The objective of this study is to analyze the rural curricular internship classes held at the Federal University of Piauí, Brazil from 1975 to 1986 and to discuss the development of the Rural University Training and Community Action Center. The methodology is qualitative with a social historic approach, using the oral history theme. The sources were the speech of 16 people, written documents and secondary sources such as books and articles that deal with the subject. The results show the history of university extension as lived by professors and students of Federal University of Piauí in the countryside of the state of Piauí during the 70's and the 80's, in the models of the university reform. Student training in community actions revealed aspects of the national reality and of the local context from the perspective of the actors of the process. The professors consolidated the project diminishing the strength of existing care practices. The extension policy lost its meaning at the end of the 70's and the rural curricular training classes were discontinued.
Community-institutional-relalions; Education, higher; History