High school students and high school graduates from over 85 schools visited UFRO last week during the Open House, where they had the chance to participate in more than 70 different activities to get to know the university, its campus, programs and all it has to offer.

A miniature farm, an interactive presentation of the sports offer, live-music, guided tours, food trucks, interactive class simulations, and much more awaited the participants in the first version of the Open House at Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO). The event was organized by UFROrienta, within the framework of the admission process for 2023, which will start at the beginning of next year in Chile.

About six thousand high school students and high school graduates from over 85 schools from the Araucanía Region, Bio Bío Region and Los Ríos Region participated in the activities, workshops and exhibitions UFRO offered that day.

Early in the morning, the buses from different schools started to arrive at UFROs Aula Magna, where the students could register for the day and start to participate in the numerous activities that were easy to access, thanks to the maps, programs and schedules the students received.

The Vice-rector for Undergraduate Affairs, Pamela Ibarra, explained: “This was the first mass event of this kind the university organized. Therefore, it was a great challenge for us to open our doors and to find an effective way to show the students in one day which options they have to study, but also that the university has a lot more to offer besides the professional training, as for example a large variety of sports or cultural activities.”

Paula Hidalgo Sánchez, the Coordinator for Program Promotion and Dissemination was very happy about the high number of participants. “We received almost six thousand high school students and high school graduates from the Araucanía Region, Bio Bío Region and Los Ríos Region, who all enthusiastically participated in our numerous activities, such as workshops and talks with current students of our study programs. We were also able to show them our offer for their university life, with an interactive presentation of the different sports disciplines, cultural and artistic presentations, dance classes, guided tours, guided visits of our main library, and so on. That way, the students were able to find out which study program might be best for them and to visualize what it would be like to study at UFRO,” she explained.

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IMPRESSIONS

	Josefa Pizarro “I love that UFRO offers a lot of extracurricular workshops and student organizations, and that there is a lot of female participation, too. I also like the sports offer. Actually, I did not have enough time to visit all sports facilities or the swimming pool… I will have to go see that next time.”
	Ian Vásquez “This activity was so cool! I did not know that this existed (the Open House), but they told us at school, and I hope they will do it again next year. I really liked this activity, because it gives us students and anyone who is interested in going to university and who does not know what to study, the opportunity to learn more about the options and university.”
	Nicolás Sepúlveda “It was fun to learn from the students of UFRO, especially of the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Environment. I really liked to see the animals and insects; that was so great! I did not get to see many of the recreational activities, because I focused on getting to know the study opportunities, but I really liked the Kendo workshop and next year, when I want to enroll at UFRO, I want to do that in my free time. All in all, the Open House was really helpful for me.”
	Fernanda Navarrete “I loved the Open House, because it was so versatile – I just had to get there and choose the activities I wanted to participate in. I especially liked the activities that showed what university life would be like and that made me get an idea of the atmosphere at UFRO… it is so different from what school is like.”
	Sebastián Jeldres “The Open House was a great opportunity to find out more about the study programs and to discover the university, which was really fun. I like the great offer of sports, which was displayed at the numerous stands and in the interactive activities on the campus. I also liked the atmosphere at UFRO, which is very young and entertaining.”