The 2022 Graduation Ceremony of the Institute of Family Sciences was held on November 26th at the Austral University Campus.

At the ceremony, 43 family counselors and 31 graduates in Family Sciences received their degrees and celebrated the achievement with their families, colleagues, and teachers.

The students' address was given by family counselor Consuelo Díaz Guiñazú, who invited all her classmates to " transform the world from within, helping to develop healthy, deep, and meaningful bonds that make every home a place of love, respect, and unity," recalling that inescapable vocational calling that led each of them to choose to pursue a professional career and dedicate themselves to family. "And as graduates in Family Sciences, from our various work and professional fields, we can strengthen society by promoting the care and protection of the family as the primary and central institution for the full development of every human being."

"Of course, none of this would be possible without the help of those who were by our side: our husbands and wives, our children and parents. Our cohort colleagues with whom we shared so many experiences, and those who joined as validators, who enriched our group with their experience and background."

Mary of the Rosario Sanguineti, a professor at the Institute, delivered the keynote address at the ceremony and urged the graduates to work for peace. "Family counselors have a vast field of action in their direct contact with families, in prevention, and in intervention. They have received the necessary tools and bear a great responsibility in their use. You can—and should—participate in building peace, intervening from your professional position to establish solid foundations that strengthen family relationships." To give meaning and hope to family life, in the bond of family love, which translates into a happy person within the familyTo intervene in the transformation of destructive conflicts into opportunities for enrichment. peacemakers in the particular context of each family.

"Graduates in Family Sciences, from a different perspective, should, through research on various alternative methods of peaceful conflict resolution and their effects on family relationships, promote intergenerational dialogue in different spheres. They will be able to intervene in society by promoting family values, participating in the development of public policy projects that uphold human rights for families , and in the development of peace education projects, as Pope Francis told us in the theme of the World Day of Peace."

Lorena Bolzon, dean of the ICF, emphasized that "all of us, university professionals, as family counselors and graduates in Family Sciences, are called to be in the world as opinion and action leaders. Promoters of values ​​and examples of striving for a job well done, we have the opportunity, and I would say, the obligation, to step into the public eye and share what we think, study, and research in defense of the family."

"You, university professionals specializing in family issues, hold in your hands one of the most important and fruitful meeting points for human and social development: the family, the quintessential nucleus of love . This space demands the direct and indirect attention of all sciences and disciplines, to promote and strengthen it, to make it a refuge for nascent life and also for life that fades away, for the vulnerable, the afflicted, and those lost in this often hostile world."

We extend our warmest congratulations to all the graduates. You will always have our support. Universidad Austral in their mission to be sowers of peace.