URJC, the third most voluntary university

According to the X Study on university volunteering by the Mutua Madrileña Foundation, the Rey Juan Carlos University is the third university in Spain that has carried out the most actions of this type during the past year.

Raul Garcia Hemonnet

The URJC carried out a total of 159 volunteer programs for students last year, ranking only behind the University of Girona (313) and the University of Santiago de Compostela (285). They are data from the last study of the Mutua Madrileña Foundation on this matter. Those responsible for the report have analyzed a total of 39 universities and 2.120 volunteer programs promoted between universities.

The most outstanding programs promoted by the Rey Juan Carlos University are those that have to do with volunteering in hospitals. These initiatives allow students to carry out support tasks in the Paediatrics and Psychiatry units in the university hospital centers of Alcorcón, Fuenlabrada and Móstoles. In this course, the actions that were carried out with these hospitals will be taken up again to offer the student body

In addition, different actions have been carried out with the NGOs that have an agreement with the URJC. On the other hand, volunteering actions articulated through the Animal Assisted Interventions Office are also resumed, mainly in aid of groups of people with ASD or ALS patients.

For Irene Cantalejo, head of the University Social Responsibility Service (RSU), appearing prominently in the Mutua Madrileña Foundation Report "means recognition of the efforts of the University's USR area within the framework of the 2030 Agenda and It helps to continue publicizing more actions during this course”.

In this sense, the unit is carrying out conversations with institutional and third sector actors to launch new programs for this course. Among what can already be counted: actions to promote blood donation, with the Red Cross and Bone Marrow donation, with the Community of Madrid and other universities. All the volunteering actions that are agreed will be published on the web www.urjc2030.es.

Volunteer actions, in addition to carrying with them an academic recognition of credits, represent, according to the students themselves, an opportunity for personal growth. “All students repeat, in the same or another program. They are aware that volunteering must be present in society”, explains Irene Cantalejo. The head of Service also wanted to remember the work during the past course of Sandra Cuéllar Gómez, former head of the university volunteer service.