Building a healthy community creates a healthy society

Building a healthy university

When we founded Universidad María Auxiliadora (UMA) 14 years ago, we wanted more than an institution that provided excellent education. We wanted a living organism that cared and gave back to its community. We aligned our programs from business to health sciences with an emphasis on prevention and community service. Our mission was clear: empower talented individuals to transform not only their own lives but the health of their communities.

As we have expanded into artificial intelligence engineering, we have kept the same DNA: using technology to promote well-being, not just to optimize systems. UMA became the first university in Peru to integrate AI into every program, connecting innovation with empathy and science with service.

We realized early on that we could not teach health without embodying it. So, we made UMA a healthy ecosystem. With key faculty members (deans and directors) and students, we designed a strategy that addressed three dimensions of health:

Physical health
Encouraging movement, nutrition, and conscious choices. Our cafeteria serves wholesome, organic, fresh, and balanced meals – no fast food, sugary drinks, or fried snacks. We became a smoke-free campus. Stairs replaced elevators whenever possible. We introduced free sports classes and organized sporting contests between faculty and staff. Each small act mattered.

Emotional health
Strengthening relationships, teamwork, and joy in the workplace. We created spaces for connection, celebration, and laughter. Departments engage in friendly “health contests”: weight control, sharing fruit instead of sweets, and celebrating mini victories together.

Mental and purposeful health
Fostering a culture of service as a path to meaning. Our students and faculty serve the community through free health campaigns, screenings, consulting services for microentrepreneurs, and educational outreach. Service, we discovered, is one of the most powerful ways to cultivate balance and inner peace. When we focus beyond ourselves, we find alignment and purpose. Our 40 full-time faculty members and over 1,000 students per semester participate in multidisciplinary health and educational programs.

As our journey unfolded, we learned that transformation rarely comes from grand gestures, but rather from micro-habits – small, repeatable actions that quietly reshape behavior. We invited administrators, professors, and students to take an extra flight of stairs, replace one sugary snack with fruit, take part in sports, and monitor health indicators.

The change was almost imperceptible at first. Then, slowly, it became visible: lighter moods, more smiles, greater energy, improved results, and increased engagement in community service activities. The organization felt more alive.

We track progress through metrics such as glucose and blood pressure levels. The next step: emotional well-being. All our students participate in these assessments, learning by doing. They see how science intersects with their daily lives and how prevention begins with the individual.

We have recently established a medical school, focused on preventive and community medicine. It brings together diverse disciplines – from medicine and nutrition to AI – to reimagine healthcare as an act of prevention, compassion, and service. A natural evolution of our philosophy, we believe this model will not only produce better health practitioners but also inspire healthier organizations, communities, and societies. As leaders, we can always make a conscious choice to cultivate a culture of health and longevity from within.