, among the 20% of the poorest households,
only 8% assist to the university while 30% do not study
or work, or are looking for work.

5. The Project "The neighborhood goes to the
University"
► This project by the Faculty of Informatics was accepted
from the University Volunteer Projects of the Ministry of
National Education. It was accredited and selected for
subsidy, for its full development throughout 2013.
► It aims to promote access to University in the low-income
population. To incorporate the idea of the University as an
alternative training for a better future for them and their
enviroment.
► The recipients are more than 150 children, youths and
adults from low-income sectors of the suburbs of La
Plata, attending more than 10 nonprofit civil associations
such as neighborhood soup kitchens, public libraries, and
foundations, among others.

6. Project Background
► The project “The neighborhood goes to the University” is
framed in the “Computer Literacy Project”, which has
been in force for six years teaching ITC to disadvantaged
sectors of society.
► “Edu-RAEE” is another social outreach project where it
has been working on environmental and social awareness
and the reuse, repair and recovery of WEEE -Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipment-, since 2009.
► In 2010, “Edu-RAEE Project” and “Computer Literacy
Project” were successfully merged, which resulted in the
donation of the reconditioned computing equipment to the
training locations, providing with both the computing
training and the proper resources.

7. Project Stages
The development of the project consisted in:
► Stage 1: Investigation on the image those sectors have of
the university, inquire as to what they know and what they
do not know about it.
► Stage 2: Approach process of these groups to the
university environment. Visits to the different University
academic units, and the Dean Office, will be gradually
organized.
► Stage 3: Documentation and Processing of the
Information gathered and the knowledge adquired.They
have to design a product or material in which they need to
use technology.

8. Project Stages
► Stage 4: Productions Validation.To achieve a good result,
they will visit the Faculty of Journalism and Visual Design,
where teachers will instruct the group on the best way to
"communicate" their research.
► Stage 5: Productions Development. Implementation of
the chosen product or material.
► Stage 6: Presentation of the final product in their
respective environments (social eaters, neighborhood,
school) to tell them what they have investigated, and in
the closing day of the project, in the Faculty of
informatics.

9. Stage 1: Investigation
This stage is the focus of the paper.
► The objective of this
research was to inquire
what they know about the
University, its careers,
and if they considered it
an area for further study.
► They were:
– 110 children aged 10 to14
– 50 youngsters aged 15 to 18.
► The surveys were developed
at the end of the academic year 2012.

10. Stage 1: Investigation
The results of the evaluation done:

11. Stage 1: Investigation
Other results:

12. Stage 1: Investigation
This research throw some important results:
► 60 children and 27 youngsters do not know the careers in
the University.
► 87 children and 36 youngsters do not know any
friends/relatives who study at University.
► So, they would be the first ones of their families to enter
the university system.
► 16 children say they plan to continue studying in the
University but to learn to be a cop, which is not taught in
this area.
► In adolescence, there are several obstacles which make
admission to the University a very difficult alternative.

13. Stage 1: Investigation
Others numbers:
► Although 75 children and 34 youngsters acknowledge
and believe that the study may help to get a better job,
only 42 children and 3 youngsters plan to study at the
University.
► Although 71 children and 33 young people indicate that
they know the UNLP, many do not know anything about
it, the number of respondents who know about
scholarships, crafts, or that it is public and free is very
low.

14. Conclusions
The project "The neighborhood goes to the university" means
a big challenge:
► It involves more than 150 children and youth from 10 civil
associations.
► It identifies distinct processes with dissimilar complexities:
– a stage of organizing meetings which implies community
mobilization to different places of the University;
– a creative process which should encourage students to
gather information, understanding and treating it to then use
it for a final product and then;
– a transmission process within their own area of origin, where
students must tell what they have experienced to their
neighborhood, showing their productions.

15. Conclusions
The research presented establishes that:
► The mere fact that admission to public universities is free
and unrestricted is not enough for all to have access to
it.
► There is a sector of society, the most needy, who cannot
conceive in their imagery the chance to continue their
studies.
► There´s not only an economic problem but also social
and cultural restrictions.
► That is why we must work to reverse this situation and
we have to start doing so from an early age in the case
of children and youth.

16. Conclusions
► Finally, all this effort to revert the digital divide, generates
a high level of gratification both in the recipients of these
actions and in the collaborators that make them possible
► In the case of the students, their participation in these
social initiatives allows them to complement the highly
specific computer science learning with the formation of
a responsible, ethical and committed human being.This
becomes more relevant when working in a technological
field within a hard science.
► The students can acquire competences for their
professional and personal lives that respond to the
needs of our current society and return the efforts that
the population makes to sustain public education.

17. Some photos
► First visits to the UNLP Dean Office:

18. Some photos
► First visits to the UNLP Dean Office:

19. Some photos
► First visits to the Faculty of Informatics:

20. Some photos
► Developing information materials in their dining
neighborhood:

21. Thank you very much!
B.S. F. Javier Diaz
jdiaz@info.unlp.edu.ar