14 February 2025
Bilbao Campus
On February 14, the University of Deusto held the ceremony for the awarding of grants to 43 students in the 4th year of Medicine, beneficiaries of this aid for international internships in non-EU countries, with a special focus on Latin America. This international mobility program, which is carried out with the collaboration of Rural Kutxa, includes 300 hours of international hospital internships to be carried out between March and May.
Through this experience, the University of Deusto seeks to give medical students a broader perspective of their work, acquiring fundamental skills for the performance of their future professional work, such as teamwork, solidarity or attention to diversity, among others.
A total of 100 people, including students and professors of the degree of Medicine, faculty and collaborators of the studies, have participated in this ceremony. To all of them, the rector of Deusto, Juan José Etxeberria, reminded them of the University's commitment to the training of future medical professionals for the world and its interest in facilitating the students' access “to this world” through international curricular internships.
“A unique opportunity, according to Juan José Etxeberria, to understand global health problems, learn about different healthcare systems and help to be aware of people's beliefs, dreams, fears and hopes, which change in different parts of the world. But it reminds us of the need to look at each individual as unique in all of them,” he said.
For his part, the Director of Institutional Relations of Rural Kutxa, Ricardo Goñi thanked and acknowledged the University of Deusto for its essential role in the training of future professionals and reminded the beneficiaries to take advantage of what will be your professional experience at least outside Spain. With this scholarship, Rural Kutxa intends to help you to complete your training which, we are sure, will be very useful in the near future.
The event was also attended by the Vice Rector for University Community and Agenda 2030, Aitziber Irigoras; the Vice Rector for Entrepreneurship and Business Relations, Victor Urcelay; the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Nuria Ortiz; the Director of the Department of Medicine, Rodrigo Garcia; the Director of the Degree in Medicine, Eduardo Alvarez-Hornia and the prestigious maxillofacial surgeon, Angel Emparanza, who has offered the keynote lecture under the title “The other face of the smile”.
Dr. Angel Emparanza has a degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Navarra and is a specialist in Stomatology, Maxillofacial Surgery and Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery from the University of Bordeaux. He is a member of several scientific societies related to his field, such as SECOM, SEPA, SEDYCO, SEDO, SECIB and SEPES.
In the teaching field, he has been a collaborating professor at the University of Bordeaux and has participated in courses and conferences at various institutions, including the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya and the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, where he was named Honorary Professor in 2015.
In his professional career, he has directed the Maxillofacial and Plastic Surgery Service at the Virgen del Pilar Health Center (1992-2014), the Maxillofacial Surgery Service at the San Sebastian Oncology Institute (since 2015) and the Teknibai Maxillofacial Surgery and Odontostomatology Clinic.
Through the foundation 'La Sonrisa de la Esperanza', the doctor leads a project that fights against noma, a devastating disease that mainly affects children in extreme poverty. A project in which he has been participating for 25 years with regular missions in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast and which has helped to give a smile back to more than 5,000 children.
