“Com Ânimo, Sem Pânico”, is an online platform created by Técnico community aimed at secondary school students who will do national exams to access higher education within a few months. The idea came from eight Técnico students attending the second year of Chemical Engineering and Applied Mathematics courses and intends to bring together the largest possible number of university students, in order to support secondary school students for the national exams.
“Secondary school is not a distant past for us, since all members of the project are attending their second year, so we still remember what is like entering higher education and we easily put ourselves in the place of these students”, says Catarina Grou Gonçalves, Chemical engineering student and one of the founders of this project.
The value of the project and the commitment of the founding members made it grow so quickly that, in a short time, the platform is able to support secondary school students in 18 subjects and already has 290 university students involved. “About 130 Técnico students joined this project”, shares Catarina Grou Gonçalves.
The feedback from the 150 students who have already joined the platform was very positive. “In order to be more effective, we did a survey and after that we tried to pair our student volunteers with secondary school students”, says Catarina Grou Gonçalves, the group’s spokeswoman.
The project team feels that this iniative also has a significant impact in the lives of teachers who, “feel more reassured with this extra support at this time of uncertainty”, stresses the Técnico student.
The aim of this project is to help an increasing number of secondary students. “We are constantly recruiting higher education students from various areas in order to provide as much help as possible”, explains Catarina Grou Gonçalves. Although the initial plan was to keep the platform operating only during the quarantine, Catarina Grou Gonçalves adds “we will continue offering support to secondary school students, as long as it does not compromise the academic life of our university students”.
