Twenty-three students at the University of Jaén are pursuing elite-level sport alongside their degrees this academic year through the university’s PADUAN program, which Rector Nicolás Ruiz detailed at a campus meeting with the group on Tuesday, jaendeportiva.es reported.
Ruiz, accompanied by Gema Torres, director of the Secretariat of Physical Activity, Sport and Health, told the athletes: "Our goal is clear: that you don't have to choose between your academic career and your sporting career."
Ruiz congratulated the group on their “discipline, tenacity and passion for competition” and said the university’s governing team conceives of sport as an inseparable part of the university’s identity. Values such as effort, consistency, solidarity and teamwork are as formative as the best theoretical class, he said.
Seventeen individual sports, six team sports
The current cohort spans 17 individual and six team disciplines, from athletics, rugby and Olympic wrestling to kenpo karate, judo, field hockey, futsal and beach handball, according to horajaen.com. The athletes are studying physiotherapy, nursing, medicine, law, psychology, computer engineering, industrial engineering, biomedical engineering, chemistry, primary education, business and law, and social work.
The 23 athletes enrolled so far are:
- Carolina Aparicio — physiotherapy, taekwondo
- Ana Camero — physiotherapy, rugby
- José Corona — physiotherapy, Olympic wrestling
- Carlos González — medicine, athletics (hammer throw)
- Marina Jándula — nursing, rugby
- Irene Marín — nursing, speleology
- Claudia Ponce — medicine, kenpo karate
- Raúl Ponce — nursing, kenpo karate
- Fernando Rodríguez — physiotherapy, Olympic wrestling
- Martín Sánchez — physiotherapy, futsal
- Francisco M. Venzalá — nursing, judo
- Esteban León — chemistry, athletics
- Lucía Caño — business and law, rugby
- Francisco J. Torres — law, athletics
- Adrián Mérida — computer engineering, kenpo karate
- Sergio Cruz — industrial organization engineering, judo
- Elvira Ramírez — biomedical engineering, field hockey
- Sara Suárez — biomedical engineering, field hockey
- María Civantos — primary education, Olympic wrestling
- Marta Navas — psychology, kenpo karate
- Manuel Corrales — primary education, beach handball
- Rocío Peña — psychology, sambo wrestling
- Eva M. León — social work, athletics
A pioneering program with academic and sporting benefits
The University of Jaén was a pioneer in launching this initiative, Ruiz said, and at the meeting he walked the students through the benefits of membership on both the academic and the sporting side. With 23 athletes enrolled and two more pending, the university consolidates its trend of counting more than twenty each year, horajaen.com reported.
Ruiz closed the meeting by framing the program as a promise rather than a favor: “You have come to UJA to train at the highest level, and our responsibility is to offer you a truly integral education.”
