UCAM celebrated one of its most special graduations: that of its ninth graduating class of the UCAMPACITAS programme. Joined by their families and teachers, they received the UCAM-specific Degree in Business and Social and Work Activities Technician from the Universidad Católica de Murcia in an emotional ceremony held at the Los Jerónimos Campus, in which they showed their spirit of motivation and their desire to join the labour market to develop the knowledge and skills acquired during their training. 

The ceremony was presided over by María Dolores García, UCAM president, joined by Marta Rodríguez, director of the Programme, and Teresa Lajarín, president of the Murcian Territorial Council of ONCE, who took the role of commencement speaker. 

The UCAM president expressed her joy at the celebration of this event, stressing that ‘José Luis Mendoza was determined to set this project in motion, and I hope that society is up to the task and responds as these young people deserve occupying a job in which they can contribute to our society with all their knowledge’. Teresa Lajarín, commencement speaker of the class, spoke along the same lines: ‘This programme is an example that it is possible to create inclusive spaces in society and, above all, that access to university for intellectually disabled people is necessary, as well as a value which makes us better’.

Emotion and gratitude were the two feelings which best reflect the experience of this event, as Natalia, representative of the new graduates, expressed in a speech in which she thanked ‘the management team and the UCAMPACITAS teachers for their dedication and the knowledge they have passed on to us and for knowing how to treat us with affection. We would also like to thank our families, who have supported us from the beginning of our studies’. She concluded by saying that ‘now we want to put everything we have learnt into practice, in a job adapted to our needs’. Similarly, a representative of the parents and relatives of these students expressed their gratitude to UCAM for this opportunity given to their children. 

High labour market insertion 

Thanks to UCAMPACITAS, UCAM trains young, intellectually disabled people for two years in academic, professional and personal skills, which includes an internship in companies from different fields. UCAM launched this innovative project in 2012, on the initiative of its founder, José Luis Mendoza, with the aim of facilitating the inclusion of these people into the labour market, some of whom the San Antonio University Foundation has included itself.