Through spaces for reflection, conversation, and awareness, the Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS) commemorated World Suicide Prevention Day with the “Circuit to Celebrate Life”, an initiative that invited the university community to pause, recognize what gives meaning to life, and strengthen connections with others.
Throughout the day, students and administrative staff participated in various activities, including card-based dynamics, conversations, and messages aimed at addressing suicide prevention from a closer and more everyday perspective.
Suicide Prevention Is Also Built Within the Community
Professionals from the Centro de Escucha, the Academic Excellence System, and Student Wellbeing led the activities held in different spaces across UIS.
- Pause and Look Within: An activity focused on reflecting on how participants feel and what they think about World Suicide Prevention Day, while encouraging the university community to approach the significance of this date from a different perspective.
- On the Table: Suicide Prevention Also Means…: An exercise designed to raise awareness among students and administrative staff through cards highlighting the importance of small acts and gestures of support when addressing suicide prevention.
- Ignite Your Reason to Live: An activity focused on conversations about suicide prevention and on recognizing the factors that contribute to mental health care, as well as the people, experiences, and things that connect us each day to what is valuable and meaningful in our lives.
“I believe that, as UIS students, it is very important for the University to address these issues, since they can sometimes be considered taboo or unimportant, when in reality they are highly relevant because they involve lives that can be saved. Every life counts,” said Santiago Alejandro Fino Uricoechea, an Industrial Engineering student.
“I thought the activity was very important and meaningful. It made me realize that there are things I usually don’t do. For example, today I had the opportunity to write to someone close to me and tell her how important it was for her to be part of my life. I think that if I hadn’t had the opportunity to participate in this activity, I wouldn’t have done it,” said Edgar Andrés Guerrero Murgas, an Electrical Engineering student.
The University reaffirms its commitment to the comprehensive wellbeing of the university community and to creating spaces where people can openly discuss mental health, self-care, and the value of life.
