The Food Engineering graduate from the University of La Serena becomes the first woman to be elected Rector in an election with male candidates in a CUECH study house.

During this Thursday, May 27, and with 73,8% of the votes during the second round, the UTEM academic and former ULS student, Marisol Durán Santis, became the first woman elected by her peers as Rector of the Metropolitan Technological University of the State of Chile, defeating the current Rector Luis Pinto, who held the position uninterruptedly since 2009.

In this way, the former Academic Vice-Rector of UTEM and a ULS Food Engineering graduate, becomes the first woman to be elected rector by her peers in an election with male candidates and the second woman to be elected to the position, after of the current Rector of the University of Aysén, Natacha Pino, in a study house of the Consortium of Universities of the State of Chile (CUECH).

Marisol Durán Santis is a Food Engineer from the University of La Serena and a Master in Food Technology from the University of Santiago de Chile. She has more than 28 years of experience as an academic, in which she has preferably dedicated herself to academia and institutional management. She has various specializations, both in her disciplinary area and in educational management.

During her campaign, the elected Rector defended the need for change and renewal of the university to take a leap forward with greater participation, a more modern and democratic management, with greater equity and inclusion, transparency and respect for all who are part of the UTEM community.

Regarding her victory, the Rector-elect maintains that “UTEM is at the right time to develop and implement a new stage, in a participatory and inclusive manner, with a university project that incorporates the best of our historical journey and that, at the same time , be open to undertaking all the necessary and essential changes to grow.”

Those interested in participating in the activity can register by sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

With the purpose of promoting cultural development in the Coquimbo Region, the ULS invites to the “First performing arts convention: Challenges of the University of La Serena in increasing regional cultural capital. Appreciation, training and creation of performing arts”, to be held on Friday, June 04, from 9:45 a.m., via Zoom.

This initiative, with which the university reaffirms its commitment to the artistic development of the region, includes three talks scheduled for 10:00 a.m., where participants can choose whether to participate in the “Appreciation of the Arts” conference. Escénicas”, by Martín Erazo, director of the collective “La Patogallina”; “Training in Performing Arts”, taught by Rodrigo Zarricueta, general director of “Teatropuerto”; and “Concretion of performing arts”, taught by Sandra Acevedo, director of the collective “Zonas de Obras” and Iván Sánchez, designer and stage director of “Danzalborde”, to later integrate all the participants in a work table, where they will share the reflections of each of the instances.

The person in charge of cultural management of the Directorate of Liaison with the Environment and ULS Extension, Fernando Tapia, referred to the importance of this first convention, since “it invites the internal community of the University of La Serena, be they professionals, academics, students , and to external cultural agents, so that we can outline, to a certain extent, what would be the best ways to address the artistic activity of the performing arts, mainly from the University of La Serena to the region. Therefore, the debate generated at the convention will provide the mechanisms to improve the management and activity of academic work and also of professionals within the University of La Serena.”

Tapia also referred to the importance of this initiative being part of a joint project between the Ministry of Education and the University of La Serena, since "the interest that we have as the University of La Serena regarding promoting and promoting the development of The performing arts in the region have become much more popular since the university. That is why we presented a project to the Ministry of Education, which provides instances of interest to culture and we chose something that is relevant for the school, but that has not been able to be developed in conventional programming, the performing arts.”

The activity will be carried out through the Zoom platform and you can obtain the registration form by writing to the email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The initiative was implemented since August 2020 and has been very well received by students from different ULS faculties.

For more than a year now, the University of La Serena, like many other higher education institutions, has been teaching and teleworking online, which of course has led students to face some emotional and academic difficulties. In this context, the Coordination Area of ​​Rights and Duties for Comprehensive Training, through its Inclusion and Disability Area, has developed monthly workshops for university students, and thus support them in their teaching-learning process.

In the month of May, professionals Alejandra Galleguillos and Rosana Toro gave a workshop on how to manage stress and plan time better. The methodology was focused on providing some learning tips in relation to online classes, as well as a practical exercise for students to organize their schedule. They continued with a group dynamic where they recognized the symptoms of stress and, finally, did a practical exercise.

