Towards a More Articulated and Engaged University Extension: My Experience and Vision

Abstract

My first experience as an extensionist took me to a low-income community where the lack of opportunities was palpable. I taught a business planning course to people with little formal education and unmet basic needs. Teaching entrepreneurship concepts in this context was a challenge that moved me deeply. Despite the difficulties, the experience allowed me to understand the importance of adapting education to the real needs of communities and addressing social issues in a comprehensive way. At the end of the training, the greatest satisfaction lay in the transformative impact it had generated. Beyond the knowledge imparted, new doors opened to resources that enabled participants to significantly improve their quality of life. Watching them move from point A to point B, overcoming obstacles and becoming empowered, was a profoundly rewarding experience.

An old saying claims that “the road to the throne passes through the servants’ quarters.” This maxim accurately reflects my journey to the Office of the Vice Rector for Extension. I began my work as an academic, sharing knowledge with the conviction that education is a vehicle for social transformation. Later, as coordinator at the San Carlos campus of the National Technical University (UTN), I consolidated my commitment to university extension. This experience has prepared me to assume the Vice Rectorship and to continue strengthening UTN’s engagement with its surroundings.

UTN’s university extension model, focused on income generation, has been the product of a specific historical and political context. The pursuit of financial autonomy and the pressure to obtain short-term measurable results have led to prioritizing commercial services over other objectives. However, this limited view has hindered the development of a university extension more committed to social and environmental challenges. The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for this process of critical reflection, revealing the need to build a more inclusive, participatory, and sustainable extension model over time.