The youngest Faculty of the UDA celebrates its birthday

The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Azuay celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of its foundation.

The celebrations began on Thursday 11 of October with the First Academic Days of medicine dictated by former students of the Faculty.

Later, the Health Fair "Medicine in the community" was held, carried out by students, who presented different health projects in connection with the community; The event also featured exhibitions from the Postgraduate Family Medicine students.

"We will always be ready to collaborate with the community, because the UDA is one of the best universities we can have," said Jessica Mendoza, exponent and eighth cycle student of medicine.

In the afternoon the Solemn Session was held in the General Auditorium, where homage was paid to the founding professors of the Faculty of Medicine, who contributed to the formation of generations of health professionals.

The Rector of the UDA, Francisco Salgado, welcomed the program, and received a letter from the University of Cuenca where a greeting of congratulations was expressed: "Solid and, at the same time, warm bonds of cooperation and signs of common identity In recent years, they have united our institutions, which will undoubtedly be strengthened in the immediate future, "wrote Pablo Vanegas, Rector of the University of Cuenca.

Leonardo Bravo Valencia, Executive Director of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Ecuador, delivered an agreement to the UDA with the following text: "On behalf of the AFEME, we express an effusive greeting to the directors, teachers, officials, students and workers of the Faculty of Medicine to celebrate their fifteen years of fruitful work ".

Marcelo Cabrera, Mayor of Cuenca, also delivered an agreement where he recognized and congratulated the work of the University. 

Finally, Galo Duque, Dean of the Faculty, ratified the commitment of all those who make the Faculty of Medicine with society.

The night culminated with the intervention of the Tuna of the University of Azuay, who fascinated the public with a recital.

On October 12 Friday, as part of the celebration, the Seventh Clinical Case Contest was held, conceived and organized by the undergraduate students of the Faculty of Medicine.

This initiative arose in the work plan of the student representation in the 2012 and has been maintained year after year thanks to the dedication of the student representatives of the Faculty; the contest has been gaining popularity and is a reference in terms of academic events concerned within the medical student community in the city and country.

Dr. Juan Carlos Zalamea was in charge of welcoming the event and presenting the qualifying jury, which consisted of Dr. Arturo Carpio, neurologist; Francisco Figueroa, surgeon, and Alberto Quezada, internist.

"Many times, the new generations forget certain things and forget that much of what we are we owe to our parents and teachers, this time we invite professors of teacher professors," said Dr. Zalamea emphasizing the great trajectory of the qualifying jury.

Pablo Vázquez, president of the Student Association, said that the aim of the contest is to unite the students of the different medical faculties of the city and the country, to create a space in which they can forge and expand knowledge, in addition to This congratulated each of the speakers for taking the time and effort to have prepared the high-level clinical cases that were exposed.

To end the festivities, a concert was held in homage to the Faculty of Medicine with Joá Chuquimarca as Guest Director. Chuquimarca delighted the audience for an hour with an ensemble that played from classical music to traditional Ecuadorian music.

"We celebrated with great joy, quality and emotion, it was good to have done it with the young people, who have great energy at the events and, of course, we must emphasize the professionalism of the academic projects made by the students", concluded Francisco Salgado, Rector of the University of Azuay.