20 students from the Computer Engineering, Auditing, Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education, Pedagogy in Basic General Education, Pedagogy in Differential Education, Design, Chemistry, Psychology, Commercial Engineering, Pedagogy in History and Geography, and Mechanical Civil Engineering participated in this activity. and Law.

For its part, the topic discussed in the month of April was “How to start the year with remote study”, where the professionals provided tips for learning. During the session, some suggestions regarding study habits were shared and a group dynamic was held. Students were then divided into rooms and asked to identify the emotions that were most difficult to manage in this context. Finally, a breathing exercise was performed.

This workshop was attended by 25 students from the courses of Pedagogy in Differential Education, Pedagogy in Biology and Natural Sciences, Pedagogy in Basic General Education, Pedagogy in Mathematics and Physics, Civil Engineering in Mining, Commercial Engineering, Psychology, Kinesiology, Bachelor of Music, Environmental and Chemical Civil Engineering.

In both activities, the students expressed that they were very grateful for this instance and for the opportunity to meet students from other majors through group dynamics.

The next workshops that are planned in the following months are:

If you want to participate in the workshops, write to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The activity is available on the YouTube channel Linking with the ULS Media

An interesting event took place this Tuesday, May 25, in the activity “Books improve life”, organized by the ULS Publishing House, where students from the Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education program at the University of La Serena, in charge of the academic Dr. Desireé López de Maturana, had the opportunity to express their concerns regarding the book “Youth on the Margins of School Institutions” to a group of experts.

On this occasion, the panel was made up of Alberto Moreno, editor and author of the book; Luis Vargas, academic at the University of Tarapacá; Mónica Rengifo, academic at the University of La Serena, philosopher and educator; Johana Cortés, head of the Educational Department of INTEGRA; Verónica Valdés, technical advisor of the Subdirectorate of Educational Quality of the JUNJI Coquimbo and Alejandro Abufom, in charge of the ULS Publishing House, who directed the activity.

Abufom pointed out that the objective of this initiative is “to generate a conversation between students, writers and institutions related to education who have already read the book, this makes a difference, since all of us who participate go directly to the contents, generating a dialogue between participants, we are drawing conclusions from this book.”

The academic Desirée López de Maturana highlighted the importance of this activity and the reflections made by her students, since “it is an enriching instance for all of us who are here, and the enthusiasm of participating with this course in this conversation is because the course It is fundamental about pedagogical mediation in early childhood education.”

Alberto Moreno, one of the authors of the text, indicated that in the creation of “Young People on the Margins of School Institutions” they sought to capture “different voices that take the time to think and write the way in which young people and children and girls are feeling this situation of marginality, typical of the society in which we live. The book aims to capture the way in which those who can be named as the marginalized live, experience and feel the formal educational institution.”

We invite you to review the first day of the “Books improve life” event on the YouTube channel Linking with the ULS Media: https://youtu.be/yIPXB8S-I3Y

Written by Matías Hernández Rojas, student in journalism practice - DIVEULS

The objective was to increase the employability of people living in the towns of Batuco, Tranquilla and Cuncumén.

A challenging course has just been completed by the Training Office of the University of La Serena, since after bidding in a tender, it was awarded the execution of the Basic Excel course, requested by the Los Pelambres Mining Foundation for sixty inhabitants of the commune of Salamanca . The execution included several logistical efforts to develop a modality that included synchronous classes and a significant segment of the course in asynchronous modality, with the course pre-loaded on a mobile device.

In this regard, in charge of the Training Office, Mg. Pablo Sánchez, referred to the development of the course and the implementation of this new modality for the Office, “In addition to the geographical difficulties of our participants, the course included that some modules were developed in a synchronous online manner and others in asynchronous mode, through the loading the course on a tablet that was left in the possession of each participant, therefore, there was a lot of logistics behind this to be able to run this course. Fortunately, everything turned out well, there was a very good response from the students, despite having a lot of difficulty connecting.”

The course was developed for three months, and more than half of the participants were able to connect to the synchronous classes, allowing both modalities to be successfully achieved, in addition, the main objective of the employers and the Training Office was achieved.

“First of all, we were very happy that the Los Pelambres Mining Foundation, who had asked us to support this course, valued our participation, which was later validated in a survey they conducted, where we achieved the maximum scores, so that too It leaves us very satisfied as an office, and secondly, perhaps the most important thing, is that from the conversation of our students we realized, in their perception, that there was a high evaluation of the course, that they felt that they were advancing and that all this was indeed going to enhance their employability, which is the objective that the Foundation sought through this Basic Excel course,” he commented.

