Activities that involve field work, social assistance and research are initiatives which have been promoted by several student societies from different universities related to health sciences. The purpose of this article is to describe the involvement of students from a Peruvian university in a rural health intervention and in the collaboration in rural and sub urban spaces called "Intervención Rural de Investigación y Saneamiento" (IRIS). The tenth version (IRIS-X) was held from 4-8 January 2009 in the town Huaripampa (Ancash, Peru). Health campaigns, educational sessions and research projects were conducted during this period of time. IRIS-X allowed the students to apply the knowledge acquired during academic classes at the university and to develop scientific research projects from the undergraduate level, contributing to the poorest and most neglected communities in the country.