Practices with impact
Students work in municipalities of Navarra
thanks to the program "Revitalizing rural heritage".
Allo, Dicastillo, Lekunberri, Aoiz... In total, 42 students from the University have been able to carry out internships in 24 municipalities and valleys of Navarra from May to September of this year thanks to the program "Revitalizing rural heritage". Created in 2023, as a result of a agreement between the University, the General Administration of Local Administration and Depopulation of the Government of Navarra and the "la Caixa" Foundation, which finances it, the program aims to promote the local development through research, training and paid internships for students. Juanjo Pons, Senior Associate Professor of Geography and Territorial Planning of the School of Philosophy y Letras, is its promoter.
The program is developed in public or private entities in some of the municipalities of Navarre considered at risk of depopulation by the department of Territorial Cohesion of the Government of Navarre. These total 194 municipal entities and comprise more than 70% of the surface area of the region and around one fifth of its population.
This year, students from 10 different centers of the University have carried out internships within the program. Leyre Machina has been one of them. A 2nd year student of Degree in language and Literature of the School of Philosophy and Letters has worked this summer in the bookshop "Books with history" in Urroz Villa, a village located in the Merindad de Sangüesa (Navarra). Thanks to what she learned at class, Leyre was able to classify the books according to their genre and period, situate them geographically and historically, and recommend them to customers visiting bookshop.
"This program is interesting because every day you learn something new. In this work you can find books from different eras with different origins and each with its own history," he says.
"The bookshop is very present in the life of Urroz-Villa and participates in all the cultural events of the town," says Leyre. "In addition to serving customers at the bookshop, I have also collaborated with the Summer Course that is organized there every year, and in the book fair," she explains.
Iranzu Fernández, recently graduated in design (School of Architecture), also did an internship during the months of July and August as part of this program. In her case, she has worked in Bizi Codés, a tourism business centered in the Sierra de Codés, on the border between Navarre and Alava, whose goal is to publicize the architectural, artistic, natural and cultural heritage, and revitalize the area in a way manager. There, Iranzu has created an inventory of the heritage and, from all the material generated, has developed a tourist package, detecting the points of greatest interest and generating a pathway for visits at group.
"The program has allowed me to combine my knowledge in design with a practicalapproach oriented to the preservation and revitalization of cultural and natural heritage in the tourism sector, which I am very interested in", says Iranzu. "In addition, working in such a unique environment as the Sierra de Codés has been an enriching experience and has allowed me to stay and work in Navarra this summer," she adds.
After what she has experienced these past months, Iranzu recommends, without a doubt, this internship subject . "They offer a unique opportunity to apply academic knowledge in a real context, with a tangible impact on the local rural community. I think it is a very nice and satisfying goal ," she concludes.
For her part, Ainhoa García, a graduate in Teaching and student of Degree in Pedagogy, has done her internship, within the program "Revitalizing Rural Heritage", at high school Sagrado Corazón - Jesusen Bihotza Ikastetxea in Bera, a village in the north of Navarra. "During the month of July I collaborated in an urban camp directed by the chaplain of high school. We had children of different ages, from 4 to 16 years old, with whom we carried out different activities and outings," she explains.
"Being able to work outside classroom has been a very enriching experience," says Ainhoa. "Having children of such different ages, we had to prepare activities that would entertain everyone and that would be suitable for them.
"These internships have allowed me to learn how a camp works in a village and I have been able to work with student body of migrant origin in the process of adaptation," she concludes.