Finally, Cesar Núñez, coordinator of the Office, also highlighted the participation and perseverance of the students “We appreciate and value the efforts made by the participants to carry out their learning, especially due to connectivity difficulties. This course lasted 160 hours. (144 hours of self-learning and 16 hours of synchronous online classes) with a duration of 13 weeks between the months of January to April, with the objective that participants will apply an Excel tool to manage text, numerical data, formulas and simple functions within of a spreadsheet. So we congratulate each one for the commitment and good disposition with our learning proposal, which allows you to bring this training to fruition today."

Available courses and other information from the ULS Training Office can be found on the site http://capacitaciones.userena.digital and on their social networks @CapacitacionesULS

In a significant virtual meeting, the professors of the program wanted to maintain the tradition of offering their graduates an intimate farewell and full of symbolism.

Managers, academics and special guests gathered to honor the Class of 2020, made up of 26 graduates, around memories and future projections.

The Coordinator of the race, Marian Neira, delivered a message to the young people, who have already begun their path as teachers in different establishments, highlighting them as a generation that had to assume and face the challenges that the pandemic imposed on the educational sector.

For her part, as a special guest at this meeting, the Regional Program Manager “English opens doors” of the Mineduc, María Cecilia Santander, shared her experience as a graduate of Pedagogy in English ULS, highlighting the humanistic seal, passion, dedication, dedication, responsibility and commitment of managers and academic staff to form integral human beings connected to the needs of the community.

In this sense, Santander also highlighted that the program it leads provides tools to face educational problems and challenges through avant-garde solutions and that teachers have the opportunity to join the network created in 2003, due to the need to reflect on these issues.

The ceremony was full of symbolism and good wishes. Among them was the message from academic Sandra Santander who indicated that “As teachers, we are proud of the path you have traveled and the achievements achieved by each of you. We wish you success for what is to come in the coming years”, also expressing that both the students, the teachers and the team of the program have had significant growth both academically and in values.

In addition to the music of the Beatles, which accompanied different passages of the meeting, the English teacher Romina Bravo, a ULS graduate, was also present, who has put her talent at the service of her profession as a teacher, today in addition to being a teacher of English is director of her school's orchestra. She performed, on violin, the musical piece Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel.

After the symbolic delivery of the graduation certificates to the 2020 graduates, Catalina Tabilo, student representative, shared an emotional farewell message valuing the possibility of sharing an important moment for each one, despite the circumstances.

“Today we are receiving our degree in a way that we never imagined, we were full of fears and many dreams, we passed endless tests, oral tests, courses of education that helped us how to do things well, how to be good teachers. Our teachers gave us knowledge, joy, affection, support, overcoming obstacles, and having flexibility to achieve the goal,” she expressed.

The completion of this educational stage is a very important milestone, which is why the Secretary of the Faculty of Humanities, Carlos Ramos, representing Dean Cristián Noemi and the community of the Faculty of Humanities, also shared a greeting and message to the new teachers. “Today they finish a stage, keeping university experiences in memory. Without a doubt, all of them are forms of knowledge. This knowledge is the foundation and the commitment that they will perform the teaching function with conscience, dignity and with justice for children and adolescents,” he indicated.

Finally, there was a space to share part of what we experienced during this particular period, both as students and graduates. One of the students who spoke was Katerin Wong who highlighted that in her recent work she is recognized for her quality as a professional as a graduate of the ULS, mentioning that she feels very grateful for the preparation received and capable of doing a job well done .

The ceremony concluded by highlighting the important role of the organizing committee of this meeting, (teachers Fernando Castro, Claudia Boniche, Marian Neira and Mrs. Inés Vega, secretary of the School of Humanities Directorate), which despite the distance, had the ability to create a space of affection for each of those who leave the university classrooms, also inviting them to return to their home of study, to continue linked to the area of ​​English and education, in order to strengthen their possibilities as teachers and also to learn of the experience that each one treasures, urging them to be guides and mentors, leaving traces of knowledge and effect on their students.

Written by Claudia Farías, DirCom