“How many people there will be with cases similar to mine who are left without fulfilling their dream because they do not have financial resources. They are people who can be brilliant who, perhaps, are not given the opportunity,” acknowledges Javier Madrid, a final year student of the double degree in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, and Primary Education at the Pontifical University. Quotation marks. They gave it to him and that opportunity is called Educa el Talento Santander-Comillas Scholarships, the program with which Banco Santander supports students who have a vocation to develop personally and professionally in the fields of Education and Social Work, and who do not They have the necessary financial means to do so.
Javier’s life has not been easy. His father died when he was 10 years old, so he grew up with his mother, who gave him everything he could. But if he didn’t arrive to go on an end-of-year trip with his school friends, much less to study at the University. So Javier “shot” for a higher vocational training degree. “I finished it reluctantly, because I wanted to have done another one, but I couldn’t get in and, finally, I was working in facility maintenance, installing air conditioners and things like that, which is what I had studied. One day, chatting with a colleague in the van, I told him that he had always had the dream of being a teacher and he told me “go for it. He encouraged and motivated me,” the student recalls.
It was then when, at 25 years old, he began searching for a university where he could fit in. “I didn’t have much money and neither did my mother. I started calling different universities, they helped me and, at the Study Aid Unit, they informed me that this scholarship existed and that, if they gave it to me, the fees would be quite good. In the end, they granted it to me and thanks to it I cover a high percentage of the fees,” Javier celebrates. The Educa el Talento Santander-Comillas Scholarships consist of a reduction in teaching fees (monthly fees) of up to 75%, during the four or five courses that make up the training program.
Training is one of the most important points to define a person’s future. However, not all young people have the same opportunities to access quality education that ensures a good future job. For this reason, more than 27 years ago, Banco Santander acquired a commitment to education, employability and entrepreneurship, allocating economic resources to these initiatives designed to benefit young people like Javier.
“I am fulfilling my dream of preparing to be a teacher and being able to dedicate myself professionally to what I have always liked. I am very happy thanks to this scholarship. Without her I couldn’t have done it,” she thanks.
In 2022 alone, more than 265,000 students, professionals, entrepreneurial projects and SMEs received the support of the entity through Santander Universities. And, since it began its commitment to higher education, Banco Santander has already supported more than one million university students, professionals and entrepreneurs.
“This type of aid is great so that people like me, who really have the desire, who want to make an effort and fulfill their dream, can study. At the beginning, when I started, logically, the level of my classmates was higher than mine, because they came from high school, I had been working… But I immediately started studying so much that I got very good grades and, really, I am one of the best of class,” is proud of this final-year university student who, thanks to Banco Santander, has a present and future opportunity.
“My mother is also very happy. She has changed my life. More and more, I see myself as a teacher and I believe that I will be able to work as a teacher in any center. Furthermore, I have a partner and I also see myself with a home and children,” Javier Madrid is excited thinking about the future.
