Jorge Luis Villacís, a native of Ecuador and graduate in Psychology from the University of Guayaquil, has won the second edition of the essay Competition in Social Sciences 'Challenges of today's world'. The competition is organized by the UniversityMaster's Degree in research in Social Sciences (MICS) of the University of Navarra, which coordinates the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS).

Su essay 'Challenges in the Education of adolescents in the 21st century do we educate to dream or do we dream for not educating? The preparation of adolescents for the choice of degree program', has earned him the first award, consisting of average scholarship to study the MICS in the 2018-2019 academic year and 500 euros in cash.

In it he reflects on the importance of the Education of adolescents when it comes to judiciously choosing their professional future. Specifically, he has analyzed the question of the choice of degree program from the teacher's perspective. To do so, he has studied the ability of Education to create responsible life projects.

"Many characteristics of our current global culture make this decision difficult," he says, "and the role of educational institutions and teachers in them is critical to encourage it in a positive way.

Villacís applied for the competition because of the opportunity it offered to study the MICS. In addition, he says he is very "encouraged" to be able to study this program because it "combines epistemological foundations with the methodological tools necessary to carry out high quality research with a humanistic perspective".

In addition, an honorary accredited specialization was awarded to Claudia López Madrigal, specialist in Clinical Psychology from the Universidad Panamericana, for her work 'Emotions and Consumption: Facilitators or disintegrators of identity'.

Innovative proposals

The competition aims to be a platform for students with an interest in research to develop and share innovative proposals to the challenges of today's world. It proposes participants to write a essay on one or more of the issues addressed by ICS projects: emotions and identity, communication in the public sphere, religion and contemporary society, poverty and development, or Education and adolescence.

The MICS has the direct partnership of the Schools of Communication, Law, Education and Psychology, Nursing, and Philosophy and Letters of the University of Navarra. It is accredited by the National Agency for Assessment of Quality and Accreditation and its training program allows students to specialize in six tracks: Communication, Geodemography, Linguistics, Education, Law and Nursing.